Should Mumsnet have it's own middle class section ?

[hattie43]

Reading some of these threads turning nasty it's really apparent that people have such different lives there will never be common ground . Nor does there need to be but the insults are not nice.

A thread posted by someone asking a question , to some a reasonable question being jumped on by ' the poor ' as tone deaf means legitimate conversation has been drowned out .

Should Mumsnet be divided so
' middle classes 'can discuss things the poor don't relate to and likewise ' the poor ' can discuss their issues without ' tone deaf ' comments from people who aren't financially destitute ?

The other thing I don't get is why jump on a thread you don't like why not just scroll on by and join a discussion you do like . Being a hater is never going to resolve anything .

@Xenia if we are one of the greatest nations in the world, why do we have parts of the UK poorer than Bulgaria? Paraphrase- some of the richest parts of the world are located in the UK,- mainly in London and the SE. Parts of London are as rich as Monaco.. But as a country, we are maybe no 20 in terms of per capita income which is very bad for a G7 country and a former empire. Parts of China esp the tier 1 cities would be richer than Manchester and may even have higher salaries...

Sadly we're turning into America where the wealth gap is increasing and social mobility declining.

I think the last few generations of children (from around 2000 onwards) will be the first in a long time where they're unable to out earn or improve on their parents. Grim really.

@glinner4prez

Define middle class. It used to be that 'working class' defined anyone who was forced to work for a living, unlike aristos or those who inherited wealth. So that's pretty much everyone then!

That's feudalism then. If you have everyone under the ruling class forced into work, and largely poverty, this is feudalism not a multi-class system.

@SharpLily

Er, yes, *@707smile*, that's the point. These sort of threads are full of people expounding the 'just work harder' or other theories but they're not really relevant because every situation is different.

Okay but I don't think a comment of 'Some people are the architects of their own poverty' is particularly helpful when the vast majority of people living in poverty are not the architects of their own poverty!

Absolutely agree with your post ChazsBrilliantAttitude

Though I think the desperation for some to be seen as better off is at times deliberate. Advising someone to get a cleaner when they have said money is tight and time is short. Or the lectures on buy better to last longer it’s worth spending five times as much in the end

But then I feel some are happy in a bubble they are aware they just don’t really care. The moaning of being hard up at ds prep school was competitive and
shameful. To admit you have privilege was not to be acknowledged. Our kids were all super intelligent which is utter bollocks. I’ve seen this attitude on MN too.

Also 'the poor' implies that poverty is a quality attributable to the person and has connotations of 'the deserving poor' and 'the undeserving poor'. Using the term 'people living in poverty' highlights the fact that poverty is a circumstance under which someone is living, rather than an attribute of the person.

The language that people use matters immensely.

First world problems applies to everyone in the UK. We have a benefit system and free health care. Being poor in the UK is not the equivalent of poor elsewhere.
I agree with OP it does piss me off when perfectly reasonable questions get responses like your are tone dead or even accuse you of lying. Not sure a middle class thread is needed though - just needs people to scroll past things that aren't relevant to them

@mrsmolks

First world problems applies to everyone in the UK. We have a benefit system and free health care. Being poor in the UK is not the equivalent of poor elsewhere. I agree with OP it does piss me off when perfectly reasonable questions get responses like your are tone dead or even accuse you of lying. Not sure a middle class thread is needed though - just needs people to scroll past things that aren't relevant to them

Not quite. Not any more.

We do actually have people starving and freezing to death in the UK now because the welfare state no longer covers housing plus minimal living expenses. Courtesy of the Tory/coalition “reforms”.

@Porcupineintherough

Because quinoa is tasteless, joyless and doesn't fill you up

And rice? You could say the same, is that middle class too? And how can something that's basically carbs and protein not fill you up? As for tasteless, its the venue not the occasion.

I was going to read the full thread but I got stuck here. Rice is delicious. So satisfying. I know it’s high GI but I just want to eat more and more of it! Rice is nothing like quinoa

Re the topic, I would just post on whichever forum I identified with at the time . Of course that’s a joke as everyone would continue to post in AIBU so it would be irrelevant.

We are one of the greatest nations of earth

We have hard-working people who are still unable to make ends meet unless they use food banks.
We have sick and disabled people committing suicide because their already-inadequate support is being slashed.
We have people able to either eat themselves or feed their children, not both.
We have people forced to choose between heating and eating.
We have (thanks to the canker that is Universal Credit) people who have worked hard and paid into the system all their lives being entitled to nothing if they happen to lose their jobs, just because their partner happens to earn over x amount.
We have people freezing to death on the streets because of inadequate mental health provisions.
Meanwhile those up top continue to coin it in and are completely unaffected.

I'd be interested to hear your definition of great, @Xenia.

@Xenia

We are one of the greatest nations of earth and Labour has not won an election since 2005 because its policies are not very good.

Can you just break down 'greatest' for us? I wouldn't want to agree or disagree before I know what you mean.

@lemongreentea

Yes

Middle class section
Working class section
Lower class section

And an upper class section that is password protected.

😂