Yeah, I've had the opposite experience in my 20+ years of customer service work. Most of the times I've been screamed at by an entitled customer, they've been upper-middle class.

Nope. I worked retail for years at the same yellow-and-blue themed electronics store and they're spot-on. The absolute worst are the ones carrying tacky designer bags. Think the giant LV logo ones. They were almost universally nightmares to deal with that had $1000 deposit requirements for cell phones.

Sorry man, but no, granted that's my personal anecdotal experience.

That doesn't mean there weren't people who were complete assholes at all levels, but generally speaking the most entitled people were the ones who didn't deserve to be. I guess I could clarify that people who wanted to act like they were happy with life were the worst, most entitled people I came across. The people who either did actually hold status or didn't care if they did were more tolerable.

I won't pretend to be an expert and understand. The only things I've thought over the years were either 1) They needed to feel more important than someone, and service workers are a good scapegoat there or the more unfortunate one 2) There are just more points of contention. Someone doing well won't react as badly to their laptop being fried compared to someone who isn't doing well - they have different impacts on the people. That one is more important, but I don't think that excuses the pure abuse that was hurled at me either.