Lower working class???

[primitivemom]

Following on from the class threads? Can anyone tell me what constitutes lower working class? Is this benefit street class lol? staffies and job centers ?

Think that came out wrongly. Drat.

In this thread and the "working class" one, what strikes me is how articulate many posters are although they play down their abilities at times.

Nina - I consider myself articulate and I mainly owe it to reading books as a child/teenager. I probably did that due to being working class because there was only one TV in the house and my parents watched it most of the time it was on! I was 30 before I had a TV in my room. I always loved reading, and was encouraged, and to borrow from the library was free. I also think greater emphasis was put on reading and writing when I was at school. I also live in an area with a strong regional accent - that I don't have. Not because of different schooling but because my nan was from a different area and we were bullied taught to 'enunciate dear!'

In this thread and the "working class" one, what strikes me is how articulate many posters are although they play down their abilities at times

I got told the other day by a friend that i dont sound like someone without a degree

Another told me that they thought i was capable of getting a degree

I dont think they meant to be patronising...

I also dont think that it occurred to them that I decided i didnt want a degree

The MC broadly seem to think that the WC would like to be them.
In fact, this is bullshit.

Class used to be an issue, a long long time ago. I would no longer say any one is any class, seeing as there are many opportunities in the world for everyone. It's no longer the case that people who are born poor, have to die poor or even be poor. I have no idea why people still refer to class. I would however argue the point that how can someone be lower working class, if they don't work and are on benefits? It just doesn't make sense.

I think and have been told it's how you were brought up that defines class. I've seen extremely wealthy people dressed in cheap brands and driving old bangers, so if you looked at them you would think lower, however their etiquette says otherwise.

I've been brought up upper middle, I, myself have struggled, did crappy jobs, even used the food bank and now I'm living upper middle again, but if it was what you have etc then we'd be constantly changing class according to where you currently are in life.

That's exactly why I think it's all nonsense @Timmytoo

'The MC broadly seem to think that the WC would like to be them.
In fact, this is bullshit '

Ain't that the truth

Class used to be an issue, a long long time ago. I would no longer say any one is any class, seeing as there are many opportunities in the world for everyone. It's no longer the case that people who are born poor, have to die poor or even be poor. I have no idea why people still refer to class. I would however argue the point that how can someone be lower working class, if they don't work and are on benefits? It just doesn't make sense.

I don't know where to start with this. How can you go through life with both eyes closed?

I think both class and money are more important now than 20 years ago.

I am a university lecturer; among my middle aged colleagues there are just as many cut glass accents as local ones. Some lecturers went to the big public schools, some were grammar school kids, many went to local comprehensives and some to secondary moderns.

Very few of today's medical students come from local comprehensives once one discounts the ones in the leafy middle class areas with sky-high house prices as the main admission criterion. I doubt the lecturers will be quite so socially mixed in 2037.

I think those who are class blind either are naive or are well off and are class blind, in the same way some white people are colour blind.

I think both class and money are more important now than 20 years ago.

I am a university lecturer; among my middle aged colleagues there are just as many cut glass accents as local ones. Some lecturers went to the big public schools, some were grammar school kids, many went to local comprehensives and some to secondary moderns.

Very few of today's medical students come from local comprehensives once one discounts the ones in the leafy middle class areas with sky-high house prices as the main admission criterion. I doubt the lecturers will be quite so socially mixed in 2037.

Completely agree.

That doesn't account for the "class confused" @brasty

There are lots of people (like @Timmytoo and probably myself) who don't easily fit into a category. Often because they've been on a bit of a journey from the class they were born into.

Social science uses occupational categories to sort people but that doesn't align with "class" as most of us understand it because it doesn't account for housing, food cultures, education, cultural tastes generally and so on.

If you date mass social mobility as starting in the immediate post-war period, that's two or three generations of churn and mixed marriages. Now the picture's been complicated by 15 or 20 years of an accelerating housing crisis. So you can't blithely expect qualification, tastes, housing, occupation and habits to line up in a predictable pattern any more.

And of course there are lots of migrants now settled in the U.K. to whom the whole thing makes no sense. You can see that on the thread.

So what's your point Cockacidel...? Care to enlighten me?

Class is as important now as ever; it affects your life choices, health, educational experiences, everything. The rich can continue to buy privileges for their children through private education, perpetuating inequalities. They can use their contacts to assist their offspring into good careers, or support them in unpaid internships where poorer parents could not do so. Look how many of the political class have attended the top public schools.
The less well-off also experience poor housing; they often rely on insecure private tenancies, unable to put down roots, in often poor conditions.
It is possible to rise from the humblest beginnings through aspiration and education, but the cards are heavily stacked against you.

Checklist

Why does your DH think working class people are more intelligent out of interest?

That is a ludicrous assertion. I cannot take it seriously but im would love to hear him explain. Haha

...I would

I remember 35 years ago friends who were training as teachers, telling me that they were taught that working class parents are rarely interested in their children's education.

I think I probably agree with check list's husband if you meet some one in a professional role who has a working class accent, I tend to think they will be pretty good at their job.

Any definition of working class, in my opinion, should only count people who actually work. So 'lower' is probably people on or near minimum wage who might need tax credit top up.

Lower working class here. waves from Butlins are there any others out there??