In monetary terms what constitutes 'middle class'?

[Monkeytrousers]

DP thinks it well over 50k a year and that 50k a year is still aspirational middle class.

castles are overrated - drafty, naff and expensive to keep up.

I'm not sure that it is only about income, surely it is about values and aspirations too - It is only in the last couple of generations that people have felt the need to own their own homes, and that has co-incided with the increase of people we would think of as middle classs, as people move up from the working classes who were happy to rent.

MN is obsessed with money and class which in itself is a sign of having none!

I don't know Noddy, Class indicators are hard to spot on MN.

"the struggle of class against class is a what struggle?"

who said that & where & what was the answer?

(did karl ever get his lounge suite?)

What class indicators do you think people notice about someone first?

Political struggle
Karl MArx
No idea where

Dress
Speech/accent/grammar

(but we are safe on hereh, Paula, because they can't hear our American accents)

I don't know, I think I might have typed yall a few times.

Sooooooo.. if being a teacher is one of the factors that is definitive of being middle class.. and I'm part way through my degree (which I am), which is being fully funded by the state (because I'm lower than working class .. I'm benefit claiming "pond scum" (my words! ).. and I'm from a completely working class, and 'worse', social-housing type background.. (as I am) and as is DH (birds of a feather etc...)....

..when, I complete my degree, if I use it to teach (which I may do).. I suddenly and dramtically make an impressive status jump way Up There into the Middle Class Folk do I? Do my working/lower class family, by association, make the jump with me??? (or stay where they are!!)

See... it's just not that simple is it..

Class my lower class arse! People are just people!

No Fio you deluded twit, you are the one with acccent!! When in Rome FGS!

Don't know about money, I thought it was the newpaper you read which defined your class

I remember someone telling me that if you didn't know what class you were in you were almost certainly middle class. So that settles it, accent or not, income irrelevant

I think it depends on what part of the States you are from. In the South its mostly about how well you are or aren't brought up. To be a Lady does not require any money at all. You are either well brought up or white trash, not a lot in between. I think out west its all about money and not much else. In the North East its more about Old money, which family you are from, more similar to what its like here.

has this kicked off yet?

Newspapers are very reliable Class indidcators.

But I only read the Mirror because my Dad buys it and always has! I thinks it's shit (and always have!.. although Sun is worse!).. but fact is, I can't afford a daily paper at all! Nuff said then! [snort]

Is class like Jewishness - descended through the female line?

I'm working class with middle class (but not bourgious) aspirations

...That should just about do it Cod

Its a bit more complicated than that.

what is?

I mean it has a bit to do with Family line, but that could mean everything or it could mean nothing. There are a lot of factors in determing class not just income or family line.

the 'class' system in the US is.

it can vary vastly by region.

People who say haitch aren't...

(People who say arse are, of course )