Guardian article - the squeezed middle class?

iclaudius_2

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/nov/16/what-thinking-squeezed-middle-class

Did anyone else read this and wish to vomit? Nice to have the confidence to write in and share such humbling truths (if in fact it is a real person) but the tone of entitlement and serious lack of 'this is a mess we made and we're going to sort it out-ness' just makes me sad.

thescouselander

Yeah - what's this:

iclaudius_2

Here's my favourite latest article in the Evening Standard - January Austerity Challenge.

These fools are either super self conscious about their lifestyles or else just pathetic.

There is such a gulf between middle class London lifestyles and those having a proper daily 'austerity challenge', i.e. working poor trying to make it on London living wage or less:mad::mad:

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/the-great-january-austerity-challenge-how-did-our-writers-get-on-8474659.html

Carl31

is that genuinely how people live? £90 on lunch to console ones self? or did they just pick a few idiots?

talk about wasting money

RevolvingDoor

Carl31 wrote: »

is that genuinely how people live? £90 on lunch to console ones self? or did they just pick a few idiots?

talk about wasting money

:rotfl:I agree.

I suppose austerity means different things to different people.:eek:

Mozette

iclaudius wrote: »

Did anyone else read this and wish to vomit?

Yes, I did.

Fella

Isn't that just the typical !!!! you get in The Guardian?

ruggedtoast

An Californian friend of mine sent me a news piece about some research that was done in California about what income people thought they would need to feel middle class.

The average response was about $100,000, but the average salary in California is the usual 30 - 40k which is the typical salary that people who say they are middle class earn.

Its much the same here and shows quite a disconnect between earning power and social class.

The question is how long will people keep oppressing themselves in poorly rewarded, increasingly demanding labour to adhere to a middle class label without any hope of living a middle class lifestyle.

I really do find it mind boggling that apparently educated sensible people struggling to make ends meet keep voting for people who not only have never known what it is like not to be able to afford just whatever they want - including a political career, but who are actively worsening the lives of the 90% of people they govern each day they hold office.

They disband our unions, erase our jobs, steal our money and outsource our production. Then when we stand before them penniless they tell us we have to compete with the people on the other side of the planet they sold us out to, and make us beg to work for half the wages and twice the time as before.

And still we keep coming back and back.

Treadmill

Have a heart, the poor woman nearly had to do without her Latte and Croissant and theres the possibility her daughters, tuition, dance and art classes cheque will bounce and those are not the sort of people you mess with. I am also fairly sure she is having to cope without an Au Pair. Don't judge until you have walked a mile in those shoes.

Generali

I feel quite sorry for her. It's hard when the things that you feel define you are taken away.

For whatever reason, this woman feels that she is defined by her wealth and her consumption. It's easy to deride that but it's not for us to decide how she defines her place in the world.

iclaudius_2

I'm sorry if my two articles have got us talking cross purposes. In the first we have over entitled folks with rugs slid out from under. The second, a few hacks playing a money game akin to an agnostic Lent.

Alain de Botton has a good book on class anxiety. Generali, we can choose to feel sorry or challenge ourselves as a society to de-normalise this careless consumption.