buck Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Exactly! I was the first person in my family to go to university. I lived on a council estate until I was ten with my mother and grandparents. My mother was desperate to be middle class and when she married my stepfather, was the biggest Hyacinth Bouquet I've ever met (I still remember embarrassing her by saying why've we got out the tablecloth and plates we never eat off?) She was dying to dissassociate herself with the street that I'd grown up on. My nan incidently still lives there. When I got to university I did feel different to most people. Most people were, "oh god, I'm really skint, I'd better phone daddy to send me another grand." For me that was "damn, I'm skint, I better up my hours at work or get a second job." Now although I'm in what people perceive to be a middle class profession, I earn an average wage, live alone so have higher expenses and was out of work on and off for three years so have debt which i'm slowly paying off so I'm not well off by any means. So I am well and truly back to being working class. I have often been asked by American friends if there were people like Hyacinth in UK, finding her hard to believe. I said there definitely are, having inherited one when I married her daughter. She could have made my life miserable since I was born in Attercliffe of a steel working father, but she was great to me. There may be some misconceptions about whether America is classless or not. Most people own their own homes, and there are lots of graduates. I suppose plumbers, electricians, carpenters might be considered working class but they are your neighbors who own as many cars, boats as the middle class of professionals and managers. There is no upper class as such though there are rich people who don't live among us, but htey are more of a joke than respected. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tarquin Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 I checked with my cleaner & she told me not to admit to it;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buck Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 I thought the whole point of class is that those who consider it important...don't have any Well said! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buck Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 You could tell a man's class in the old days by the kind of cigs he smoked. Wild woodbines or Park Drive for the working class, Senior Service or Players for the middle class, Benson and Hedges for the upper class. You had to have the right ash tray as well. Having beer commercials printed on them was social death. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildrneil Posted August 2, 2007 Author Share Posted August 2, 2007 what exactly is the socioeconomic category that composes 'middle class'? i.e. what does it consist of/how is it defined? i am university educated, i have what i think is generally regarded as a middle-class profession, but then again i work for a living, i've spent most of my life working in 'working class' employment, and i'm of working class parents/grandparents. personally i consider myself working class, and proud of it. Sorry about the slow reply - I've been offline all day! The middle class consists of: Socioeconomic group A: higher managerial, administrative or professional Socioeconomic group B: intermediate managerial, administrative or professional Socioeconomic group C1: supervisory or clerical, junior managerial, administrative or professional Working class consists of: Socioeconomic group C2: skilled manual workers Socioeconomic group D: semi and unskilled manual workers Socioeconomic group E: state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Professional can fall into any of the top 3... so how do you know which one you are in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildrneil Posted August 2, 2007 Author Share Posted August 2, 2007 Professional can fall into any of the top 3... so how do you know which one you are in? If you are higher, intermediate or junior! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greybeard Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 Socioeconomic group E: state pensioners or widows (no other earner), casual or lowest grade workers Well at least I now know my place, consigned to the underclass because I've retired. But that's just plain silly - everybody with enough NI contributions becomes a 'state pensioner' if they live long enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evildrneil Posted August 2, 2007 Author Share Posted August 2, 2007 Well at least I now know my place, consigned to the underclass because I've retired. But that's just plain silly - everybody with enough NI contributions becomes a 'state pensioner' if they live long enough. I think that means people living on only a state pension - which classes them as being on a subsistance level Nice to know isn't it!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted August 2, 2007 Share Posted August 2, 2007 If you are higher, intermediate or junior! I'm not even sure what higher, middle or lower professional means, so I don't think it helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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