We keep hearing the term "class warfare" on the Main Line. Is it really that we are falling into an American Caste System? Is that what we are really talking about with the ever widening gap between the haves and have nots?

A recent issue of Town & Country Magazine (yes little people read it too), there was an article about Greenwich CT. If you changed "Greenwich" to "Main Line" it was startling how similar certain things are. Not everything, mind you, because in Greenwich they do more then pay lip service to historic preservation. It is however, another town of conspicuous consumption...or that is what it has become due to lore of yore. Just like the Main Line

The thing about the Main Line is this: it didn't used to be so obnoxious. It used to be quite genteel and civilized where most felt welcome. Can't say all because discrimination existed. Can it be said it still exists today, discrimination that is? Only it's painted with a wider brush and is more inclusive then the traditional definition merely drawn along racial lines?

It used to be when we went to school we didn't recall the nanny and the chauffers dropping the kids at school, but there was that vague, misty knowledge of certain families were better off then others. Then, you didn't drive it, wear it, or flaunt it. The money was understated, and yes, the Main Line was a more quiet status symbol. To be blunt, it had much more caché in a lot of ways.

Today is a different story. Today what we see the land of conspicuous consumption. Oh you know who has what, because it is so very "in your face" obvious. From the overabundance of McMansions destroying our historical architectural heritage, to our scandals that make occasional national news, the Main Line has gone from quiet understated style, to almost a sense of gaudiness,tackiness, and bawdiness.

In days gone by, for example, you would never talk about your plastic surgery like those new breasts were a pair of cantelopes picked up on sale at the Superfresh. Well then, people actually used to age eventually. Now it is all about the botox. UGH. It's botulism for Pete's sake and makes about as much sense as when Victorian women used arsenic to improve their complexions.

Sociologists could have a field day here. And then there is the socioeconomic part of the equation. Some of us actually have to get up every day and work for our money. We didn't all inherit it, steal it, walk over the backs of others to get it. Mind you, we still feel a lot of the money around here is on paper only, but still, if you aren't in the top 2%, you find it harder to even just hang in the middle class.

Where some of our parents might have been ensconsed comfortably in the upper middle class THEN earning what we earn today...take today along the Main Line. It's not the same....Forgeddaboutit. Ordinary millionaires, as in that is the TOTAL net worth $1 Million including house, etc? They are the new middle class. The rest of us are just working class schlubs on this bus.

And then there is the perception of who indeed gets special treatment. The little people have to shout to be heard. Everyone else just waives that checkbook or platinum Amex card.

The economy isn't so special right now. So what will that mean for ordinary folk and rich folk? Will embarassing parents from Gladwyne continue to be able to throw their checkbooks around in private schools and get tenured, beloved teachers fired just because? Will they be able to forever just smear into the dirt someone who looks at them cross-eyed and get away with it? Will private schools just continue to pimp themselves out to the highest bidder and publoic schools too? Will politicians who get grades changed no matter what they are about ever be held accountable? Or will the children of the privileged still get special treatment? Take Andy Reid's kids? Why aren't they in jail and rehab and just stay there already? How many times are we going to have to watch one smacked arse son smile in the camera and say "Hi Mom and Dad" on his way to a hearing? How's about a little tough love? How about not covering them ad nasuem like they are Paris and "LiLo",whose antics are equally tiresome? Just like Susan Tabas Tepper? How many more episodes of the "May Crazies" will we be subjected to?

And let's get to politics, shall we? Over in another township, we see election season is in full bloom....and one candidate? Well they have this slogan on their campaign website that might induce vomiting: "It is not about me "telling" you what I have done, it is about me "listening".

OH bull. Ho about it is all about knowing what you have actually accomplished,and not some Lifetime made for TV Movie sentiment? Just like all these candidates who swear to keep taxes down? Are they talking to ordinary people or the passive income class? Because certain tax structures feel a LOT different when you aren't worth a few cool million.

The proof is in the pudding. Look at small, more humble neighborhoods. Some quite historic. From Gladwyne through to Berwyn, making destination stops in Ardmore, Haverford, Bryn Mawr, Garrett Hill, etc, what is the commonality? All these small neighborhoods and residential areas are at risk because of what they aren't: the land of sweeping lawns and grand houses. These are the targeted areas. Or, in layman's terms the only places left to build on.

OH bull. We don't have to develop every square inch of everywhere, but if you can't afford legions of lawyers, deal makers, lobbyists, loads of money, and paid publicists, no one listens hard enough to you. So it is totally bull to vote for someone just because they listened. Lots of people listen, who is the "doer" in the crowd? Who actually will stand up for the un-millionaires?

Here is Lower Merion, there seems to be some posturing going on. It's all crazy. At the end of the day as a member of the new Main Line Caste System who really gives a rat's fanny about what you want?

If you don't have the FAT wallet, where are you on the Main Line? Are you valued because you are honest and work hard? Or are you looked down upon because you can't afford those designer shoes, join the country clubs, and drive that Mercedes SUV that looks like a tin box?

Who is kidding who? Who is really welcome around here? What class are all these RFPs being drawn up for? Who is being considered REALLY everytime a new development plan comes forward?

Should we all just fold up our tents now and start looking for the street signs directing us to Chester and Norristown?

Does the Main Line need to remember and appreciate it's more humble roots? Does it need to remember that we already know the rich are different but there are others who still live here? Definitely. But will it? Truly can that be considered highly unlikely.

Here, go ahead. Print out our pessimistic rant. Put it in the time capsule. It will be interesting to see many moons from now what has changed...stayed the same, or gotten worse...