social pyramid

It intensifies and locks in popular immiseration and also drives elite overproduction, undermining social trust at both the top and bottom of the social pyramid.

Patriarchy puts straight men at the top of a social pyramid.

It may also be little more than a mix of inertia, greed, and foolishness encouraged by the shape of the social pyramid.

"I realised the glamour of Hong Kong is just for the people at the top of the social pyramid - the wealth gap is too wide," said Liao.

A town with a social pyramid so impossibly steep that 80 percent of its citizens had no chance of scaling its sides.