You are middle class if your bookcase is bigger than your TV.
You are middle class if at 35 you are still paying off university fees.
You are middle class if your kids minder is earning more pro rata per hour.
You are middle class if ... . well what makes you working class then.
You are middle class if at 35 you are still paying off university fees.
You are middle class if your kids minder is earning more pro rata per hour.
You are middle class if ... . well what makes you working class then.
I guess I'm not middle class because only the first one applies and my bookcases are larger by a factor of ten. Does that make me rich?
ReplyDeleteAny of them, and a bunch more. It's just the definitions seem to be turned to mean home-owner, but the reality is debtor. Value is defined by credit score, not cold hard savings in the bank.
DeleteHmmm...well I struggle with anything that tries to define wealth/value. There are too many variables. I use to explain to my kids that you can't just look at what a person has and call them "rich". Often those living in a showy manner are up to their wazzoo in debt. Then again, some of the wealthiest (on paper) folks I've known lived in small houses, drove older cars, and didn't buy designer clothes. To me, a good credit score just indicates one has managed what they have well, whether it's little or a lot.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's the way of it. If you are prone to believe that a big house and debt is a means of making wealth instead of a small house and compounding. But people believe what they see, it's the magpie complex, coupled with the nasty little tweak in most peoples psyche where nothing irritates you more than the notion your next door neighbour is getting wealthier than yourself.
DeleteRight before the housing crash, most of the people in our higher-end section of town had mortgaged themselves up to their eyeballs (prices were so inflated) with no interest loans so payments were low. Then they bought bought bought "toys". They looked to be wealthy, but were living on credit and when the bubble burst and their interest kicked in, well we know what happened.
ReplyDeleteI personally think middle class is not being able to have everything you want but everything you need, and once in awhile you get what you want because you've made smart decisions with the money you do earn. The burst here in CA had a lot to do with the middle class thinking they were wealthy and didn't have to be smart with their money.
And I will disagree about the kid-minder. Most middle class I know don't have minders. They've gotta raise THEIR kids on THEIR own...with the exception a baby sitter every once-in-awhile. ;)
But my point is what's the difference between them and working class. Yes, you can say someone working in a coffee shop is workingclass, or at least they would be if that was all they saw for life. But say a electrician or a plumber, even a train driver. And yes, a doctor was considered as middle, albeit at the very pinnacle in the past whom we would not park firmly into the upperclass esp if a surgeon of the plastic variety. But I'm stumped at the lowering of the middle class term to those whom if they defined themselves working class would be vastly more militant.
DeleteThe lines seem to be blurred on the classes really. But I wonder if a trade is what has defined the term working class? The plumbers, electricians, and car mechanics, here anyways, make far more than I do, but I guess are essentially considered working class. Is that due to their blue-collar label? Could be. I feel like both terms though constitutes workwrs who can afford to make ends meet without any government assistance...however both groups probably are the most in debt with decent interest loans that are paid for throughout life.
ReplyDeleteI hope my bookcases will always be bigger than my TV and will not worry about what that says about me. Enlightening discussion though.
ReplyDelete