Are your close friends and/or aquaitances from a variety of different economic status' or are your friends and acquaintances close to the same income bracket as you? Any thoughts on the subject?
[MENTION=12050]Scientia[/MENTION] I'm genuinely curious as to why that got a thumbs down. Too offensive in some way? I'm baffled really.All my friends are upper- lower class except for a few lower- middles. Im probably middle-lower.
Are your close friends and/or aquaitances from a variety of different economic status' or are your friends and acquaintances close to the same income bracket as you? Any thoughts on the subject?
[MENTION=12050]Scientia[/MENTION] I'm genuinely curious as to why that got a thumbs down. Too offensive in some way? I'm baffled really.
Quite a diverse group...I don't choose my friends lightly. None of them look down on the those poorer than them or blame their financial situation on others. None of them are users or assholes who have little empathy for others.
I describe myself as working class because I need to work for a living and I don't own any other means of generating income besides selling my labour at its market value. Middle class used to mean owming other means of generating income, but the meaning of that distinction seems to have vanished - which is not a bad thing, although the symbolism has been appropriated by people who choose to make distinctions between themselves and other working class people who happen to earn less. A slightly more meaningful distinction is to do with professional work, which is now seen to be as work that is based on engagement with a body of scholarly literature, but that's changing too, as people recognise the expertise of skilled work that is not related to the validation of academic institutions. Upper class used to simply be people who didn't work, who probably seemed to be "better" than others because their hereditary wealth gave them access to better education, but that's all changing now too. I think it's all fairly interesting to think about in many ways, but at the same time I don't spend much time at all thinking about it, because I think it's all basically a load of dirty laundry.
I typically classify a person as middle class if they own a business with at least a store front, and upper if their money works for them. everyone else is a varying degree of lower.