A lot of what they're talking about, is common cultural background, not how much money you presently have.
I relate to this very well. I was raised with a lot of "wealthy" privileges and values, without being wealthy - parents would send me to ballet lessons if it meant we were eating boiled beans every day of the week. There were intellectual conversations around the dinner table every night, and my dad worked for a school so that I could go to a private school. My parents both played instruments, so they taught me about music *themselves*, and expected me to join the school orchestra. It wasn't acceptable for me not to play an instrument.
The thing is, when I'm around most people who are in the same socioeconomic place I'm in (I work doing home health care while putting myself through school, at age 35 - I didn't manage to go to college right after high school - and I'm interested in *academia*, not something "practical") they are usually very focused on lower-order Maslow needs. We don't tend to have very much intellectually, socially or spiritually in common.
I have much more in common with people who are in a higher income bracket, most of the time.
Likewise, people who are "nouveau riche" (new money) or who have worked hard to become the first middle class member of their family, often find they have very little in common with other more established members of their social class.
There is so much more to social class than just money. Otherwise, academics and the like, who actually make very little money, would be considered the same class as plumbers - who often make quite a bit more.
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