criminal/criminal class

because all those who underreport income to the IRS or who buy expensive items across state lines, falsifying place of delivery to evade sales tax, or who embezzle at the levels of upper management, or those involved in the S&L "scandal" (a much nicer word than "crime") are never referred to as a "criminal class," it seems evident that this term has classist and racist dimensions. What's left when government and corporate white-collar crime goes linguistically unremarked is a de facto connection of "criminal" with "poor." Circular reasoning then makes the average taxpayer reluctant to back anti-poverty programs so as not to support a criminal class. This leaves the poor even poorer. See also bad guy.