you working class, middle class or upper class ?

[Borachio]

Surely there's more to being working/middle class than how much you earn? There certainly is in the UK. Where the working classes have certain attitudes different from the middle for such things as the priorities on what they spend their money on. Or they used to. These things aren't fixed.

But you can distinguish working from middle by the sort of clothes they wear, how many books they tend to have in the house, the sorts of sports they follow, where they go on holiday, and whether they put more priority on putting a deposit on a house or having a lavish wedding. And how many of their nearest relatives live nearby. And, of course, their accents.

 

[NedimNapoleon]

The Proletariat

 

[Crezth]

People are getting too hung up on technicalities and missing the point: what separates the classes is power, not wealth. Now surely they often go hand in hand, but defining class based on income is putting the cart before the horse.

So far as distinctions go, only one classification is useful: those who work to live, and those who do not. "Middle class" is a convenient lie contrived to tell the good people of the working class sans poor living conditions that they are well-off, in fact, they're great; when, in fact, they submit to the same hierarchy that the supposed yokels of the lower class must. It's all well and good to distinguish between the moderately comfortable and the definitely uncomfortable for academic purposes, but in the end no one can escape the paradigm of power and domination.

 

[ace99]

^ That's very George Carlin of you.


Link to video.

"The upper class: keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class: pays all of the taxes, does all of the work. The poor are there...just to scare the (crap) out of the middle class."

 

[classical_hero]

@Crezth I thought wealth equals power in this society.

 

[hobbsyoyo]

Yeah but surely $25k is middle class in some places and totally not middle class in others.

And I admitted as much with my previous response to you and also gave some background on how this possibly plays out in my area. I'm definately lower middle class here, if I lived the next town over I'd be solidly middle class but if I lived in NYC I'd be working class.

Although I have to say not having health insurance makes me feel very insecure, as does the fact that we're bumping into the income bracket where the social safety nets begin to dissappear yet we aren't really making enough to be secure without it.

Just this last summer we would have qualified for food stamps but for Missouri being one of the few states that uses savings as a disqualifier for them. Thus, they punish us for saving for a rainy day and expect us to spend all of our savings on food before they will give any assistance. This is the most sure-fire way I can think of to ensure that the poor stay poor. All of which is beside the point but whatever.

 

[Crezth]

@Crezth I thought wealth equals power in this society.

Does degrees Fahrenheit equal heat?

 

[classical_hero]

Does degrees Fahrenheit equal heat?

Can money buy you power? Yes it can. BTW, it is Celsius. Just because Fahrenheit is a measure of temperature, doesn't mean that it is a good analogy.

 

[Crezth]

Can money buy you power? Yes it can. BTW, it is Celsius. Just because Fahrenheit is a measure of temperature, doesn't mean that it is a good analogy.

Money doesn't create power any more than degrees Fahrenheit creates the transfer of heat. I'll be more specific: money is an abstraction of property which itself is a quality of power. So, yes, they're undivorceable to an extent, and someone who makes $80,000/yr is more powerful than someone who makes $20,000/yr. If anything that tells us that class is a gradient. But it is a formulation of discriminatory power and oppression nevertheless, no matter who wields it or why.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Working class and proud, both by the OP link's definition, and by official defintions as well.

 

[MobBoss]

None of which are over five figures as mentioned (not that I agree with the premise, in fact it's crap)

Rofl, yeah, I guess that 1 dollar difference from 99,999 to 100,000 makes one a total dishonest person out of you.

 

[downtown]

I live in an unquestionably lower-class area in America (probably poorer than 75% of other US posters are even familiar with), but it would be erroneous to consider myself as such. My wife and I both have white collar employment, are both university educated at top 75 institutions and each have at least one university-educated parent. Our combined family income would put us in a middle class, statistically, even though we rent and have very little investment income. The only thing really "poor" about us I suppose is that we don't own a car.

We have pretty profoundly "Middle Class" income, tastes and aspirations though, despite not living in a particularly middle class zip code.

If it means anything though, my mom was *poor as all hell*.

 

[Truronian]

I'm from a working class background, but I was lucky to be born smart which enabled me to get a good education and enter a profession.

 

[Arwon]

As a full-time public servant with a degree and a white-collar (theoretically... I wear t-shirts mostly) job I'm pretty much the definition of middle class.

I'm not sure what my parents count as, because Dad has been military since he was 15 and as he's gone up the ranks from non-commissioned to mid-level officer his income has increased dramatically. However even as a realtively low-ranked and low-paid military person, the job security they have suggests something other than "working class".

Of course under the more accurate less false-consciousnessy view, we're all workers and we're just divided up and pitted against each other to keep us weak.

 

[Oruc]

Working class

 

[Virote_Considon]

So far as distinctions go, only one classification is useful: those who work to live, and those who do not. "Middle class" is a convenient lie contrived to tell the good people of the working class sans poor living conditions that they are well-off, in fact, they're great; when, in fact, they submit to the same hierarchy that the supposed yokels of the lower class must. It's all well and good to distinguish between the moderately comfortable and the definitely uncomfortable for academic purposes, but in the end no one can escape the paradigm of power and domination.

Middle-class champagne socialist detected.

 

[ace99]

You're European. The correct term for you is "Chardonnay socialist"

Like a certain Mr. Strauss Kahn.

 

[otago]

Surely there's more to being working/middle class than how much you earn? There certainly is in the UK. Where the working classes have certain attitudes different from the middle for such things as the priorities on what they spend their money on. Or they used to. These things aren't fixed.

But you can distinguish working from middle by the sort of clothes they wear, how many books they tend to have in the house, the sorts of sports they follow, where they go on holiday, and whether they put more priority on putting a deposit on a house or having a lavish wedding. And how many of their nearest relatives live nearby. And, of course, their accents.

People are confused, do you work for your coin, you are working class unless you inherited an estate with a lot of peasants on it with a manager to run things while you spend your time enjoying yourself.
I read a lot, played middle class sports, Union,Cricket, yachting etc but, even though I own my own business I have to work, therefore I am working class.

 

[Crezth]

Middle-class champagne socialist detected.

Nein, ich bin der Arbeiterklasse!

 

[luiz]

People are confused, do you work for your coin, you are working class unless you inherited an estate with a lot of peasants on it with a manager to run things while you spend your time enjoying yourself.
I read a lot, played middle class sports, Union,Cricket, yachting etc but, even though I own my own business I have to work, therefore I am working class.

So investment bankers from Goldman Sachs who make 1M a year in bonuses are also working class. While I guess that makes sense since they do work more than most people, it strikes me as a bit of an useless definition.