Abstract

Nothing could be more wrong than believing that the latest economic and technological changes are responsible for the world's new social stratification. This process had already started two or three years ago. It is in line with twenty years of technological progress, but it marks a turning point, nonetheless. The article describes this change, the fall of the old middle classes and the rise of the new ones in a twenty-year period dominated by globalization and by the oligarchic power of new proprietary managers.