Middle class but no money

[roopiea]

Does anyone else feel like this?

We would say we are middle class. Both university educated and privately schooled. In our 50s now. Parents had similar professions to us.

We work for the public sector, a teacher and management in local government. We live in a pretty reasonable part of the country. But we still feel we have no money for being in the middle class? We probably earn a combined 80k a year but live in a pretty bog standard 3 bed semi. Have holidays in places like Spain or Greece.

Whereas our neighbours are blue collar workers but seem to have so much more money than us. My best friend and her husband work similar jobs and they have a nicer house and better holidays than us.

I imagine some education is now required as when the internet was taking off it wasn't apparent how lucrative geek work would be, but there has been a generation now with this information.

Still it's great that many non-trade, non- physical youngsters have some decent options, with hard academic graft of course.

Get into calculating probabilities for financial/insurance markets. That pays well.

And a solicitor who now talks in 7 figure not 6 salary after becoming a partner. Law degree plus extras needed obviously. And for them it's really interesting legal conundrums to navigate.

I live in quite a "naice" area but I'm a single mum from a working class background. I am a professional with my own business and earn quite well. Despite that many of the school mums ask me if I am "just renting" and if I can afford to go on holiday (I can).

Teaching is a good secure job with a good pension but is not highly paid. Maybe your neighbours earn more than you despite your assessment of their jobs as "blue collar"?

AI can make sophisticated code. AI will make a lot of white collar jobs vanish in a few years - AI teachers are already in action.

We earn decent money as a household but are also feeling the pinch with energy bills and groceries shooting up. We go on one holiday a year and run one car. I am not saying we are not still lucky but I remember thinking about 6/7 years ago we were really financially comfortable, not anymore. Yet the tories, reform and the mainstream media are pushing an agenda of culture wars. I don't care what Musk has said today and I certainly do not want another election, I want our current politicians to discuss ideas on how to make our lives better now and put some money back in our pockets or into the NHS.

AI will bring about a whole heap of unimaginable right now jobs.

More importantly though what social class will they be?

AI?
The uber elite. Our overlords.

Looking forward to watching AI teach my yr 9 p5 on a Friday though. I've seen how excited they get when they sniff supply teachers.......

What does it matter

Got a PhD, work at a university and have had to use food banks and apply for universal credit thanks to the insecure contracts and seeming impossibility of returning to practice. As my 'home' sector has no idea of the value of a PhD.

I've had amazing middle class opportunities, being paid to travel and write essentially. Yet am on an income that is less than what I got in practice 7 years ago.

I think middle class status has become severed from income and more tied to social signifiers. My politics is more traditional working class, and I feel politically alienated from my so called lefty academic colleagues. Can't win, I'm too educated to be truly working class, and too conditioned by actual poverty to be middle class.

We live in crazy times.

We live in crazy times.

Why is it crazy?

I live in the worst house on a really nice street in a trendy NW village. DP and I both have fairly well paid professional jobs. All the fancy houses on the street are owned by tradies or those well established in the TV and film industry.

I have seen this play out at the other end of the spectrum - with titled friends really struggling financially, and in traditional working class environments. Where the values, ‘polish’ and signifiers will mean you or worse still your child becomes a laughing stock. It’s not easy either.

Tradies making a lot of money actually tend to be people running their own business and employing staff.

What's sane about a culture that offers a beautiful pathway with a locked door at the end?

A significant proportion of academics are ‘educated working class’. It’s how I’d class myself and several colleagues (humanities).

To be honest, teaching and local government aren't intrinsically middle class professions; their value is relative and has decreased over time due to economic changes, which is a matter of supply and demand.

Besides, the idea of class is archaic.