A thing to remember is that humans are hierarchical beasties - so any excuse to beat someone down and be "one up" - be it diabetes, red hair, skin colour, the "wrong" shoes... they (we) will be all over it like lemmings. EG, and with respect to all, if you don't think even this blog (which is written by and seems to feature a lot of very switched-on, cool people) is about status in the end, just check the recent post on the woman who didn't know she was up the duff (to use a medical term) and read the comments... Not making a case for it, or against it, just saying we all compare ourselves to others on some level and like to come out on top - doubly so where there's cash or other tangible status involved. JMO. ;o)