Hating the middle/upper classes

[Ryoko]

I was brought up on a council estate, my dad worked full time, we got some benefits.

Work is hard to find (1 in 3 people in London is unemployed) the unskilled can't even get a job flipping burgers because the Uni educated are clogging up the jobs market.

Is it wrong for me to hate the upper/middle classes?

I live in a private rented accommodation now with my other half, we both work full time
and we will need state help to pay for the baby to go to nursery or to support me to stay at home.

All I hear from the middle/upper class is insults aimed at those on benefits or in council housing or just plain working class, calling us all scroungers, work shy, underclass etc, they seem convinced that living on benefits is great the poor are poor because they are lazy and are sponging off of them and that the poor should not be allowed to have kids if they need help from the tax payer to bring them up.

while moaning about how there tax money is given to the underclass they don't bat an eyelid at running multiple cars, jetting off on holidays, think that owning a home is a right not a privilege and spend obscene amounts of money on fashion, gadgets and the like.

Am I wrong to hate them as much as they hate us?

Do the middle / upper class no longer see the working class as the salt of the earth people because political correctness has stopped them blaming societies ills on other groups so the poor working class is the last easy target for them?.

OP, I hope you can see that it was your sweeping generalisations and stereotyping that got peoples backs up.

Ryoko, you say you are a games tester. How did you get the job? What qualifications do you need to test games? Sounds perfect for my DS!

Anyway working class people WORK, the underclass sit around on their fat lazy arses all day chain smoking and drinking beer for-- breakfast claim benefits.

And you seem to think that there is no point in getting a degree, because so many people have a degree you won't be able to get a decent job anyway, but you also seem to think that someone with a degree will be offered a job flipping burgers over somone with no qualifications. So that tells me it must be worth getting a degree, to gain a job filpping burgers, rather than no degree and no job at all.

This is a pile of shite - based on your own horrible prejudice. Yea i am sure if we all look hard enough we can find these people who hate others who are different but you are one of them too.

I am the first person in my family to even finish school, brought up in a council house and left school and started work at 16 - went to uni (funded by me and not my parents) and have a good degree - h has a degree and a masters and commutes into london to do a pretty great job, we have a biggish income, i own two rental properties (which i financed doing cleaning jobs) that i only rent to families on benefits, me and h have big expensive to run cars, we have a holiday home which is a pure indulgence and we pay a lot of tax and save as much as we can. I employ a couple of people casually for cash to help them and myself.

I imagine that we are on paper incredibly middle class, funnily enough my mum always had horses but we didn't have any money when i was growing up - my dad was unskilled and my mum a nursing auxilliary. My nan is 85, worked since she was 14 and has nothing at all to her name - not even enough to bury her when she dies.

I genuinely resent the position you have taken - i see myself as incredibly fortunate, i have, as a single mummy lived completely hand to mouth and in incredible debt but i did cash in hand cleaning (even when i had a degree) to make ends meet - i have no pride whatsoever when it comes to working hard. i am more than happy to pay a lot of tax as we live in a society and that is make up of all kinds of people. Some of those are twats who piss all their benefits up the wall and could not make a good decision if their lives depended on it, some people cannot work because of disabilites (2 of my children get dla and one will for the rest of her life)- whatever peoples reasons are for claiming benefits or living on a low income it is not for me to judge and i am incredibly happy to contribute as i have so much.

You seem like a fairly inteliigent person and frankly the chip on your shoulder is obscuring your view of the world.

Some would argue that its actually ok to look down on benefit for lifers who don't want a minimum wage job, when you work hard for what little you have.
Plenty on here would argue that that is a "stereotyep" tahat doesnt exist, but we all know thats not true.

John Prescott is obviously working class because he has a northern accent.

Well said, tartyhighheels!

TBH, from my own experience, you can also turn this whole arguement around and say that the MC (and probaly UC, although no none of them!) get lots of grief from WC people too - if you really do need to make geenralisations.

You place a child from a private school, wearing an obviously pirvate school uniform, on a bus and let them travel into town. That child will hear negative comments about being posh, up themselves, stick up, etc. And those comments will come from those who probably know nothing whatsoever about that child, the parent nor the school involved. And the child will hear such comments aimed towards them from adults, not just children too. Is this ok, because it is vice versa?

BUT this is just ignorant individuals. There are ignorant individuals in all walks of life.

For many people a minimum wage job means being worse off than on benefits. People want more not less for their children

John Prescott is a class of his own "pie eating class"

Some would argue that not all people who live on council estates are unemployed scroungers ....but that generalisation seems to be more apparent on mn then anywhere else I know

ooh and i vote labour but i would send my dc's to public school if i could afford it... confused as i like pies but speak posh

If you could provide a link to where anyone ay anytime had said that all people on council estates are unemployed scroungers, I think we'd all appreciate it.

No? Big surprise there.

Yeah lets go to work and live in a cardboard box because we won't be able to afford our rent. As long as we don't drain "the taxpayer"

I come from a long line of cleaners, postmen, factory workers etc, am I working class?

But my parents went to night classes, got office jobs and bought a house, so does that make me middle class then?

I went to uni, so more middle classness there. Although I lived on a grant and pt job, but then clearly that was wrong of me as I was taking a job away from an unskilled person who needed it more.

But then again I live in a council flat, so I must be scum.

Oh and I lived on benefits for 5 years (so scum), and during that time did a postgrad course (so snobby DM reader).

Someone please tell me what class I am so I know who I should be hating. Maybe I should be hating myself?

you want vinegar with that chip on your shoulder

has middle class been substituted for i hate the working class would that have sat comfortably with you

hatred and jealousy are toxic and will churn you up

use your ire and passion in a channelled positive manner.rather than hating someone just because you envy their lifestyle/consumer durables

Nobody has ever put it like that. But some people on here discriminate against benefit claimants AND their children, saying they are too shit for Christmas presents etc and don't need any

I've lost count of the number of times posters have said I don't want my kids going to the local sink comp..bah blah blah ..not all posters given but some have a very blinkered view of social housing

bananaketchup - i will hate you if you hate me?

you would be doing me a favour tbh

FIL grew up in abject poverty (Scotland) his dad was blind and deaf and his mum a cleaner and left school with no qualifications when he was 15yrs. 20 yrs later and 3 DCs he worked full time as a chef and did an OU degree and became a lecturer. So what class is he?

If you want to improve/enjoy your life stop whining and comparing yourself with everybody. The only person who loses out is you.

The OP is being VU, and shouldn't be biting off the hand that feeds her.

Why did you have a baby you can't afford, OP - that you can only bring up with the help of the middle class taxpayer?

I am a university graduate and became middle class from working class beginnings. DH & I didn't have children until we could afford them, and it wasn't/isn't always easy. We work hard to provide for our children all by ourselves. We don't expect an easy life. Hopefully we have passed that work ethic onto our children.

is ridiculous and unhelpful to hate any group, or blame the hand fate has dealt you (or your own choices) on some chippy view of social stratification

I think most people here are intelligent enough to discriminate between benefit claimants and benefit scroungers. But don't let that get in the way of your stereotyping fun.

That's it. Or I don't want to send Horatio to this friends house because last time the dad had a baseball cap on or something

Usualsuspects, that's just bollocks as well. Nobody has suggested that. Anywhere. At all.