Working or Middle Class?

[WedTheBed]

What’s the difference between them? As in.. what does one have to be middle class that working class don’t have?

I was talking to my friend, and I made a comment about being working class which she looked at me in shock and said I’m not working class, I’m middle.. but I don’t know how. I feel like we don’t really have anything to show to be middle class?😂

light hearted* I’m just interested to see what people interpret.

@YaWeeFurryBastard what about the lawyers and accountants that work in the civil service?! You cannot possibly say that all civil service roles are WC.

Try this op https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2013/newsspec_5093/index.stm

I'm ok with emergent service worker. Cash poor, culture rich.

university education = middle class

Working class bath - radox
Middle class bath - bath melts

Working class dinner - sausage and chips
Middle class dinner - seafood linguine

Working class theatre - panto
Middle class theatre - shakespeare

Working class cinema - James Bond
Middle class cinema - eternal sunshine of the spotless mind

Working class Saturday evening - couple of pints in pub back home to watch the snooker
Middle class Saturday evening - dinner party and discussing schools and Plato

What people really want to know about is money though, how much more money do I have than you.
Only way I can see to divide this, if you pay 40% and above tax you are middle class. Below working. Regardless of job.

I did my dissertation on this. Basically my definition is that it's based on your background. You can of course go up the ladder if you wish, but being WC has a unique set of positive values that you're brought up with. As PP said, "helping your neighbour" would be one, old fashioned values that are ingrained in WC culture. Whereas MC is generally more individualistic as a rule.

I've never heard anyone in real life mention the class system or thought about it myself. It sounds very antiquated, not something I think I'll ever need to consider.

I was brought up middle class, dad was a head master, it was all piano lessons and riding lessons. National trust visits, etc.

I went to uni got a degree, started a mid level office type job for a large organisation. Got bored and did manual labour for a few years, I’m talking full on digging roads up and tarmacing level of labouring. But my background, education and interests remained the same.

I then went and did a Masters and am now a head of department/senior lecturer at a university.

So was i middle class, then working class and now middle class again?

That calculator was built in 2013, do you think inflation - especially around house prices - might render it suspect...or do you think it still holds? I have no idea but it's just suggested I'm established middle class which is a fucking stretch.

I think I am a feral.

Not the rich type the drain on society version

It says I’m elite which I think is also a stretch.

It's suggests we are elite! Ha ha ha
We don't even own one horse. Or a cocker spaniel.

That's think thing about this kind of grand social codification, your participation in recognizing it is entirely irrelevant. Other people, even those people who have decided that the class system is dead and we all live in tribes now (clue, anyone this who holds this luxury belief delusion is almost exclusively middle classes), are still within a system that they deny.

Two rooms in our house are definitely upper middle class
Rest of the house swings between working and on a good day tips into barely just middle class
Garden - feral!

So where is our house overall.

Do the upper class rooms drag it up, or does the garden drag it down?

Interesting one. I would class myself as MC because my parent worked professional, non manual jobs and were both educated at red brick uni’s.

No, this means your parents are middle class and you were raised in a middle class environment. This doesn’t mean you are middle class. Social mobility, both up and down is a thing. So based on what you do and your education/ qualifications dictates what class you are as an adult

Gosh, that was written terribly. Hopefully it makes some sense. Off for a coffee 😁

This is a really important point.

Seminal indeed, read and much-loved by my mother, sister and I.

When I'm being difficult and picky, my sister calls me Tracey-Diane in honour of it.

I'm interested in posters citing their parents' class as how they identify. I strongly believe that how you are raised doesn't necessary 'carry over' to current class (although definitely can give you an enormous advantage or disadvantage).

I was raised solidly lower working class in an unemployed household living on benefits. Now PhD qualified and working in a professional and well-paid role so consider myself middle class rather than working class.

It made sense! You could always have used John Lennon's words: you think you're so clever and classless and free, but you're still fucking peasants as far as I can see'.

It makes sense.

Tony Blair claimed the class system didn't exist ignoring the fact he was part of a system where the head of state is the monarchy.

If you spend time analysing it and wondering what class you are - you're middle class.

@Fatandfunny ok, we’ll I’m the same so I’m middle class as well then. That interesting about how you define your class rather than your parents. I have a couple of friends from uni who were from working class backgrounds and are now very ‘middle class’ teachers etc. we were discussing this and when I suggested they were now middle class they were horrified and cited their working class routes - they hate the idea of being seen as middle class for some reason 😂

It's all meant to be related to professions and money but in reality the British class system is WAY more complicated than that!
I see people judged on the clothes they wear, the names they choose for their children, the food they eat, the interests they have, where they take holidays etc, etc. All these thing can classify a person as working class, middle class, upper class. I wish it wasn't like this but it is.