Working, middle, upper

[flandango]

Got into a debate today as to social standing with two different views on each catagory.

What would you define each of the catagories as?

If you got a spare 5mins thats great...I know a lot of people don't give a sh#t but it is purely to help resolve an argument.

Lee

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Working class in that I have to work to pay for everything with middle class undertones as I'm a member of a private club, own my own house (mortgage) and car etc

To be honest I don't really buy into it. Some of my best mates down the local are manual labourers and as common as they come but are like princes to me. Its all relative

 

[Herbie]

I dont buy into it either,days gone by used as a forceful and powerful tool to keep a status quo with the masses, to me,today they are simply words created to define position/status in the authors mind and those who have problems with their identity or individuality buy into it. If anyone has to define their position or anyone elses using this formula, they will probably be both cap doffer and eliteist combined, or a very very submissive and humble charactor.

For the best definition ever see....

John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and ronnie Corbet.

 

[Basher]

I'm working class, and to quote the John Cleese, Ronnie Barker, and Ronnie Corbett sketch "I know my place".

It's on the same level as everyone else!

I have respect for most and bow to none.

I don't believe there's as much of a class system these days, not up in the north anyway. Not sure if it goes on down in our prestigious capital city.
I work bloody hard for a living, own my house (mortgage) and car. I enjoy a better standard of living than my father did. I hope my kids have likewise.

We're all Pawns!

 

[haplesshacker]

There are wealthy folks, who are very 'common'.

There are less well off folks, that have intilect.

And there are folks in the middle that have either.

Class is not about breeding, money or job title. It's about an attitude.

Class still exists, whether you buy into it or not. We may not like it, but it is still prevelent in our attitudes to others. The boundries are just more blurred than they used to be.

No longer is the mechanic at the garage looked down upon because he's a grease monkey, he probably earns a damn sight more than I do (certainly at the moment!), and probably is a full member of the swanky golf club up the road because he can afford to be.

Lets face it, the average football supporter probably thinks we're rich gits for playing golf. Until they realize that following their team probably costs them more than my golf costs me.

Times have changed, but it still exists. Just in a different format.

Controvertial, I know.

 

[madandra]

I was born into the working class and no matter what comes my way I will always be working class. I know people who grew up in the same street as me and to listen to them you would think they had just come from the poshest parts of England and they have spent all their lives in Scotland. Class is just a facade that gullible people fall for.

 

[Herbie]

Well it used to be Upper, middle and lower. Working class was another invention introduced in another era by which people could identify themselves without feeling inferior or superior, again a word for the masses.

Although most of us have had to live through the pigeon holing society has to offer, I myself accept when I have to for my own gain but as far as I have always been concerned, I am what I am, have done what Ive done, achieved what Ive achieved and never needed a placement label, nor accepted one.

 

[Atticus_Finch]

The lines between the classes may have blurred a little over the years, but the underclass is still going strong and growing...... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3555606.ece
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/merseyside/7176471.stm
I find it Shameful that this class is celebrated by certain sections of the media and at times worn as a badge of honour.

 

[Smiffy]

Working class me, but not without the ability to move up the one notch if the need/situation requires me to..

Dragged up on a council estate (seven of us) and made the most of what we had (which was bugger all).
Eldest brother though...there's a different story. Got ideas above his station and moved up a class (he would say two) permanently. Complete and utter snob, moved down the West Country some 10 or so years ago, I have no idea where he lives, and have absolutely no intention of ever finding out. Don't even know his phone number.

 

[SS2]

Flandango, you could argue that the three classes no longer exist. "Socio-economic classifications": that's what society & advertisers & others use now instead of upper/middle/lower.

Here's a link:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/7655347/New-SEC

Basically, it's a grid of education v job.

 

[USER1999]

Surely the whole thing with middle classes is aspirations to home ownership. Once you own a house, you can't be working class anymore. You may have been, but now not so.

It is all tosh anyway. Who cares?

 

[dangermouse]

Its easy to define what class you are. When you get home from work tonight, what meal will you eat?

Working class people will have their tea
Middle class will have dinner
Upper class will have supper

It's tea all the way for me! (Although by other factors, I would probably be classed as "middle")

Alternatively, I've always thought that a working class person is one who has worked for everything he has (be it sod all or a £10m mansion), middle class will have been given a fair bit as a result of their parent's labours, and the upper class will have most of all, but noone in the family has much of a clue how they came to acquire any of it!

 

[Parmo]

I am working class and proud, I own my ex council house but that doesnt make me middle class, both me and my wife work hard and drink at the local dump and are members of a council course.

 

[USER1999]

Whether you have tea, dinner or supper depends on the time, or geographical location, not what class you are.

Meals go:
Breakfast
Elevensies
Lunch
Tea
Dinner
Supper

Only if you are greedy though.

However, tea, dinner and supper get confused the further north you go.

 

[Dave3498]

It's whatever you were born into. If you were born working class, as I was, then you are working class for the rest of your life. Put simply, if you have to go to work for pay in order to sustain a reasonable life style, then you are working class. Whether you work as a labourer or an accountant doesn't matter. If you are of the working class and win the lottery and no longer have to work for your living, then you are simply someone of working class with money.

There isn't a middle class. That is something that has been put about for working class people to aspire to when the get to own the factory that they used to work for.

Upper class is composed of the landed gentry, hereditary peers and royalty. These people have never had to work nor worry about money. If they fritter away all their inherited wealth to point where they have to work for a living, then they are still upper class, but without money.

I wish I was upper class - with money.

 

[Basher]

Whether you have tea, dinner or supper depends on the time, or geographical location, not what class you are.

Meals go:
Breakfast
Elevensies
Lunch
Tea
Dinner
Supper

Only if you are greedy though.

However, tea, dinner and supper get confused the further north you go.

You're quite right.

Wake up and have my Breakfast , don't have anything mid morning and build up an appetite for my dinner. Go right through then till around 5 ish when I have my tea. If I get a bit peckish during the evening then I'll have a bit of supper

I presume vig, Parmo etc do likewise!

 

[Herbie]

It's whatever you were born into. If you were born working class, as I was, then you are working class for the rest of your life. Put simply, if you have to go to work for pay in order to sustain a reasonable life style, then you are working class. Whether you work as a labourer or an accountant doesn't matter. If you are of the working class and win the lottery and no longer have to work for your living, then you are simply someone of working class with money.

I think you will find that you are BORN regardless of your parents belief in status, what you do when you reach a certain age of self awareness is down to you, you make the choices of your destiny for the bulk of your life, if you choose to carry a lable or title referring to a class, then that is your choice, in the same way its your choice to follow your peers/parents or influence of someone in the media.You are who you are, pronouncing pride in membership of a class is as easy as announcing your preference to boiled potatoes over chips.

 

[viscount17]

there was a class system and it worked on the basis of who you owed fealty to,
at the top was the crown, at the bottom the serf.
somewhere near the upper was the church who had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

as times went on and the system changed it was the political parties (or certain of them) who had a vested interest in maintaining the class system.

now, sort mine out,

somewhere back in time the family held a castle in the Welsh marches; step forward in time an ancestor is a watchmaker; come forward a bit more and we have a farm labourer marrying a girl in service; a bit more and dad's a bus conductor (and very nearly a pro footballer), I've a brother who did a print apprenticeship, another who was an RAF officer, and me RN Artificer.

you are what you want to be.

 

[nabbit]

Used to go to classes,now i'm just:
Working-hard
Middle-of the road
Upper-creek without a paddle.
Just love this financial climate,pretty soon we'll all be equals as we'll all be broke!

 

[Herbie]

there was a class system and it worked on the basis of who you owed fealty to,
at the top was the crown, at the bottom the serf.
somewhere near the upper was the church who had a vested interest in maintaining the status quo.

as times went on and the system changed it was the political parties (or certain of them) who had a vested interest in maintaining the class system.

now, sort mine out,

somewhere back in time the family held a castle in the Welsh marches; step forward in time an ancestor is a watchmaker; come forward a bit more and we have a farm labourer marrying a girl in service; a bit more and dad's a bus conductor (and very nearly a pro footballer), I've a brother who did a print apprenticeship, another who was an RAF officer, and me RN Artificer.

you are what you want to be.

Your buggered viscount, you'll never work that one out.