British class structure

[Mom in High Heels]

Well, it's said I was young, :thumbup1: I'd rather be that than elite. :p

 

 

Wait, there was a 'young' category???? !@#$ I want to be in that category. Can I be young AND elite?

[8circles]

Am I the only one who never pronounces "elite" correctly? Seriously, I avoid this word like the plague because I always pronounce it wrong. Even when I say, OK, I'm going to pronounce it opposite how I usually do... its still wrong. :o This one word makes me feel like such an idiot.

 

I don't think I can be elite if I can't pronounce it. Clearly, the quiz is wrong.

[brehon]

 

 

Wait, there was a 'young' category???? !@#$ I want to be in that category. Can I be young AND elite?

 

 

 

But then you'd be nouveau riche and we simply cannot have that, dear. It's too...<sniff>...middle class.

[GWOB]

Well, it's said I was young, :thumbup1: I'd rather be that than elite. :p

 

 

 

 

Wait, there was a 'young' category???? !@#$ I want to be in that category. Can I be young AND elite?

 

 

I am both young and elite. Bow down, minions.

 

 

 

But then you'd be nouveau riche and we simply cannot have that, dear. It's too...<sniff>...middle class.

 

 

Oh. Crap. Never mind. I guess this is why I have no minions.

[Rosie_0801]

That quiz said I'm a bogan! They used a polite word (since the quiz makers weren't bogans) but I know that's what they meant!

 

I'm not a bogan. :crying:

[extendedforecast]

The quiz deemed me Elite. I disagree. What was below elite?

[stripe]

The quiz deemed me Elite. I disagree. What was below elite?

 

Um, everything.

That quiz said I'm a bogan! They used a polite word (since the quiz makers weren't bogans) but I know that's what they meant!

 

I'm not a bogan. :crying:

 

I am with you, Rosie.

[extendedforecast]

 

Um, everything.

 

I am with you, Rosie.

 

 

Haha, I meant what is just below elite. I am so not elite. I think it was because of my social circle.

[Rosie_0801]

I am with you, Rosie.

 

We're not bogans. We'll be the "deserving poor." I think that sounds a little more respectable. *sniff* Besides, I never wear ugg boots in public.

[TravelingChris]

Yes, we came out as elites. I did a similar quiz in the US and got the same answer. Plus I read Coming Apart and it showed be me why I hardly knew anyone in real life who is divorced. But these things are not quite right. especially when geared towards younger people. I mean, college students and those just out tend to be poor but that doesn't mean they suddenly change their cultural tastes, they just don't get to do those things as much until they earn more money.

[KungFuPanda]

Ha! We're Elite simply because we live near a city. It artificially inflates the numbers for everything and gives you easy access to events and a wide variety of people.

 

Can I get a bell too so that I can ring for peasants?

[Rosie_0801]

Can I get a bell too so that I can ring for peasants?

 

 

You may have servants, but just remember, you have to get out of your comfy chair to bring me chicken soup when I am ill. Philanthropy and all that. :p

[KungFuPanda]

 

 

You may have servants, but just remember, you have to get out of your comfy chair to bring me chicken soup when I am ill. Philanthropy and all that. :p

 

 

I feel I should have minions for that. No?

[Rosie_0801]

I feel I should have minions for that. No?

 

Only if you are elderly and have grown, unmarried daughters. Otherwise, I think you have to do it yourself!

[KungFuPanda]

 

 

Only if you are elderly and have grown, unmarried daughters. Otherwise, I think you have to do it yourself!

 

FINE, but I'm definitely getting the help to cook the soup. I'm guessing I can't just deliver it in sweats?

[Rosie_0801]

FINE, but I'm definitely getting the help to cook the soup. I'm guessing I can't just deliver it in sweats?

 

1. Obviously you have a cook. You certainly don't have to cook the soup yourself unless you are teaching valuable lessons to your daughters so they can be prepared to cook soups in case of a zombie apocalypse.

 

2. You don't even own sweats. I assume you wear your worst outfit to show us paupers how humble you are, and we'll be suitably impressed because our ugg boots are our best clothes, or something, lol.

[stripe]

Ha! We're Elite simply because we live near a city. It artificially inflates the numbers for everything and gives you easy access to events and a wide variety of people.

Well, ....that would make people in the inner city kings wouldn't it?

 

If you rent your home, and have an income of between £25-50,000 (that's up to US$76,000), and savings under £25,000 OR between £25-50,000, you get "Emergent service workers," because your savings are "low." That's nearly US$40,000 in savings, mind you.

 

That being said, I have a hard time believing this applies in the US. People earning US$76,000 with US$40,000 in savings are *not* the underclass.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/american-family-financial-statistics/

Even if they do like mud wrestling.

 

(For the US, I suggest asking if someone has health insurance would tell you more about their financial state than whether they like "stately homes" and opera.)

[KungFuPanda]

 

 

1. Obviously you have a cook. You certainly don't have to cook the soup yourself unless you are teaching valuable lessons to your daughters so they can be prepared to cook soups in case of a zombie apocalypse.

 

2. You don't even own sweats. I assume you wear your worst outfit to show us paupers how humble you are, and we'll be suitably impressed because our ugg boots are our best clothes, or something, lol.

 

I have sweats! I own everything! I wear them under my Chanel suits and this makes me eccentric, not just weird.

 

 

Well, ....that would make people in the inner city kings wouldn't it?

 

If you rent your home, and have an income of between £25-50,000 (that's up to US$76,000), and savings under £25,000 OR between £25-50,000, you get "Emergent service workers," because your savings are "low." That's nearly US$40,000 in savings, mind you.

 

That being said, I have a hard time believing this applies in the US. People earning US$76,000 with US$40,000 in savings are *not* the underclass.

http://www.statisticbrain.com/american-family-financial-statistics/

Even if they do like mud wrestling.

 

(For the US, I suggest asking if someone has health insurance would tell you more about their financial state than whether they like "stately homes" and opera.)

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I said I 'went to the opera.' What this means in reality is that I buy tickets to my local movie theatre and attend when Fathom broadcasts shows live from the Met. They should have been more specific if they wanted to weed out the riff raff.

[TravelingChris]

I do like opera and go when I can in whatever form I can. That meant live opera when I lived in the DC area. It meant opera singers singing opera pieces here in this city. And in the future, I plan to go to some of those Met performances in the theater- they show those around here too.

 

I think the fact that one likes opera regardless of how you can enjoy it makes the difference.

[Dandelion]

 

In the interest of full disclosure, I said I 'went to the opera.' What this means in reality is that I buy tickets to my local movie theatre and attend when Fathom broadcasts shows live from the Met. They should have been more specific if they wanted to weed out the riff raff.

 

 

LOL.

 

The people who devised this survey couldn't possibly fathom the bastardization of culture the riff raff is capable of. :tongue_smilie:

[Melissa in Australia]

I am guessing that the survey doesn't work in a rural town in Australia at all. I came out as established middle class.but according to Australian statistics I would come out in the low socioeconomic group. We don't actually have class as such in Australia.

 

In a small town I socially mix with people from all different backgrounds.

[cathmom]

Yes, we came out as elites. I did a similar quiz in the US and got the same answer. Plus I read Coming Apart and it showed be me why I hardly knew anyone in real life who is divorced.

 

How did CA show you that? I read it too.

[Mom in High Heels]

 

 

But then you'd be nouveau riche and we simply cannot have that, dear. It's too...<sniff>...middle class.

 

 

 

Can't I be young and inherit my money from my old money family???

 

 

We don't actually have class as such in Australia.

 

 

 

 

I knew it! I read it on the WTM board, so it must be true. Australians have no class. :smilielol5: :smilielol5: :smilielol5:

[Jean in Newcastle]

What I thought was interesting was that I actually do not know what many of my friends do for a living. And yet we get together quite often to socialize. We just socialize in the world of ideas and occupation never comes up! Some of these people I've known for over 10 years. Do you think it would be odd to now ask them what they do for a living?

[Greenmama2]

We don't actually have class as such in Australia.

 

 

I disagree, but my husband would agree with you. I do think that whether or not the survey translates into American terms, it just doesn't work for Australia. We can't just put in $ for £ and our CoL doesn't translate as easily. For my family our income in actual $to£ put us as emerging service workers but changing it to something that would bring us the same lifestyle in the UK (we have family there so I'm familiar with what that would be) with no other changes put us in the elite.

[stripe]

I am guessing that the survey doesn't work in a rural town in Australia at all. I came out as established middle class.but according to Australian statistics I would come out in the low socioeconomic group. We don't actually have class as such in Australia.

 

In a small town I socially mix with people from all different backgrounds.

 

If I had a parallel life, I think I would have moved to Australia long ago. I went there once to visit relatives and liked it a lot. Even though that koala I was given to hold clawed me a bit. And I think your English is the absolute best. Seriously.

 

My relative who made the decision to move to Australia is very anti-UK class structure and has been very happy there for decades.

[Ravin]

I came up with "emergent Service Workers." It might not be accurate, though, because I have no idea what the professions of many of the people I socialize with are, because in the SCA it doesn't always come up.

[Orthodox6]

We would be labeled "elite". The elitism is all in my head [culture], but not in my wallet.

[Dmmetler]

We came out as "Elite", which I believe is a result of a union between a software engineer and a music professor :)-DH definitely would be "Technical middle class", but I add a lot of the culture-type stuff.

[Crimson Wife]

What really struck me most about the survey is how the regular middle class and the elite have diverged socially since when I was a kid in the '80's.

 

In answering the question about occupations that you socialize with I kept thinking, "well, when I was growing up we had a neighbor who was a ____" But with today's housing prices, our neighbors are all white collar professionals like DH is and I used to be.

 

Nearly all of my (public) high school classmates also are white collar professionals, and the ones who aren't, I didn't socialize with even back when went to school (they were the "druggie" crowd). The friends from DH's high school that he has kept in touch with are all white collar professionals as well.

 

The friends we made through the Army were mostly West Pointers or ROTCers from selective schools (the commander of the regiment was a Rhodes scholar and we suspect he pulled some strings to concentrate a disproportionate number of them in the unit). The ones who have left the service are now executives or lawyers and many of the ones who stayed in became West Point professors.

 

Obviously the friends we made through our college and DH's grad school are all members of the elite as are the friends we've made through work.

 

Now I don't know the occupation of every single one of the husbands of the ladies in our HS support group so it is entirely possible that some of them are tradesmen. But the ones I can think of off the top of my head are all white collar professionals.

 

It was this way to a certain extent when I was a kid because my parents had a lot of friends from their college and grad school, but not remotely like how it is today because the neighborhoods were more socioeconomically diverse.

[TravelingChris]

I don't live in socioeconomically diverse neighborhood and haven't for years. It really depends on what kind of neighborhood you live in and which part of the country. After a disastrous few years in one neighborhood we lived in, I made sure we moved into neighborhoods that wouldn't have the same problems (things like repeated domestic violence calls, butchering of animals in the front yard, vicious dogs, illegal mechanical garages being set up across the street in a residential neighborhood, etc, etc). So I make sure I live in neighborhoods where others are more likely to hold to the same values I do (which negates the behaviors described above). I haven't had neighbor problems of that kind again and very few neighbor problems at all since I adopted that practice.

[elegantlion]

You all will laugh at this. I had a dream last night about a certain poster (no, I will not name her) in this thread having a party. It was an elite party of which I was not invited because of my station. I saw the party in my dream though, a group of people dressed to the 9s, laughing around a long table and being served soup. The hostess was feeling a bit of anxiety because she had not hosted a party like this for a while. She was also concerned because she didn't know if her cat, yes her cat, was properly attired. She was upset because she couldn't find the cat either. Somehow I knew the cat was curled up asleep in the linen closet. I remember thinking I don't want to be elite if it means I have to be concerned about how my cat dresses for a party, and who takes their cat to a party anyway. :lol:

[TravelingChris]

Well, El, I hope it wasn't me. I do have cats (2) but don't dress them up. Furthermore, I would love to invite you over to my house for tea or coffee and treats in my sunroom anytime you are in my area. I would love to meet more WTM folks, no matter what their social status- I am friendly to all.

[Crimson Wife]

You all will laugh at this. I had a dream last night about a certain poster (no, I will not name her) in this thread having a party. It was an elite party of which I was not invited because of my station. I saw the party in my dream though, a group of people dressed to the 9s, laughing around a long table and being served soup. The hostess was feeling a bit of anxiety because she had not hosted a party like this for a while. She was also concerned because she didn't know if her cat, yes her cat, was properly attired. She was upset because she couldn't find the cat either. Somehow I knew the cat was curled up asleep in the linen closet. I remember thinking I don't want to be elite if it means I have to be concerned about how my cat dresses for a party, and who takes their cat to a party anyway. :lol:

 

 

Sadly, I have been to those types of parties only it has been the Yorkipoo or whatever the "in" designer dog is that has been dressed to the nines :smilielol5:

[Mom in High Heels]

You all will laugh at this. I had a dream last night about a certain poster (no, I will not name her) in this thread having a party. It was an elite party of which I was not invited because of my station. I saw the party in my dream though, a group of people dressed to the 9s, laughing around a long table and being served soup. The hostess was feeling a bit of anxiety because she had not hosted a party like this for a while. She was also concerned because she didn't know if her cat, yes her cat, was properly attired. She was upset because she couldn't find the cat either. Somehow I knew the cat was curled up asleep in the linen closet. I remember thinking I don't want to be elite if it means I have to be concerned about how my cat dresses for a party, and who takes their cat to a party anyway. :lol:

 

 

I am wildly allergic to cats! I could go for some soup though. ;)

[Orthodox6]

 

Sadly, I have been to those types of parties only it has been the Yorkipoo or whatever the "in" designer dog is that has been dressed to the nines :smilielol5:

 

LOL! What was the name of that overstuffed "designer dog" in "All Creatures Great and Small" ? The wealthy, elderly owner designated the young vet as the dog's uncle.

[Susan in TN]

 

 

2. You don't even own sweats. I assume you wear your worst outfit to show us paupers how humble you are, and we'll be suitably impressed because our ugg boots are our best clothes, or something, lol.

 

Well, honestly, we are established middle class and we can't afford real uggs, only ugg-like boots bought second-hand at Goodwill. Something seems off about that. I'd Better take the quiz again.

[LucyStoner]

 

 

Wait, there was a 'young' category???? !@#$ I want to be in that category. Can I be young AND elite?

 

 

Only if you're Prince Harry or have his cell phone number.

[mommymilkies]

 

 

I live in a rural suburb yet only 12 miles from a major city-center. I can't imagine not easily knowing & socializing with people of all those occupations. Just in our church, at least 1/2 the occupations were represented.

 

"Rural" 12 miles from a city center is a HUGE difference from *actually* rural. We are an hour from anything bigger than Walmart and we don't get commuters to big cities. The nearest city to us has ~100k people, at most, and that's 1.5 hours away. And i have friends living elsewhwre that are 4-8 hours away from the nearest place you can consider a small city. You're talking about different worlds.

[TravelingChris]

Also there are different kinds of rural. There are rural places that are second home areas or vacation areas for elites from the cities. Then there are rural areas like mommymilkies is describing or even more rural. We were driving through such an area in our last vacation in March. Areas where it seemed like people had to drive about 40 miles just to get gas for their car, let alone regular groceries. This place wasn't in the west either, where there are even less populated rural areas.

[AMJ]

I think a good number of homeschoolers will find themselves in the "elite" category or close to it. Homeschoolers tend to be more interested in culture and learning than most other people.

 

It's a shame the poll put "wealthy" and "classy" together. I know plenty of people who are on tight budgets but still enjoy things that are beautiful.

 

 

 

Yup, we classified as Elite (using US dollars as if they were equivalent to UK pounds), but I would never think of us as such. First, I don't think we make that much (our financial wealth was far less than the typical Elite profile, more in fitting with Established middle class). Second, even when my parents and grandparents were financially poor there were always interests in culturally "elite" items, not because of snobbery or aspirations, but driven by my maternal grandfather (a self-taught multi-instrument member of an orchestra) and my paternal grandmother (a school teacher and "mean" lady ragtime piano player, according to my dad).

 

I would consider us Established Middle Class -- our families only got there in the last generation or two, and we are finding it hard to hold that position. Interestingly, I have more optimism about being able to hold this position now that we are switching to homeschooling than before. Part of that is financial (no more brick&mortar private school tuition trying to get a decent education for the kids), but part is we will be better able to a) work with our kids' strengths and weaknesses to give them good tools for life, and "b") show them places, enable experiences & introduce them to people we just don't have the time for now. (The " "b") " is added because my " B)" turned into a smiley face. See? It did it again.)

 

The differences (in classification) might be part cultural, between the UK and US. But there's also some built-in error whenever you try to pidgeon-hole people's situations like this. To make useful classifications clear lines must be drawn, when the reality is actually fuzzy gray areas between the classes. I find no fault with the makers of the system, or the UK government for using it, as long as they keep in mind that these are generalizations and not an accurate reflection of each individual's situation.

[AMJ]

That quiz said I'm a bogan! They used a polite word (since the quiz makers weren't bogans) but I know that's what they meant!

 

I'm not a bogan. :crying:

 

 

What's a bogan?

[AMJ]

Am I the only one who never pronounces "elite" correctly? Seriously, I avoid this word like the plague because I always pronounce it wrong. Even when I say, OK, I'm going to pronounce it opposite how I usually do... its still wrong. :o This one word makes me feel like such an idiot.

 

I don't think I can be elite if I can't pronounce it. Clearly, the quiz is wrong.

 

 

How do you pronounce it?

[AMJ]

LOL! What was the name of that overstuffed "designer dog" in "All Creatures Great and Small" ? The wealthy, elderly owner designated the young vet as the dog's uncle.

 

 

 

That would be Trickie Woo. And no, I didn't just go pull the book off the shelf to check -- I had lent the first 3 of the main 4 books to my 13-year-old niece. I loved those books very much growing up, as they seemed very much the same spirit as me (and our family farm).

 

So, would that lower my "class" even further?

[Crimson Wife]

So, would that lower my "class" even further?

 

Nope, "artisan" farming is very fashionable in certain circles these days. There are lots of yuppies dabbling in keeping chickens, bees, even goats.

[8circles]

"Rural" 12 miles from a city center is a HUGE difference from *actually* rural. We are an hour from anything bigger than Walmart and we don't get commuters to big cities. The nearest city to us has ~100k people, at most, and that's 1.5 hours away. And i have friends living elsewhwre that are 4-8 hours away from the nearest place you can consider a small city. You're talking about different worlds.

 

 

No, I agree with you. I'm trying to differentiate between my suburb (which feels very rural - outside of our small subdivision are miles of farms) and a suburb which is densely populated with tons of shopping & activity nearby. I thought "rural suburb" would be meaningful. I grew-up rural - NOT suburb similar to what you describe. I'm not sure how else to differentiate.

 

Oh, & I misspoke - it's more like 16 miles. Not that it makes that much difference.

[AMJ]

Hmmmm... I thought it meant as a paying guest a la Hyacinth Bucket.

 

 

That's pronounced "BooKAY", thankyouverymuch.

[AMJ]

I would but I'm elite too. We'll have to stomp around on the backs of the middles sometime today. :laugh:

 

oh, well then. If we Elites are going to do some stomping on backs I guess I'll stay an Elite. How do the Ivy Leaguers feel underfoot?

[Rosie_0801]

 

What's a bogan?

 

 

An Australian dialect word equivalent to the British 'chav' and the American 'white trash,' but without being synonymous.

[AMJ]

Perhaps you can hang with me, I'm a new affluent worker, don't know what the means exactly, but there it is.

 

I am wearing my Oxford University hoodie today. I bought it at a garage sale, but I feel smarter when I wear it.

 

 

My favorite t-shirt is from the Hungry Mind bookstore. They are well known for their t-shirts of great literary quotes. Mine quotes Dan Quayle: "What a waste it is to lose one's mind..."

 

:biggrinjester: