Most people who have wealth and power know how to exploit others. They aren't generally hard workers. They are born with advantages and manipulate their social world in order to maintain their status.

Does one automatically preclude the other? How much advantage were John Major, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan born with? Or Richard Branson - you're telling me he got where he did through advantage and manipulation rather than bloody hard work?

Yes, there are some people born into an environment of wealth and power, who have no need to work. For them, whatever they do is nothing more than a hobby or a desire to impose will. America is the best example here - think Bushes, Kennedys, Shrivers, etc, making America the best example today of a working aristocratic system.

But most other countries, especially in Europe where there's much less inherited wealth, the "rulers" are born into families that are well off but still need to work - think Tony Blair and David Cameron, for example. They've both made it big-time, but only because they worked for it. Look at the rest of their classmates, and most of them are in comfortable but not spectacular jobs - hardly "wealth and power". Ditto Bill Gates for a spectacular example.

And in America too, you have plenty of people like Ronald Reagan and Steve Jobs who started from nowhere and worked their way up to acquire the money they have/had.

I'm concerned at the subtext here which says "they have more money and power than me, and I need something to blame it on". Yes, some people are unjustly rich, and some people are unjustly poor. Shit happens. In the middle, most people get approximately what's due in relation to their intelligence, education, willingness to take risks, and foresight in judging risks. And yes, some degree of luck. If there's any class element in these, it's in your family giving you a boost in one or more of these points.

the closer your speech is to standard English, the higher your income

But closeness to standard English is as much a function of vocabulary as accent, and an increased vocabulary (or a better ability to use it) is a function of better education and/or better intelligence. So is this cause or effect?

Graham.