I grew up poor and now live and work around "never been poor" folks. Classism 100% exists. The thing that I noticed most folks can't grasp is the appreciation for the small things and the security they have.
I find that people who have never experienced being poor are often lacking in both humility and "can do" attitudes.
For me, not being wealthy is a feature, not a bug. I realize I'm speaking from a place of privilege now, though.
After college I lived with a bunch of UT students (good university; median family income of students is $123,900[0]) while working at a school for high school dropouts (median family income unknown, but definitely under $30k) and it really impressed upon me that people coming from families in the 75th income percentile expect to live free of the poverty/class markers mentioned in the article, while for people in poverty, they're merely effects of actual, pervasive struggles.
Rich kid will thinks they're poor if they're low on petty cash, or if their phone is two years old and has a cracked screen. They never worry that they'll not be able to pay for their phone next month, or have skip a meal to make rent.
I grew up in a well-off-but-frugal household, so I had a lot of the poverty markers listed, but for me they were frugality markers.
The core of poverty isn't the visible markers. Anyone can have those. It's the pervasive stress of not having money, constantly being on the precipice of your life going into a sudden, deep dive. I never had that. Even when I earned ~$13k/year in Americorps, I was fine because I had no debt, I was used to living cheaply, and I knew that if it really came down to it, my parents could help me out. The poor high school students I worked with had the opposite family situation: they'd miss school because family depended on them to help with the bills.
If I ever have kids, I feel like I'll need to go out of my way to ensure they don't grow up segregated into wealthy enclaves. The US is sorted by income--neighborhoods, schools, social circles, and workplaces--and it makes us blind to others' situations. I don't want them to be constantly stressed about money, but it's important to be able to handle financial constraints, and to be aware and understand of the actual reality so many people live with.
I relate to being (somewhat) well-off-but-frugal, and for me there is a danger of falling into the trap of thinking: I don't care that I have some markers of being poor, so you shouldn't either.
It is largely a matter of luck to be in a situation where you don't have to worry about maintaining a certain appearance, and developing some empathy for those who do has been an important positive change for me.
Of course you view things differently if you've never been poor. But that doesn't make you evil, and OP is not a victim. In none of her examples was anyone treating her badly. (I know you are not claiming this, just saying).
In fact, as you hint, having been poor and then getting in to the middle class you probably have a better chance of making it big.
The article doesn't mention they're software engineering interns, and she made less than some other jobs too: "I still made less than any of the executive assistants, or the receptionist. I was, in fact, the lowest-paid person in the building including the interns"
The way I read it, it implies that the receptionist got paid more than than the interns. Either way, she got paid less even than than receptionist, which is generally not exactly a high-paid job.
It's also not clear to me what exactly her job was by the way?
I don't know how things are in the US, but I've never seen interns being paid more than a token amount in Europe. You generally take on interns as a public service and to spot potential talent to hire, not because they're good/productive programmers. A good internship requires quite a lot of guidance from a senior developer.
> She is a writer and not a software engineer. Comparing her salary to software engineer interns therefore isn't fair.
I'm going to call BS on that. Written communication is a high-leverage activity that if you are going to the trouble of having a dedicated position for it, paying that person well is a pretty good idea. Perhaps not as well as an engineering role of similar seniority, but about as well as a design or QA role (and for similar reasons).
Paying that person less than an intern is both shortsighted and insulting.
The question is not if writing is important. It's very easy to argue that a nurse is more important than any engineer, but they are never paid as well, people have more or less accepted that.
I'm not arguing for the importance of writing except in the sense that similar arguments used to be made for the importance of design.
If you actually have a dedicated writer on staff (as opposed to outsourcing it to a marketing agency), paying them less than an intern is as mind-bogglingly stupid as paying a full time designer less than an intern.
BTW, nurses may get paid less than engineers, but they don't get paid less than medical residents, which is a more appropriate parallel to an engineering intern.
I didn't grow up poor but we didn't have extra of anything and we sure couldn't afford to lose a paycheck. The thing I find absolutely unbelievable and will never understand is when people quit their job and just plan to relax for a while. What ??? You have a job you are making money, why would you give that up? I feel so lucky to have a job and to do something that isn't back breaking labor, I will never understand this and firmly feel like this is rich people stuff.
I find that people who have never experienced being poor are often lacking in both humility and "can do" attitudes.
For me, not being wealthy is a feature, not a bug. I realize I'm speaking from a place of privilege now, though.