Class, Privilege, and Social Markers

[Melissa]

Originally Posted by apocalipstic

To jump off of what AJ said, often education is the marker, rather than how much money someones makes/has.

How many times have I heard, Ohhh, so and so works in a car or other type of factory, but for 100 years those have been stable middle class jobs that paid for education, families, very nice homes, amenities, boats, travel etc. But a factory worker or truck driver might be seen as lower class than someone who makes a 10th of what they make (or rather did until recently) who works at a museum or a high school or even in retail. It is somehow seen as more higher class since no one actually gets dirty.

In some other countries, the UK and Argentina that I know of, the Middle Class is actually wealthy people who work. Powerful Doctors, Lawyers, Government Officials, Captains of Industry are Middle Class, as is anyone who has a job no matter how much money they have. To be rich, one does not work at all.

In this scenario, most of what we call Middle Class in the US falls into "Upper Poor" maybe?

Thoughts on what actually is Middle Class?

I grew up in England and the class divisions in the US still confuse me. I have to admit that a lot of the posts here confuse me. I don't understand class shame.

Class for me always meant if you worked you were working class (plus there are issues of accents) if you owned your own business or worked for yourself you were middle class and if you didn't have to work or had inherited money/a title/ the right accent/education then you were upper class. Being upper class wasn't tied to income.

You could be poor but be upper class based on your accent, family, or if you had a public school education. To me, what is defined as middle class in the US is working class. Plus, the US is supposed to "classless" yet there is a huge obsesssion with class.

Can we exchange the word class for income? Because in the US class seems to be more about what income bracket you fall into than anything else. Also, your class status changes based on your income so you can move up or down. In England, you are the class you are born into or what your accent marks you as. So know matter how much money I might earn, my class status won't ever change.

Melissa