bourgeois

conformity

Adherence to norms

• respectabilityMoral and social worthiness
• proprietyCorrectness of conduct
• conservativeCautious about altering customs

philistine · provincial · staid · prudish · strait-laced · traditionalist · orthodox · mainstream · complacent · smug

philistine

Art-dismissing ignoramus

• babbittTin alloy for bearings
• squareRhombus with right angles
• unculturedLacking refinement or education

middlebrow · smugness · mediocrity · banality · complacency · suburban · limited · dull · unenlightened · artless

middle-class

Intermediate socioeconomic group

• stratificationDivision into distinct levels
• socioeconomicRelating to income and status
• working-classManual laborers as group

gentrification · white-collar · meritocracy · salaried · blue-collar · managerial

affluent

Having abundant financial resources

• prosperousEnjoying wealth and success
• moneyedHaving substantial wealth
• well-to-doHaving ample wealth

comfortable · propertied · landed · well-off · plutocrat · privileged · monied · establishment · upper-crust · genteel

capitalism

Private profit-based economy

• free-marketUnregulated private exchange
• entrepreneurOne who starts businesses
• stockholderOwner of company shares

privatization · shareholder · profit · enterprise · laissez-faire · merchant · commerce · investment · industrialist · rentier

consumerist

Focused on acquiring goods

• acquisitiveDesiring material gain
• ostentatiousShowily excessive
• luxuryExpensive nonessential comfort

superficial · showy · pretentious · gaudy · tasteless · vulgar · flashy · commercialized · aspirational · status-seeking

• French Loanwordsa la carte, ballet, a la mode, au revoir, bon appetit
• French Wordsbaguette, femme, croissant, enfant, champagne
• social classupper class, middle class, lower class, working class, social class
• social ranksking, queen, emperor, empress, noble
• tricky spellingsaccommodate, acknowledge, acquaintance, acquire, bureau
• communismMarx, Marxism, Leninism, Lenin, Engels