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What makes a person working/lower class???

77 replies

MrsSopranos · 12/07/2019 01:32

Following from the other threads, they are really interesting! So what makes someone/ families working class and lower/ Chav class?

OP posts:
TrendyNorthLondonTeen · 12/07/2019 01:35

Having to work makes you working class.

HeronLanyon · 12/07/2019 01:37

Not middle or upper class.

QueenOfWinterfell · 12/07/2019 08:44

Working class and lower class are not the same thing

Mrsjayy · 12/07/2019 08:47

Working and lower class get taken for the same thing it isn't.

HeronLanyon · 12/07/2019 08:50

I heard ‘under class’ recently for first time in a very long time. Hmm

Mrsjayy · 12/07/2019 08:53

Underclass urgh

HeronLanyon · 12/07/2019 09:02

Yes indeed urgh. Had shades of ‘Uber mensch’ about it. Trouble is I think I knew what was meant and that’s been thought provoking.

teenmum18 · 12/07/2019 09:04

Oh great another thread for people to sit on their high horse and feel superior 🙄

Mrsjayy · 12/07/2019 09:05

It just sounds as if people are lesser because of circumstances and that is unfair.

Mrsjayy · 12/07/2019 09:08

Sorry I was replying to Heron

Crustytoenail · 12/07/2019 09:21

Well doesn't working make you working class? But then I work (ft) and would probably be considered by a lot on here as lower/'chav' class because I'm a single mum in social housing doing a job I didn't need a degree to get, experience, common sense and a strong personality are what's needed for my role. It's a little above NMW, but still not enough to live on and get the essentials paid without a bit from tax credits.
I do have a fairly decent education though, I have a levels and have some credits at university level from short courses and have done online courses to improve my education and prospects. So maybe that doesn't make me lower class?
Possibly it's more about how you are as a person, what your behaviour is like generally rather than education and income level?

nitgel · 12/07/2019 09:23

i thin you've made up chav class Grin

HeronLanyon · 12/07/2019 09:23

Agreed mrsjayy

Babdoc · 12/07/2019 09:32

In traditional census terms, it used to be defined on your DH’s job status. Which was very funny for Baroness Wooton, who married a taxi driver, and would therefore have been classified as working class!

Camomila · 12/07/2019 09:35

Not any more luckily!
So if Bob the taxi driver marries a surgeon, they both become MC. (Its now done on whichever partner has the highest SES)

Bluntness100 · 12/07/2019 09:39

Lots of people define this differently. I think thr dictionary definition is you work for a wage, ie paid by the hour , rather than salaried. Salaried is middle class, and upper class is aristocracy etc.

Many people disagree though and create their own definitions. Sometimes they even class themselves as their parents, as opposed to what they personally are.

Chovihano · 12/07/2019 09:42

What on earth is chav class?
Working class are those that work for a living, usually double income.

Middle class can afford for a sahp to do charitable work - parents in Mary Poppins.

Mrsjayy · 12/07/2019 09:44

One Dc is salaried my other Dc is hourly waged their dad is atm salaried
i don't get a wage im on disability benefits it is a minefield Grin

Bluntness100 · 12/07/2019 11:32

this is effectively the dictionary definition

"the social group consisting of people who are employed for wages, especially in manual or industrial work"

Bluntness100 · 12/07/2019 11:34

And this is middle class

"the social group between the upper and working classes, including professional and business people and their families"

As said though, lots of people disagree with the dictionary definitions.

Spidey66 · 12/07/2019 11:39

MN is obsessed with class, it never seems to matter outside, except perhaps in the Daily Mail.

HeronLanyon · 12/07/2019 12:31

I think it matters desperately to the striving middle class. It matters more truly to the upper class. It matters to everyone else because they are at the sharp end of our class system and funding/tax/housing decisions etc.

DefinatelyAWeeGobshite · 12/07/2019 12:40

MN is obsessed with class, it never seems to matter outside, except perhaps in the Daily Mail

This!

IrmaFayLear · 12/07/2019 12:44

Class has little to do with money nowadays. If you met the Beckhams at a naturist party (ie no clothes or stuff) would you think them anything other than working class?

MrsSopranos · 12/07/2019 13:38

Interesting responses. Chav class to me is something like blinging up baby 👶

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