Do you know anyone middle class?

[angelos02]

I don't. But my definition of middle class is those that go to work but don't need to.

I don't know what we are. We don't have to work but I do as I'd go mad if I did. My DH doesn't. I work from home anyway so we just hang out together. We stay in his parents house as they're lonely without us and we will inherit a shit load from both sets of parents. But I don't have lots of disposable cash, I'm comfortable but I cant spend too much.

By your definition OP Wayne and Colleen Rooney are middle class....

Everyone disagrees on the definition, therefore it doesn't really exist.

I'm surrounded by them. They are everywhere I go.

I'd say most people I know are middle class - but they all need to work!

I'd define middle class as well educated (degree level or higher), professional jobs, likely to be home owners, comfortable, but not super-rich.

I'd say "of independently means" is more likely to signify upper classes or lottery winners.

You've misunderstood what middle class means. You can't just invent your own definition and then get huffy when people don't agree with you.

Very few people are middle class Loads think they are though

Pity your definition doesn't agree with the dictionary, or anyone else's come to think of it;

"Middle class: a social group that consists of well-educated people, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, who have good jobs and are neither very rich nor very poor:
The upper middle class tend to go into business or the professions, becoming, for example, lawyers, doctors, or accountants."

OP, your understanding of what it is to be middle class is way off beam.

What about that thug who won the lottery and terrorised his neighbours? He didn't need to work (well, he does now, because he spent it all) but would you have called him middle class?

Plus I would say the Cameron's do need to work. They both come from very wealthy families but I can't imagine that either sets of parents would have been happy if they'd said "oh we don't want to work, buy us a £7million house, pay for the kids tk go to private school (which they would have done if he wasn't PM and I bet they all start private school soon), pay for all our holidays to Ibiza.

Coming from a wealthy family doesn't mean you don't have to work. Though I believe as DC's dad died a short time ago he may have inherited some money so who knows maybe he doesn't have to work now. But his mum is still alive so I imagine she would still have most of the family money still and may choose not to will it to DC for all anyone knows.

There's a fabulous book called "watching the English" which gives very precise definitions of social class

Like EastMids and others - I find your definition of middle class very odd.
Class is much more mixed now than it was 100 yrs ago - much harder to define and not sure why you'd want to, but that said, I think most people would agree David Cameron - as per example - is Upper class.

I met an Albanian once, he hired our boats in Finsbury Park. Lovely chap.
So is everyone actually working class then? Not sure my proud working class friends would fancy being compared with Dave and Sam Cam.

I think there is a difference between what "middle class" used to mean in the UK, and how most people in the world (and on this thread) use it.

Working class used to be 99% of the population, I think middle class was the 1% that sat between them and aristocracy.

Most people are middle class these days, because society has changed a lot so the old markers are less applicable.

You're thinking of upper middle class if you're using David Cameron as the bar.

I don't know anyone who isn't middle class. Well actually I do. But not friends.

Why I love not being a brit.

my definition of Albania is a magical submarine that flies through the sky.

:o

Exactly.

Since you don't know what the word means, why not say that you don't know anyone who can afford not to work but works anyway...?

Your definition of middle class is wrong.

Virtually all of the middle classes work, by definition, in professional or graduate roles (with a few exceptions). So if you know any teachers, doctors, lawyers, clergymen or women etc, then you know middle class people.

DC is very upper middle class. His dad was a stockbroker and his mum was the daughter of a baronet. Samantha Cameron is upper class / minor aristocracy, also the daughter of a baronet. I doubt either of them are so independently wealthy that they do not need to work at all.

Is this a troll trying stir up support for DC? DC is part of the upper elite classes.

I don't know a single family that doesn't need at least one parent to work. Isn't that quite unusual? And definitely not a characteristic of being middle class. Upper class maybe but unfortunately I don't move in those circles

So I have friends who are graduates, working in senior positions in professional jobs, living in large houses, taking 3 foreign holidays a year and spending their Saturday nights at the theatre, the opera or dinner parties...

They are all working class OP? Hmm?

OP, would you like some fish to go with that?

Not sure what your AIBU is OP but if you think that is the definition of middle class then you are definitely misinformed.

Yep, what you define as middle class really isn't.

I consider myself working class, if I had to pick one.

But my parents and lots of people who know us class us a middle class like them.

Me and dh work for ourseleves in what is a manual job. We have a decent sized house, kids don't go to private school though. We have 2 car and a bit of money left over when bills are paid.

Growing up I always thought middle class was having a job that was classed as profession rather than a job and a high level of education.

I don't know anyone who thinks middle class is working but can afford not to.

I don't know any couples who consider themselves middle class who could afford for both people not to work.