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2025-03-02T13:41:18Z

top: add shortdesc, remove "recent" for a term coined at least three decades ago, copyedit

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{{short description|Pejorative social term}}
[[File:Day 14 Occupy Wall Street September 30 2011 Shankbone 22.JPG|thumb|An image from the [[Occupy Wall Street]] protests in [[New York City]], which were partially protests against the perceived overclass [[Wall Street]] elite]]
'''Overclass''' is a [[pejorative]]<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=znDscu7MVcEC&dq=overclass&pg=PT222 The next American nation: the new nationalism and the fourth American revolution – Michael Lind – Google Books]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FYMrsb2u_lIC&dq=overclass&pg=PA153 Fighting Poverty, Inequality and Injustice: A Manifesto Inspired by Peter ... - Google Books]</ref> term for the most powerful group in a social [[hierarchy]]. Users of the term generally imply excessive and [[unjust]] [[Privilege (social inequality)|privilege]] and exploitation of the rest of society.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=3QAQAQAAMAAJ&q=overclass Chronicles – Rockford Institute – Google Books]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=cPPmmpNhb4IC&dq=overclass&pg=PA23 This Land Is Their Land: Reports from a Divided Nation – Barbara Ehrenreich – Google Books]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=dM_yXS9leCEC&q=overclass Delight of the Overclass! Demise of the Middleclass! - Jay T. Baldwin - Google Books]</ref>

The word is fairly recent, with the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' including it only in December 2004,<ref>[http://www.oed.com/help/updates/ou-overzealousness.html Quarterly updates to OED Online]</ref> but it has been in use since at least 1995. Some writers compare it to the more familiar ''[[underclass]]'':

{{quote|We now have a quite new phenomenon in the history of the republic: two radically isolated sectors of the population, the underclass and the overclass. Both are in an adversarial posture toward the great majority of Americans, the overclass by virtue of ambition and unbounded self-esteem, the underclass by virtue of social incompetence and [[anomie]]. Between the two there is a fearful symmetry on many scores, but their service to each other is far from equal.<ref>[http://www.leaderu.com/ftissues/ft9608/public.html Farewell to the Overclass] 1996 [[Richard John Neuhaus]]</ref>}}

The influence of the actions by the overclass have been rigorously studied, particularly with regards to notions of intersections between the overclass and specific races. Most notable of these racial overclasses is the [[NEWBO]], or NEW Black Overclass in America.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Hawkins|first1=Lee|date=February 26, 2009|title=CNBC Special Report: The New Black Overclass|url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29413966/ns/business-cnbc_tv/t/cnbc-special-report-new-black-overclass/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140316074112/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/29413966/ns/business-cnbc_tv/t/cnbc-special-report-new-black-overclass/|url-status=dead|archive-date=March 16, 2014|access-date=September 7, 2016|website=[[NBC News]]|publisher=[[NBCNews.com]]}}</ref>

Perhaps the most commonly agreed-upon "overclass" consists of leaders in [[international business]], [[International finance|finance]] and the [[war industry|arms trade]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Rothkopf, David J.|author-link=David Rothkopf|title=Superclass: the global power elite and the world they are making|publisher=[[Farrar, Straus and Giroux]]|year=2008|isbn=978-0-374-27210-4}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[Lists of billionaires]]
* [[Oligarchy]]
* [[Power elite]]
* [[Ruling class]]
* [[Transnational capitalist class]] (also see [[Superclass (book)|Superclass]])
* [[Upper class]]
* [[Underclass]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite journal |author=Adler, Jerry |date=July 31, 1995 |title=The Rise of the Overclass; The Overclass 100 |journal=[[Newsweek]] |volume=126 |issue=5 |pages=32–46}}{{spaced ndash}} ''Newsweek'' [[Article (publishing)|cover story]] on "How the new elite scrambled up the merit ladder—and wants to stay there any way it can."

==External links==
* [https://archive.today/20130118200145/http://www.businessweek.com/1996/36/b349128.htm Why the Right Is Wrong for America], 1996
* [http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45/006.html To have and to have not], 1995

{{Social class}}
{{Wealth}}
[[Category:1995 neologisms]]
[[Category:Social groups]]
[[Category:Power (social and political) concepts]]
[[Category:Political pejoratives]]

{{society-stub}}

Overclass - Revision history

imported>Belbury: /* top */ add shortdesc, remove "recent" for a term coined at least three decades ago, copyedit