My players and I were of the mind that the starting gold didn't seem to properly reflect the "station" of the various character classes. A point driven home when the ranger ended up with more money than anyone else. :-)
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It does seem odd that the ranger has the same starting gold as the fighter and paladin. Generally, starting gold is enough to give the basic equipment that the class would need to start out, and fighter and paladin both tend to wear heavy armor, so they get the most. Since ranger doesn't, I'd consider lowering his starting gold down to that of the barbarian. However, if you do that, you won't be able to afford a longbow as a 1st level ranger, which is pretty much a staple. That's probably why they have that amount of gold. Fighters and paladins spend on armor and melee weapons mostly, and the ranger buys a longbow.
As for in game why to explain the ranger's money, it's not that he has a high social station, but that he's self sufficient, so can a) save more growing up, since he can hunt his own food, etc., and b) make a lot of his equipment over time, and starting wealth represents what you have, not that you actually have all of that in gold and go shopping immediately before deciding to become an adventurer.