To ask what makes you middle class?

[Wantobeareader]

I am not from the UK so not very familiar with these class definitions (which personally I cannot stand) but I am curious to understand what people mean with MC. I thought it was a term referred to the fairly wealthy but apparently lots of people and incomes seem to fall into that categories.
So, how would you define Middle Class? Feel free to type a description of a typical MC person you can think of :)

University educated, professional salaried career, higher than UK average income, homeowner, cultural pursuits and interests.

I am all of these but I’m still working class!

I agree!

University educated, plus a Masters-as has DH. I earn £48k, he earns £60k+, own home (mortgage paid off), enjoy history, museums, galleries, theatre/cinema/reading but would still say working class!

According to the bbc questionnaire what took me into the 'elite' (wtf) was my membership of the royal opera house

@Screamingabdabz @Redlocks28 That doesn’t stop someone defining you as MC though. How do you define working class?

And is it self defined or more likely by met criteria regardless of how someone defines themselves?

It's complicated i think. My DS is all of those things, and very much working class. I guess because me and DH are. Neither of us are uni educated, but we own our home (no mortgage) in London. Average salaries.

It's more a mindset than a checklist. If you're at the point of analysing whether you're middle class and you have strong feelings either way, then you're probably middle class already.

I'm university educated, have a wide variety of interests, take note of current affairs, read, have a large group of mainly middle class friends, have very middle class parents and own a house with no mortgage.

I am however disabled and firmly a member of the underclass.

National Trust membership (aka Middle Class tax)
Shop in Waitrose and John Lewis
watched BBC not ITV (growing up)

Why, though?

Middle class or aspiring MC if you instruct visitors to remove their shoes in your home. Lower/working/upper class just want visitors to be comfortable.

For me, if you need to work for "the man" and earn a wage you'll always be WC ).

From some of these responses, I’m wondering what is lower than working class? Does this mean I’m poor?

University educated to masters level, a professional job, have interests as listed above, but don’t own my own home, never been abroad and I earn under the average salary (I’m new to teaching).

My parents described themselves as ‘poor as church mice.’ I didn’t get any help from them to put money towards uni fees, or a deposit for a house or any savings for anything. They gave me nothing in that sense. I always thought I was working class but if PP are anything to go by, I must be poor.

There is a great amount of inverse snobbery where people will be middle class because they have done well for themselves, but refuse to admit to it and cling onto the idea they are working class, despite driving a Jag, living in a big detached house and earning a fortune in a professional role. John Prescott I’m looking at you My Lord.

I’m middle class but DH and I earn below average. It’s not an income thing but an identity thing. Generally homeowners though.

Agree with the mindset thing. I'm MC, my parents grew up WC but did well to give us more than what they had.

I'm not rich by any means and have money worries, debts etc. But mostly the worries are around the nice to haves.

I do not and have never worried about bills being paid, being able to afford food etc. If we lost our jobs we have the safety net of our families to financially step in.

I assume the same cannot be assumed for all WC people.

I don’t actually think it is about money these days. Some of the most middle class people drive around in a battered old Volvo with a dog blanket but can hold a good conversation about Anna Karenina and other classic literature. It’s the cultural capital again.

Interesting to hear is more about identity. But surely income, education and job also play a part?

What is a typical working class behaviour/lifestyle then?
I work in a mid management role in marketing in London, still renting in our 40s but hopefully will buy a small home soon, DC will go to state school (now full time in nursery) we drive an old car. Are we WC?
We both have masters degrees, speak a second language, are well travelled, enjoy fitness and cultural activities and DC will soon start gymnastics and maybe another club too. Where should we place ourselves in this system?
I am French btw

Also agree re cultural capital. My WC cousins and I have very little in common and spend our free time extremely differently, want different holidays, prioritise different things.

I know someone who meets the uni educated homeowner etc etc criteria yet is rough as toast, swears like a trooper, vulgar and dirty. My best friend is a cleaner, beautiful and well presented at all times soft spoken and graceful. Oozes class yet is as poor as a church mouse and so was her upbringing. She just has an air about her. It’s hard to define I guess to put folk into boxes.

The ability to say things like Did you mean to be so rude? while doing a Paddington hard stare, head tilting and then gliding away with a tinkly laugh.

Yes you're WC.

Having parents and grandparents who are privately and/or university educated. Never having gone on a package holiday to a resort. Watching TV shows with subtitles. Doing Scottish things when you are not Scottish, e.g. calling your son Angus, going to Scotland on holiday in August, knowing the Gay Gordons. If Scottish, speaking the Glasgow Uni accent.

It's a bit of an old fashioned question OP - to be honest things have changed so much in society in the last 20 years the old "markers" are not really in play any more. Influencers for example appear to be Upper or Upper Middle, but rarely are. Many Working Class born have worked up to Middle - own their own house and don't rely on benefits - but would never want to say they are Middle Class. Councils put their housing stock of council houses on the market which opened up home ownership to many but has left little for younger generations who need homing and welfare, so now we have a situation where a generation may not ever get on the housing market at all. Middle Classes are usually educated, cultured, working (or have inherited money) and like certain rules such as not calling napkins serviettes or loos toilets. Upper Classes are nobility or gentry - with titles and sprawling mansions/castles in various parts of the country and abroad.

Yeah, I can't do any of those, so defo WC😅

This might help:

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/middle-class#