Today we still create our life styles by forming a mosaic of components. But much has changed. Life style is no longer simply a manifestation of class position. Classes themselves are breaking up into smaller units. Economic factors are declining in importance. Thus today it is not so much one’s class base as one’s ties with a subcult that determine the individual’s style of life. The working-class hippie and the hippie who dropped out of Exeter or Eton share a common style of life but no common class.
