To consider myself working class?

[TheCatsKnickers]

I'm fully aware that it doesn't matter, but for the sake of argument - basically an ongoing debate with friend who insists I am middle class - which of us would be correct?

My background:
Dad probs upper working, good job but no higher education, bought our house and subsequent houses without mortgage. Mum from educated family but was SAHM. Grew up in MC area and schools, kept horses but more rough and tumble than 'posh'. Had a few years off too travel and have fun in late teens largely funded by parents, then went to uni late and studied fine art.
This, according to my friend cements me as MC.

The present day:
Followed my passion and became a painter. Didn't want to marry or have children so chose to rent. Preferred this as could move around and experience different places. Bit of a free spirit, but had to accept some financial insecurity for the pleasure! Am now in 40's and still similar, very content with long term DP but, I presume, not typical for many my age.
I have a decent 5 figure sum in savings although we received only a smallish inheritance due to both parents needing care in old age (they had also given their second property to an aunt and uncle who developed health issues in later life).
My income is somewhat fluid and would possibly terrify some, but I have intermittently earned very, very well and often receive high payments for my work (anywhere from £200 to £1k per commission or piece), but some months are quite the opposite.
So my lifestyle is not standard and has some financial insecurity, but I made my own choices.
Therefore, since I don't own a home or have a private pension I perceive my status to be 'working class', regardless of my background privileges and lifestyle. My friend argues not!

Which of us is correct?

You are middle class but want to be seen as WC. Why?

I think your dad became upper MC once he started being able to buy houses without mortgages.

WC are having trouble getting the social housing once available and face homelessness in some areas and ridiculous private rent. Not sure that describes you nor does your occupation.

All the starving poets are middle class. It's the bohemian skipping over the social fabric in the kind of play which is only comfortable when you have enough financial, social and cultural capital to engineer another path in haste.

So many of these weird class threads the last few days. What's going on? Why does it even matter? It's all completely arbitrary.

Don't be daft, my background is very humble compared to the 'common people' example, christ no!
My dad was a true Yorkshire man who would not speak out of dialect, He sold fancy cheese. We were not quite the London set
I am talking very, very bog standard MC here. Friends went on to teach or work in NHS etc, we are not trust fund babies.

I suppose I am in the new precariat tribe, concerning my income.

No, i don't wish to be any of them, I would prefer a world without them tbh, but for the sake of argument I do hear MC is defined as owning property.

Are you actually having to ask? Not that it matters but your definitely middle class, the fact your a painter (and not the decorating kind) also cements this. Your upbringing confirms this also

Wouldn't "trust find babies" be upper class? If you give any credence to such concepts having any meaning anymore, which they clearly don't.

Why do you even care? What a strange conversation to have with a friend. I can't remember ever discussing what "class" we each other or ourselves are with a friend, ever.

What difference does it make to your life, either way?

I admit my background was fairly MC but I know lots of WC artists. My DP is a WC artist.

Yes you are middle class by default , I mean you probably know that but like your perceived working classness!

Absolutely MC. Working class typically don't have the luxury of choosing to paint rather than work for a living.

I don't think it is strange to talk about such stuff, we had been reading about home ownership and british culture. It isn't life or death is it?

I mean if you are a painter and decorating and throwing up wallpaper then you can say your middle class.

You’re not working class. You’re middle class in reduced circumstances due to your own choices that were not made under economic duress.

Owning property is becoming a question of age rather than class. Plenty of middle class 30 and 40 somethings without a foot on the property ladder these days.

Also, I think, in a British context, it's almost impossible to become working class from an educated middle class background. Your parents owned Two Houses! Coming from Yorkshire doesn't preclude you from being middle class!

Oops working class

So, if i get a job in a shop or cafe to supplement my income, am I then WC by your standards? I have no concrete assets and a shrinking amount of the liquid sort!

this is likely the case.

Yep I agree with your friend.

I had to google precariat! That’s not a very working class word to use.

I used to think I was working class until it was pointed out I was university educated and brought up in a detached house. My mum was very proud of her working class roots which probably rubbed off on me.

I grew up on a council estate. My parents worked in a factory and a shop. We couldn’t afford a phone, never mind a car. We had free school meals & uniform vouchers. If there had been such a thing as UC, we would have been entitled to it. If there had been such things as food banks, we would have used them.

We didn’t have ponies, obviously, nor did anyone else on our estate. My parents couldn’t afford to pay for a day out at Alton Towers, never mind funding “a few years off too travel and have fun in late teens”.

You, OP, are very definitely middle class and it is ridiculous for you to suggest otherwise. Believe me, I know what I’m talking about.

Working class normally means working a full time job for a minimum or low wage. I'm from a very proud working class family and they would tell me to get a real job if I said I was going o become a painter, go o art school etc. I never had the choice to do anything like that and have worked my ass off since leaving school (no one I grew up went to uni) to build a successful career. My definition I am probably now MC but I can't admit tha to my mother

But you are choosing to be 'precatiat'. With a degree you could presumably have found some sort of "proper" job where your income would be stable.

Selling fancy cheese. Is he Alex James?

I've got a similar background, minus the horses, second properties and I funded my own travels. I was also a painter, and have a fine art degree. I'd say I'm lower middle class.

And being an artist absolutely is work. It's not a 'luxury hobby job' (unless you have a DP propping you up financially and you aren't actually making any money). I found being an artist as hard or harder than many of the other jobs I have done.

Never mind what class you are, you are spectacularly self-absorbed. 'This Sunday evening, let's talk all about ME!'

I think i have always seen 'class' as culture - social groups who are similar in behaviour and beliefs, as opposed to capital. Still, the media seems to focus on property ownership so I thought i possibly existed in the WC category now.

I am aware that most WC people around me are high earners. I have been called a pillock for becoming a painter by more than a few in my home town, so there are definitely differences in how we perceive 'work'.

Your parents were also mc, buying a house without a mortgage is almost uc and owning businesses puts you up the ladder quite high mc. Your lifestyle is totally mc and literally uminaginable to wc. In fact your teenage lifestyle is more like lower uc.