Do you consider yourself to be a class?

[RedStratocas]

Middle class, my dad is an architect but my mum does **** all thts y we arent upper class and if i was i wudnt be on hxf id be reading a book.

im confused. why would you be reading a book if you were upper class as opposed to middle? books are cheap entertainment for poor people, eh? wouldnt you be watching your in-home movie theater if you were upper class?

[Apple]

I think some of ur evaluations are quite poor. My dad earns A fair bit above average but I don't go to private school and he's not a lawyer or anything. He's a high up manager.

IMO this is it:
Lower: minimum wage/benefits, council housing, old car ect.
Working: factory worker/lower paid city worker, small house/flat
Middle: average (£40,000) to 80-90,000, semi or detached house, nice car, lower manager/small successful business owner
Upper: high paid job (lawyer, politician, banker, successful entrepreneur), big house, £100,000+ expensive car, private school

Kind of agree with that but not so sure in saying a family that has a joint salary of 40k is middle class.

[Inseriousity.]

Working class, no doubt about it.
Like jen said, we're not all fat lazy slobs! Well, I'm a skinny lazy slob but that's not the point.

[flatface]

im confused. why would you be reading a book if you were upper class as opposed to middle? books are cheap entertainment for poor people, eh? wouldnt you be watching your in-home movie theater if you were upper class?

A Middle class person maybe seen as more intellectual and therefore able to absorb themselves into a book opposed to a poor working class person who can't read very well as they've had a bad education. Very generalised and stereotypical but that's most probably how a sociologist would answer your question

[Mathew]

If you have a fair sized detached house in a nice area, prestige car such as a Merc/Jag/BMW then you can be pretty certain that you are middle class. If you don't have that then chances are you are working class, unless you have a big income but still live in a smaller house and have a cheap car which is unlikely.

No it isn't lol. Middle class in England is where you go to a grammar school, very rarely will a middle class child go to a independent/public school. Jobs such as nurses, teachers, computing, lower manager, small business owner etc are professional and skilled professions which are sometimes seen to be quite scarce within our society make up the middle class jobs. Being a high manager (e.g. managing director) of a successful medium/large company would be classed as upper class in our society.

According to you two, then I must be middle class. Detached house, BMW and I go to a Grammar School. My Mum works as a SENCO Officer and my Dad is in a profession. Yet according to Jen, we'd be considered working class, just like majority of everyone here. There are so many differing opinions and guidelines as to how one should decide their "class" - what happens when you only fit certain criteria?

My personal opinion is that of Jens. If your parents work, you're working class. These days, the Middle Class is a misted area in the middle of the two extremes; probably a class thought up by a teenager who didn't want to be considered poor by labelling themself as working.. :rolleyes:

It's a really odd situation and I'm not a fan of the class system myself. Jen has raised some good points about the working class being exploited by the ruling class (exactly what we were discussing in Sociology a couple of days ago!). Oh wow, I sound so Marxist.

[Sharon]

I'd say I'm middle class and I go to a public school :S It was my personal choice.

Why is everyone being stereo typical about this :S My friend goes to my school and shes like proper $$$$$$$$$$ aswell. I didn't even realise till I went to her house.

[Mathew]

I'd say I'm middle class and I go to a public school :S It was my personal choice.

Why is everyone being stereo typical about this :S My friend goes to my school and shes like proper $$$$$$$$$$ aswell. I didn't even realise till I went to her house.

That's the cruel truth about society - stereotypes form the base for our morals, opinions and overall outlook on life in general.

[flatface]

According to you two, then I must be middle class. Detached house, BMW and I go to a Grammar School. My Mum works as a SENCO Officer and my Dad is in a profession. Yet according to Jen, we'd be considered working class, just like majority of everyone here. There are so many differing opinions and guidelines as to how one should decide their "class" - what happens when you only fit certain criteria?

My personal opinion is that of Jens. If your parents work, you're working class. These days, the Middle Class is a misted area in the middle of the two extremes; probably a class thought up by a teenager who didn't want to be considered poor by labelling themself as working.. :rolleyes:

It's a really odd situation and I'm not a fan of the class system myself. Jen has raised some good points about the working class being exploited by the ruling class (exactly what we were discussing in Sociology a couple of days ago!). Oh wow, I sound so Marxist.

Well yourself and Jen seem to have a Marxist and negitive type view on the classing system, Jen clearly supports the idea of the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariats were the middle class oppress the working class etc which in some instances I do agree with, but like you said there are other theories and explanations so I agree with you that everyone has different views on the criteria for the classing system.

[Mathew]

Well yourself and Jen seem to have a Marxist and negitive type view on the classing system, Jen clearly supports the idea of the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariats were the middle class oppress the working class etc which in some instances I do agree with, but like you said there are other theories and explanations so I agree with you that everyone has different views on the criteria for the classing system.

Negative view, or just aware of exploitation and false consciousness?

Same thing happens in the media where the "Middle classes" are addressed - it's interesting how people know whether it will apply to them or not. People need to form their own opinions on society and stray away from the sterotypes and generic opinions that so many people seem to follow.

[RedStratocas]

A Middle class person maybe seen as more intellectual and therefore able to absorb themselves into a book opposed to a poor working class person who can't read very well as they've had a bad education. Very generalised and stereotypical but that's most probably how a sociologist would answer your question

well even if that were true, he was differentiating between middle class and upper class, not middle class and lower class. obviously lower class would be stereotypically less educated, but im sure it's about even for upper class and middle class, seeing as how many rich people are mostly rich because they have had a fair bit of luck or are simply smart at a very specific aspect of their lives that they can translate to profit, but arent really smarter overall. the way i see it, you would be LESS likely to read if you were upper class since you would have much less desire to, since you could be doing anything else with your time and hordes of money. i just dont really get it, there's nothing stopping you from reading a book no matter what class you are, why would you be more likely to read if you have more options to do absolutely anything else?