For the past two years, New York City’s subway riders have been treated to an advertising campaign admonishing them to be courteous to one other. An innocuous message, it would seem. Yet in fact, these calls for civic-mindedness serve to divert attention from the true cause of the myriad distresses subway riders face: class inequality.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority’s (MTA) “Courtesy Counts” ads show faceless figures in scenes depicting lack of subway etiquette, accompanied by messages enjoining riders to avoid particular kinds of improper behavior. The most common figure is someone I like to call the Tie Guy — a nondescript male wearing a tie and a suit.

This archetype’s inclusion should immediately elicit curiosity: tie-wearers are quite rare on the subway nowadays. The white-collar workers who use the subway overwhelmingly favor business casual attire, and thus have no need for neckwear. These days, the accouterments of the business suit are instead markers of the executive class — who in New York City prefer to be chauffeured or even choppered to work.