People always take the most extreme examples. In the example I gave it wasn't nearly anywhere as extreme. Obviously it depends on the circumstances.
White collar laborers are labor; they are not capital.
I make a couple hundred thousand dollars per year. I have far more in common with a nurse or a teacher or a store clerk than I do with somebody who was born with $10MM in a trust fund, and who makes as much as I do (by selling my full-time labor) just by buying and holding VTI.
I will concede that In the last decade or those definition probably don't make any sense.
So maybe I should have said "traditional working class" to make the distinction.