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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Hating the middle/upper classes

270 replies

Ryoko · 31/03/2010 16:34

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 posts:
junglist1 · 31/03/2010 19:52

They have, they just don't put it in those terms. Soon, on this thread, the real prejudice will come out as fuckers people get wound up. I've been on the recieving end of it on here many a time. Twice actually

brogan2 · 31/03/2010 19:52

Not wanting to send your child to a sink comp is a different issue from assuming everyone on a council estate is a benefit scrounger.

I would imagine most decent families who live on council estates don't want their kids going to sink comps either.

popsycal · 31/03/2010 19:53

very narrow minded
very

I went to uni
my mam was a cleaner andmy dad worked in the ship yards. we lived obn a council estate
I worked for a year bedofre uni and during every summer to pay for it. I have had a job since I was 14. Ditto my DH.

We are both 'working class' by upbringing. Dh is currently claiming benefits as he was made redundant and would LOVE to work and is 'clogging up the work market' because he can't even get a job flipping burgers.

I have been a teacher for 13 years. You said:

'It's very easy for people to say go to uni to better yourself but your missing the point again, you need money to do that, how do you get money if you can't find a job, family has no assets and you rely on JSA? '

My family had no assets, no job (my dad was made redundant in my final yearof A levels). So I worked to get as much money as I could. It can be done if you want it enough

Not sure where you would 'categorise'. But I really don't see what your point is - there is good and bad in all walks of life.

tartyhighheels · 31/03/2010 19:54

Agree with brogan2 re. the schools

usualsuspect · 31/03/2010 19:54

Well my Dcs all went to the local comp ...and very good it was too...

SueSylvester · 31/03/2010 19:55

Sounds like you have a chip on each shoulder junglist.

brogan2 · 31/03/2010 19:56

Well, local comp does not always equal sink comp regardless of where it is.

Hulababy · 31/03/2010 19:56

But junglist - are you not being just as judgemental and discriminating as the people you are complaining about?

Why can't you just see people as individuals and judge them individually for their own merits, rather than being anti a whole segment of society?

As I said before, there are good and not god people in ALL walks of life after all.

junglist1 · 31/03/2010 19:56

I'm off, this is civilised at the mo but can't be arsed with any gasket blowing later

usualsuspect · 31/03/2010 19:57

I'm off too ...gonna watch my plasma tv

junglist1 · 31/03/2010 19:58

I do, Hula. I judge on personality and how I'm treated. Before when things were more difficult I was a right bitch

Hulababy · 31/03/2010 20:00

I also went to university from living in a coucil estate. My dad did work, factory work and at times on 3 day weeks due to the ecominy at the time. But there was no extra money for paying for university, etc. Instead I got a grant, and I worked every single holiday to ensure I had living expenses. My brother did the same. 10 years later my sister also did, although financially things for my parents were way stronger. Buts he still worked and paid her way.

It is definitely possible to move from a council estate and go onto further ed.

Even wth these days of fees (which my sister was subject too) it is still very possible. Not easy, but definitely possible IME.

scottishmummy · 31/03/2010 20:11

grew up in scheme,went to uni.we had sweet fa. and had no parental financial contribution.apart from occasional fiver shuved in my hand.what i did get was their love and robust work ethic

nighbynight · 31/03/2010 20:49

YANBU to resent teh upper classes. I wouldnt bother to waste the energy on hating them.

I live in Germany, and one of the reasons is that the community is really important here. Example: as a single mother of many children, and not earning LLLLL in the city, I can afford to work. I can live somewhere nice.
Britain, in comparison, is run by the rich for the rich, but most of you cant see it, bevcause you're inside it.

They dont hate us, in the same way that the farmer doesnt hate his chickens. They need us peasants to stay right where we are to maintain their lifestyle at the top of the heap. They dont care either if we f*k off, because life in Britain is so crap - they just replace us with some mug from somewhere else.

OrmRenewed · 31/03/2010 21:39

There are 2 degrees in this house. Where are our horses? DD would love us forever.

Mind you they'd have to sleep in her bedroom.

IsThatTheTime · 31/03/2010 21:48

Just for the record, can someone pls define what makes a person working class, middle class, upper class etc? Surely class is an outdated notion, and it's all about money (i.e. how you get it and what you spend it on) these days?

(genuinely interested to hear what people say ... but standing back nervously anyway ...)

junglist1 · 31/03/2010 21:57

Ooh didn't see that till now Sylvester. Bit short on time so just

SueSylvester · 31/03/2010 22:01

Not that short on time, clearly.

cheesefarmer · 31/03/2010 22:01

ITTT I remember doing the 'classes' in modern studies in school and it was based upon occupation. I'll try to find the table.

To the OP - you asked how people go to university if they don't have money... well they have to get the right grades in school, apply for uni, apply for student loan (they will get maximum loan as it is means tested (well it is in scotland, I presume same in england?), and then they can also get a part time job. It is totally possible.

junglist1 · 31/03/2010 22:03

I don't think it's about money or even education, but values. For example, I'll be doing a doctorate in the near future but most of my friends are mums on benefits, and I don't have a word to say on that. Doesn't bother me in the least. My values are accepting people for who they are not what they earn or whether they drop haitches or not.

junglist1 · 31/03/2010 22:04
Angry
Phrenology · 31/03/2010 22:04

Work is hard to find (1 in 3 people in London is unemployed)

Are unemployed dear, are

nannynick · 31/03/2010 22:07

IsThatTheTime - I'm interested in an answer to that question as well.

You can't really determine class very easily...

Job wise, I'm a domestic servant.
Yet, I own my own property (well the bank owns it really, I just pay the mortgage and may own it in about 20 years time).
I go to a private gym/health club.

nannynick · 31/03/2010 22:10

Some info on Social Class - from BBC Bitesize: Modern Studies

brogan2 · 31/03/2010 22:13

But is it job?

So what do we call the affluent middle aged woman who works part time as a teaching assistant in her local primary school. Her husbands works in the City and her kids are at private school but she earns 9kpa. Do her job and her salary make her working class or does her home and financial circumstances make her middle class.

You cannot just use jobs as a yard stick.