That's certainly true, but it's still a big leap from thinking that a job is beneath you to thinking that the people who do that job are beneath you. Even with the attractiveness, you'd have to be quite shallow indeed to really consider people beneath you just because they're unattractive (whether because of their actual looks, the job they have and other "status" characteristics, or a combination of the two).

Yes, absolutely - and conversely, me and Jens not being American, it shouldn't be that surprising that we view things a bit differently. If you ask me, it's not so much that the class system doesn't exist in America, but merely that Americans hate to acknowledge that for ideological and historical reasons, and possibly also because it has connections with the touchy racial issues. People who think they are somehow inherently better because of their station in life, you'll find on both sides of the Atlantic, just like you'll find people on both sides who are smart enough to realize that being richer, smarter, better-educated, having a job with a higher status, doesn't make you "better".

And it doesn't seem to me that e.g. garbage collecting as a job has a higher status in the US; the big difference is the disparity in how people view collecting unemployment benefits. Americans work so much more per week, have so much fewer holidays, and all that, it's perhaps not unlogical that they attach more importance to jobs and - apparently - consider their work - the fact that they are working, more than which job they are doing - a more essential aspect of who they are.