What’s up with upper middle class classmates feeling weird and defensive when we talk about funding?

Does anyone feel like their classmates (upper middle class people) feel uncomfortable when they talk about funding? There’s this lady whose husband is a surgeon, and she gets so defensive whenever someone talks about struggling to find a teaching assistant or graduate student assistant position.

Then there’s another older lady who is paying her tuition because there’s no professor to fund her. Her husband is very wealthy. The program asked her to TA so her tuition would be waived, but she chose not to because she wanted to focus on research. She was so angry when another low-income student shared about the PhD student union advocating for higher wages. She is always defensive anytime the topic of funding comes around. She’s the leader of my program and would exclude anyone who talks about funding because she feels uncomfortable.

There’s another guy who’s 32 and his dad is paying for his apartment. He works 25% instead of 50% and would make comments like “I don’t get why they’re so worried about funding when it’s so easy to find one.” My program is easy to find a 25% position but not 50%, and this guy is happy with his small stipend.