What class are you? Poll results/discussion

MothballsWallet

MothballsWallet is in a class all of his own.

spikeysoul

I am university educated, I own my own home (on a mortgage) I choose not to have children yet, I read either the Guardian or the Independant, I write to my MP and am aware of the political process (politics A level helps). I am concious of what I eat, how it impacts the environment and animal welfare as well as the human implications of foods such as coffee and chocolate.

I live in an area where almost everyone (and recently myself) is on income support or a low income - about £13,000 one person working. About the highest rate of single teenage parents in the country - NEET's (Not In Education Employment or Training) are an industry in themselves here. I am now unable to work due to ill health, my husband is not university educated but has started on a track that will get him there (he would identify as underclass!!)

Who am I? - I am quite poor with a decidedly middle class attitiude and E I believe in socio-economic classification. (and dyslexic so spelling and grammer don't always reflect any of this)

I know one thing I am confused and this system doesn't work anymore because what it was set up to classify has become very fluid.

Cumbrian_Male

The reason the population and country are in the state we're in, is there are too many working class thinking they are middle class

sailorchief

I always thought that people who went to University and had books in the house became middle class no matter where they started out. Those are the people I always admired; but I have books, shop in Charity shops, speak well, have a mortgage and struggle along on an RN pension (taxed at source) vote Conservative and have an optimistic outlook on life. What does that make me?:rolleyes:

earthmother

I think I'm somewhere in the middle - lower middle class bracket.

I didn't do uni, but did do A-levels. I held down a supervisory admin job (having worked up from office junior) before stopping to have children, and owned my own home (mortgage) from 21.

Then the spanner comes into the works - due to (medical not financial) circumstances beyond my control, we (the family) are now benefit-reliant, living in private rented accomodation and are due to go into council accomodation.

But, in attitude and outlook, I'm still that early 20s homeowner and worker - I still shop in many of the same places (albeit on lower brand levels), still have the same interests (although done cheaper these days), and still aspire that my children should do better than me.

gillianwright

We should be like the Irish, whether a Lord or a traveller they respect each other and nobody looks down on anyone else and they all drink Guiness:beer:

rwgray

Class is today often confused with socio-economic status. There is no real connection. Class is a phenomenon that occurs naturally in any stable society; hence the natural divisions that we use. These terms are not generally perjorative, i.e. judgemental in nature.

In contrast, S.E.S. is an artificial construct created for use in commerce and politics. The divisions are largely based on more concrete considerations such as wealth, income and spending patterns. It has a purpose. It only incidentally maps onto class divisions in an apparently meaningful way. Upper-class people will often have a lower S.E.S. than their middle-class counterparts.

Occurring naturally, class can have no purpose as such. You might think of it as a way of looking at stratified groupings within a society. It derives partly from financial means, but it is not about money at any given moment.

Immigration makes class 'judgements' more difficult, for a number of reasons. And the passage of time changes how the class distinctions are made. All shop-keepers are not necessarily middle class today!

Most people self-identify as middle-class, but a large proportion of these will be working-class families who happen merely to be much wealthier than their parents were. This is the class vs. S.E.S. confusion, you see. If a working-class family wins millions on the lottery, their S.E.S. goes through the roof, but their class changes not one jot. The kids, if they're young enough, will probably go to independent schools, live a different lifestyle and grow up to be among the middle-classes, irrespective of whether the parents change in any way.


Rich.x

jazabelle

I see myself as working class.

I've had this argument with my housemates before. They think that getting a degree automatically makes you middle class, which I believe is utter crap.

I guess I see certain factors into making one middle class or not.

- Neither myself of my parents have ever owned a house.
- Neither of my parents have ever been able to afford a car.
- My dad works in a factory.
- My mum is a single parents.
- I went to a rubbish state school.
- My parents (and myself by way of student loans) are in debt.

I 'side' with the working class, believe in Welfare, would rather stab myself than vote Conservative.

I will (hopefully!) have a degree at the end of year, I now have a car, I've worked for the council which I think some people see as middle class.

I guess I see class as a mindset and background, not just by getting a degree or something.

haze2807

Gangstabird wrote: »

We are all working class really as we work.

This is it...end of story.

EthanM

For a division to be meaningful it must be recognised, this thread clearly highlights the fact that the social divisions are so blurred that most people don't know which side of the "alleged" division they are on. This proves one thing, the divisions, even if they are there, are not recognised by most and as such class has become for the most part meaningless.