“They have us fighting a culture war to avoid a class war”

Yes. Both the cashiers making minimum wage and the boomers with $2m in their retirement savings are working class, as hard as that is to swallow.

The difference between $1million and $1billion is functionally impossible to properly imagine. The former might get you through retirement if you’re lucky and don’t get bankrupted by medical debt (in the US at least). The latter is impossible to spend in a full lifetime.

classes aren’t about how much you make, they’re about how you make:

• if you make your money by working, and you don’t own the means of production (i.e. the things you use to do your job), you’re in the working class/proletariat. this includes most people, from fast food cashiers to famous actors.
• if you make your money by working, but you do own the means of production, you’re in the petit bourgeoisie. this includes (for example) artists who make commission work, but also the guy who owns (and runs) the local corner store.
• if you make your money passively, through other people’s work, you’re in the owner class/bourgeoisie. this includes the walmart CEO as well as the local landlord who lives rent paycheck to rent paycheck.

George Carlin

As that is technically true, a doctor who earns several times the minimum wage, has enough money saved up so he can quit his job at any moment and can even afford to open his own clinic if he so chooses to, isn't the same as someone who earns the minimum wage and has a rent to pay or become homeless.

Sure, both technically work, but one has a completely different level of freedom than the other.