The economy: Where the poor people sit

This anecdote about class comes from a speech given last year. It sounds apocryphal, but the speaker is Great Britain’s Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, so who are we to question its veracity?

Some years ago I visited a school many of whose children came from very affluent backgrounds. They told me that, the previous week, an inspector had visited the school and tested the children—they were 7 or 8 years old—on their vocabulary. 

He asked them: who can tell me the meaning of the word “economy”? One child put up his hand and said, “Please sir, that’s where the other people sit on a plane.”