welfare pays for itself in your imaginary world? The point is that social-economic status is another means of dividing a population; like race, gender ect. Just because you have control over your income and not your skin color doesn't invalidate the analogy, it just changes the perspective, so much so, that it falls out of your normal frame of reference.* You might want to broaden that narrow worldview you're used to employing, or not, either way...
*when the first Spaniards tried finding new trade routes they ran into the southern portion of South America. They anchored their boats, took smaller ones on shore and met a tribe's shaman. They obviously spoke different languages, but there was still a level of communication. When they eventually got to the issue of how they got to that particular spot on the coast, they pointed to their small boats which they used to leave their larger boat. But the thing was, the shamen couldn't see the larger boat with sails that was floating off the coast. Why? Because he had no frame of reference for such a thing. Eventually he began to make out a shape in the corner of his eye, and finally, saw the boat for what it was. The point of this tangential anecdote? Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean it's not there.