What are the main identifiers of those who describe themselves as lower middle classes?

[Rosehip10]

As distinct from middle/upper middle.

I could afford private health care.....unfortunately I’m so ill with chronic conditions it would come with a list of exclusions as long as my arm and not be worth it.

The Royal Family aren't Upper Class. They are Royalty.

i'd also say if you have to use the NHS then you are not middle class.

Try having a serious chronic condition since 1992 and see how far that gets you on Bupa emilybrontescorsett

Just read this whole thread as I relax with a glass or two.

I teach in a private school and we would never refer to ourselves as a public school - a public school is very distinct as a PP pointed out to someone who was not listening.

Plus there is an 'English teacher' posting on here who gave me a bit of a laugh! I suppose that Christmas is a time for fantasy after all...

Someone whose broken out of the council housing chain, rents privately but can't afford to buy and wears bright white trainers? And branded stuff bought on credit? WDIK?!

@VivaLeBeaver A while ago I asked my nephew, who is one of those worthless NHS administrators , just how much it has cost to keep my worthless hide alive and working and paying taxes since 1992.

Plus bringing joy to the world.

He gave up. Private health insurance would have given up a long time before him and the NHS

@limitedperiodonly. I did actually enquire about health insurance the other year. With a certain company I’d get 50% discount off my David Lloyd platinum membership which would save me about £65 a month. The insurance was about £66 so effectively I’d have paid £1 a month and got a free Apple Watch. But when I asked them if they’d cover me for xyz and they said no. And then I thought anything else I came down with would probably be attributed to xyz it wasn’t worth filling out the forms for a free Apple Watch! 😀

@koshkat, the teacher is surreygirl1987, who teaches at a top "indepedent" school.
I hope her parents got a refund for the Swiss finishing school fees.

I could have been very middle class. Right education, right school, good Uni, good job afterwards. I still have that mentality.

But life got in the way.

Hey ho,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Yes Mike the finishing school was a lovely touch!

"Middle Class": a term invented by psychologists and sociologists working in advertising in order that advertisers can promote an aspirational lifestyle so that the public spend money trying to show that they are above and better than others.

Social class is used to divide workers so that we have someone to look down on and feel superior to. We've been tricked into worrying about the language that we use to describe everyday objects, like "toilet" or "sitting room", in case we give ourselves away and so that we can "other" those that we think are inferior to us in someway.

Anyone who is employed is working class; we depend on our employer (which might be the State) to pay our wages & we depend on the legislation that protects our employment rights. This applies as much to someone working in a factory as it does to a teacher, a "manager", or a HCP. If we can be "sacked" from our job then we are working class.

Merry Christmas

Er, the prime minister is employed. So is he working class now?

I said has to work, ie you stop working your world stops turning

It's funny how so many on here have no idea about the class system.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_class_in_the_United_Kingdom

If we can be "sacked" from our job then we are working class.

So CEOs are working class? Get outta here...

Bit of an over simplification there Rosie.

I said has to work

My niece is 29 yo, I doubt she has worked a day in her life. She lives in some kind of sheltered housing in SF. My brother begs for a living: he holds up a "Vet needs money" sign by the freeway & gets coins. Is that begging = "work"? They both slept on the streets plenty in past & would do so again. So it's pretty evident that they don't "have" to work. Does that make them upper class?

lljkk

I think the assumption is that the people discussed can maintain a reasonable standard of living without working.

Ah... those pesky ASSUMPTIONS.
My niece & brother seem to think their standard of living is 'reasonable'.

Might not be YOUR idea of reasonable.
So whose idea of Reasonable, should apply?

Answers on a postcard?

RiveterRosie thats bollocks

The middle class originally came about from some of the sibling who didn't inherite a good living so went on to be clergy or into law or doctors ect.. because they needed to earn. They where not gentlemen(upper class) because they needed an occupation for a living.

The waters started to muddy what was middle class when industrialist, merchants and self made business owners came into play years later, with them starting earning big money and affording the life styles of the upper and original middle classes.

it's more complicated than what I've wrote. But your explanation sounds like how advertisers in America would have divided up their demographic.

Class unfortunately goes back 100s of years in the Britain, long before advertisers were even a thing.

I read that Jilly Cooper book years ago and totally recognised my 1970's lower middle class upbringing.

My parents both came from working class families, went to grammar school them teacher training college. We lived in a semi on a nice estate. My parents were quite aspirational.

DH had a similar background to mine in terms of his parents jobs and family home but his family very much identified as working class.

Not quite sure what that makes my family now - I don't think the lines are as distinct nowadays as they were years back.

I find it interesting how class can change over generations quite rapidly. Or even over one person’s life. Carol Middleton being the best example.

So on one hand people say oh well having lots of money doesn’t change your class. That horrible lottery winner from Norfolk, (Michael someone) didn’t suddenly change from being an underclass chav because he won millions

Carol Middleton was an air stewardess and a secretary and had grandparents who were labourers and miners, so working class. But if you look at Carol now you’d say she’s very much middle class, quite probably upper middle class. She is loaded, had the money to send her 3 kids to very good public schools and I’m pretty sure she doesn’t say toilet.

My grandparents were very working class on both sides. Though by the time I was old enough to notice my maternal grandparents had made quite a bit of money and had what seemed to me to be a middle class life, though looking back I think my Grandmother was a bit of a Hyacinth Bucket. Both my parents went to grammar school, got degrees and did teacher training, became head teachers. I had quite a middle class upbringing. Big detached house, grammar school, piano lessons, horse riding lessons, quite comfortable. I’d say my parents were middle class. I’d say I was middle class. 🤷‍♀️

Is Class something that people are aware of in day to day life? Aren’t we all just .....people? I don’t even think about this type of thing ....... does it matter? And does this comment speak volumes about my class?