What if it’s not a college degree that makes you successful, but whether you can pronounce “soppressata”?

David Brooks’s column “How We Are Ruining America” struck a nerve among New York Times readers, who wrote to us by the thousands to debate the social codes of the elite. Readers also took on the roles of money and education, or the lack thereof, in success. And yes, gourmet sandwiches came under fire too. Mr. Brooks’s article topped the Times’s Most Emailed list and received more than 3,200 comments. Here are excerpts from the article’s comments, some of which have been edited for length and clarity.

‘Stifling the lower classes with their elitist panini’

Mr. Brooks’s anecdote about taking a friend to a gourmet sandwich shop, whose menu of Italian cheeses and meats, he said, illustrated the cultural barriers between the more- and less-educated, received much criticism, snark and humor.

Recently I took a friend with doctoral degree to lunch. Insensitively I led him into a McDonald’s. Suddenly I saw his face freeze up as he was confronted with menu items like “hamburger” and “fries” and ingredients like ketchup, mustard and a sesame seed bun. I quickly asked him if he wanted to go somewhere else, and he anxiously nodded yes, and we ate gluten-free vegan Thai.

— SB in New York