Would you admit to being middle class?

[Tricky]

not sure what the logic is there? how about having to work for a living makes one working class by definition?

 

? See post 23.

[ANVIL]

? See post 23.

 

:cool::cool:

 

interesting...so a someone who has worked as a builder for all his life, then goes to uni as a mature student at say, aged 55, all of a sudden becomes middle class?

[NEKRO138]

The way I see it - working class is about being in or aspiring to manual labour type jobs, skilled or unskilled, jobs which may require skills and aptitude but not education. Machining for instance is highly skilled but the job requirements don't include Maths A Level.

 

Those who choose to go to university are, for the vast majority, setting their sights on a different range of jobs where they add value through their intelligence and learning.

 

It's difficult for me to explain but by choosing to go to university, you have turned your back on being working class. However you view yourself, people will now view you as middle class.

 

Well, I can't say you're wrong because you view me as middle class, so someone does!

 

I never have thought of myself as middle class, at uni I certainly experienced some snobbery from other students.

 

By the way, I'm not one of those people that desperately tries to be working class. I know this sounds odd, but a lot of people do think like that.

 

If I am middle class, then so be it, it's nothing but a label to me, but I know that my parents are proud of me and were pleased that I chose to go to university.

 

University now is a choice for many, many people (not all) though it hasn't always been that way.

 

My father, for example (who is a machinist/toolmaker by coincidence), lost his dad at the age of 13. He had to drop out of school as soon as posible and be the bread winner for the family. He could never have gone to university, like many others.

 

The 'changing of class' (as you perceive it) aspect of going to university isn't what annoyed me anyway, it was the students who did get the oppurtunity and foolishly squandered it.

 

I think that's what annoys most people about uni students, that they had that chance and wasted it.

[Mathom]

Nobody can be 'classless' in this country I'm afraid. You are constantly being weighed and judged accordingly. Remember that next time you think about getting out the socially perilous silver plated napkin rings for your next dinner party

 

Tricky's got it right. It's not about income, it's about attitudes, aspirations, education and tastes. A lot of Upper Class families are very poor but in their attitudes they remain very much of their class.

 

I am to most people Working Class and I trade off the preconceptions towards that class too, having a laugh at the people who make assumptions about my accent and background, etc. However I have to admit that in reality, through my education and my tastes, I have dumped myself squarely in the Upper Middle class - with the shabby, poor intelligentsia, collecting second hand books and having arguments about Barthes and loving British seaside holidays (but not in a caravan, the horror!) and getting heavy on the irony. Worrying about social justice and how the kids might get into the right Oxbridge college. Despising 'Lower Middle' aspirations and tastes like holidays in Disneyland and the Daily Mail, but having the social confidence to plonk some 'ironic' gnomes in the garden and run a very old and ordinary car.

 

Christ. What have I become...

[Templeman]

The way I see it - working class is about being in or aspiring to manual labour type jobs, skilled or unskilled, jobs which may require skills and aptitude but not education. Machining for instance is highly skilled but the job requirements don't include Maths A Level.

 

Those who choose to go to university are, for the vast majority, setting their sights on a different range of jobs where they add value through their intelligence and learning.

 

It's difficult for me to explain but by choosing to go to university, you have turned your back on being working class. However you view yourself, people will now view you as middle class.

this is typical of the view of many posters here who seem to think that people either do manual but possibly highly skilled jobs and are thus working class and others go to university and are therefore middle class. I don't know the figures but i suspect that there is a huge percentage of the population who dont do either and fall in the massive gap in beteeen those two types. Those people choose which class they are in to suit themselves because in these affluent times there is no real definition of class

[Bago]

I don't understand the class system. I still don't. Maybe somewhere at the back of my mind, I am a true hippy.

 

I once read a newspaper article to describe migrants like myself that I moved from working class to middle class with a university education. Yet, I don't see it as that. At one point, maybe I did, and I believe it. Yet, I now respect people more and judge them more on how they truly conduct their live. i.e. are they happy.

 

You can be earning a lot of money and be in a job, but still remains unhappy with what you have. Do gaining reputation and assurance from others as a society truly makes you happy and have that inner confidence about life? I would say no.

 

Here, I may be middle-class, but if I went back to HK, I will be middle-upper class. If people are so shallow and just judge you by their money, then a lot of old ladies in HK should be respected, cos they are millionaires by right!

 

Maybe worth checking this out, as I am almost rich beyond my means! http://www.globalrichlist.com/

 

How do you quantify it all?

[Mathom]

Those people choose which class they are in to suit themselves because in these affluent times there is no real definition of class

 

Just remember, it's fine to think that, but do be careful with those napkin rings, they can ruin your social standing...

[Aries22]

Why does Money, Education, Houses, Holidays, Cars have anything to do with class? I would consider Honesty , Loyality, Personal Demeamour Manners, Kindness Etc as a more worthy thing

[Tricky]

:cool::cool:

 

interesting...so a someone who has worked as a builder for all his life, then goes to uni as a mature student at say, aged 55, all of a sudden becomes middle class?

 

 

 

OK you've managed to work out that there's some blurring at the edges.

 

True story: guy I used to know came from very much a working class home, left school at 14, became an apprentice plumber.

Worked for someone else til his mid twenties and then branched out on his own and had to hire a couple of lads to cope with demand. Did well until at one point he employed about 40 people.

Sent his kid to public school (who went on to uni and the RAF), took up golf and became a member of one of the most exclusive clubs in the area. Some time later sold his business, jacked in the golf club and bought a newsagents and a few properties which he rented out.

 

My reading of this is that the guy started out working class and became middle class at some point. What point? I don't know. Did he go back to being working class? I'm not sure.

His son was middle class through and through even though he could have claimed, if he'd wanted to, that he'd come from a working class background.

 

Back to your builder, I guess it depends on what he aspired to do. And on the subject of builders, I know some that are clearly working class and others that are clearly middle class. Being a builder doesn't categorise you necessarily, more your approach to being a builder.

[Bago]

I don't quite understand how class works by the above example. At what point does it shift, or is it all in other people's minds??

 

I thought that humans just tries to improve themselves always.