What makes someone middle class?

[lilibet]

Just had a conversation with a mate and a mutual freind has described themselves as middle class.

He works in a shop for a living, his parents work for a living, to me he is therefore working class.

I appreciate that a brain surgeon is obvioulsy a bit higher up the social strata than me ( I work in finance in the NHS), but to me if you have to work for a living you are working class.

Thoughts and opinions?

why does it matter?

I'm not british and this class thing comes up time and time again!

? Doesn't everybody except people with trust funds have to work for a living? The thing that I would have difficulty defining nowadays is working class.

lilibet I am like you, I consider myself working class and so does my husband. By the socio economic table my husband is middle class though and I must be a hanger on I do a working class 'job' (even though I am a manager, hehe) and am a part time student.

dh background was working class, council house (his parents bought) dad worked down pit, mother at factory

mine were mum a housewife and carer(used to be head cook0 and dad worked for british telecom and then ran his own business and now has millions (del boy eat your heart out)

but we were both state educated and dh has got a degree and career in a professional feild and is doing an MSc. We have some money in property, two cars etc but are very much working class and always will be

So is it jsut a money thing or is it an attitude to life that makes you consider yourself to be middle class?

Hana, I don't know why it matters but to some people it really does!

it is outdated mode of "I am better than you"

load of bollox imo

No - most middle class people also have to wrok for a living. If you don't have to work for a living, then you are probably landed gentry and therefroe upper middle class.

It's somewhat dated now, as "class" today seems to be more to do with aspirations and epxectations, but "middle class" used to be more to do with the professions and being comfortably well off, porbably home owners while "working" class was more blue collar/manual work (yes, and probably included working in a shop! ) and without much income and probably renting.

Those are very much borad brush generalisations!

In many cases, a "middle class" family porbably had less disposable income than a "working class" one, as they had mortgaged themselves up to the hilt in order to buy a house/send children to private schools/have fancy holidays!

Now everyone wants to own their homes and we all go aborad for our holidays!

For the record, I owuld consider myslef to have been brought up "middle class" - my dad's a doctor and my mum's a teacher, but when I was young, we really struggled for money as they were students paying thier own way. My dad had been a farmer, so did have some money from selling that.

My dh would probably say he was from working class stock - his dad was a BT engineer and his mum was a primary school head teacher.

What was probably more signficiant in our perceptions of relative class was where we were brought up: I was brought up in a middle class (snobbish) suburb and dh was brought up in a much "poorer" (in money terms) environemnt - although it was probably far richer in terms of sense of community.

I'm amused this is to be found right under the "hourly rate for a cleaner" thread.

See also:
"Farrow & Ball: which shade should I choose?"
"Should I take my nanny on holiday?"
and
"Olives in Cressida's lunchbox: green or black?"

does amy one really care(boring)

some people do twoshoes

as they like themselves to think they are a

cut above the rest of us

some pople must do to describe themselves as 'middle class'

oi your pair

and people do care, however much it fucks off me and lilibet

There are now three classes

1. Posh people
2. People
3. Chavs (and other derogatory terms)

that's sorted then lilymaid

On a similar thread, someone once posted as a definition of middle class: 'Expensive food with a cheap Ikea table to eat it off.' I like that - it sums us up as well
I consider myself middle class, dh considers himself working class and is the most appalling inverted snob.

I think there are also very posh people

knew you would like that one fio

Haha - this is something dh and argue about sometimes! He believes he comes from a middle-class background (NZ is not a classless society, whatever they might try to tell you) I disagree (sort of)

Agree with prettybird, a lot of it is about aspirations & expectation these days. And probably has been for many years. Home-ownership is a big factor for more people now as to whether they consider themselves working or middle class - an ideal encouraged by John Major, and Thatcher before him. And education obviously.

It's too big a subject for me to respond to adequately right now!

this link gives you the classes as used by advertisers and others to divide up the population

it reminds me of that ronnie barker sketch, i look down on the working class because i am middle class etc

Good link. What does it all really mean, though? What's "higher" managerial? Can you be higher managerial if you're the one in charge in a company of three people? Where does that leave me (self-employed freelancer with a DW who's a head of faculty)?

I have absolutely no class!
Must go wipe bogie of sleeve!

if you sit on your bum at work you're middle class, if you do a manual job you're working class and if you sit on a horse you're upper class. there

didn't we have this discussion a while ago?

where does that leave fork-lift truck drivers, S.E.A?

If you care about class you are middle class. No-one else gives a toss....