Why does money and "social class" decide what kind of a person you are?

As a child I grew up in lower class…very lower class. I remember being embarrassed to have friends come over. I didn’t want them to see our off brand food in our pantry or the fact that we didn’t have cable. My real friends obviously never thought anything about it but there were those who I could tell were disgusted and judgmental. I never really minded being “poor” until it came up at school. I was always the only one who didn’t have spending money for field trips or other silly things like that. Looking back I regret being ashamed of my home because now I see I had things that I don’t have now…

When I moved to Texas my mom married a man who had a little bit of money, nothing more than middle class. We never worried about bills with him and we usually had the latest electronic gadgets. (Partly because he is into that kind of stuff) We have dish, a big screen TV, and usually don’t have to buy the off brand food. I remember it being a big deal when I moved in with him because I got some wants instead of always only getting needs. I started making friends and before long I found myself embarrassed to bring friends home again but this time for different reasons. I was embarrassed to bring my friends home that used to live like I did in Florida… My “lower class” friends. I felt like they were judging me because my parents had money. They looked at me different when they saw the neighborhood I lived in and would not act themselves when at my house. I think I even lost a few friends after bringing them home with me. Never was there a fight, only a strange tension that did not exist before we hung out at my place.

So my question is, why does any of this matter? While I am older now in Texas, I am the same person I was in Florida. I have the same heart, the same dreams, the same personality. I’m still goofy and I still like to have fun. I still run into people from high school who will always somehow mention my social class. It makes me so mad that people judged me because my stepdad had a good job. That’s basically what it is. It’s like “Hey, no I can’t be friends with you because your stepdad got a college degree and is able to make enough money to buy a big TV.” Basically that is what they are saying. The worst part was I was never really given anything special. I bought my own car, I paid my own cell phone bill and any other extra stuff I got from working 30+ hours a week.

Ok, so I just realized this is really long. Thank you if you made it all the way through my rant.

**The point of the story is, how does social class define a person? Why does this stereo type still exist in 2009? Have you ever had a similar experience?