Published on 12, July, 2020
I was brought up to believe that we are divided socially into classes:
1. Working class.
2. Middle class.
3. Aristocracy.
I also read decades ago that classes were less relevant and were disappearing.
I'm curious as to what others think so here are some questions:
1. What class were you born into?
2. What class are you now?
3. Do you believe in 1 and 2?
4. ie Do you think class exists?
5. Do you think you can move class?
Also, without Googlerating, I'd be curious as to how these classes are defined.
I've tended to think of them as not only to do with our financial situation, but also to do with tastes, interests and education.
With regard to me, I was born working class and ?probably? still am.
1. What class were you born into? Working class, my family became more middle class as I grew older.
2. What class are you now? I thought I was lower middle class but on doing this survey,
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/special/2013/newsspec_5093/index.stm
It said that I am part of the "Precariat
This is the poorest and most deprived class group. According to the Great British Class Survey results, lots of people in this group ... ".
Rather than just three classes (Working class, Middle class and Aristocracy), the BBC survey said that there were seven.
However the NRS mentioned herte on Wikipedia has six classifications:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NRS_social_grade
and breaks the working class into Skilled working class (Skilled manual workers - they can earn good money) and Working class (Semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers). These classifications are useful to politicians trying to attract key groups of voters, for example higher earning people might want to reduce the ammount of tax that they have to pay and vote for a lower tax party.
3. Do you believe in 1 and 2? - It still exists.
4. ie Do you think class exists? - To a lesser degree than before.
5. Do you think you can move class? - If an ordinary person can get a well paid job or profession for example become a doctor.
Thank you.
I just did that BBC test.
It was difficult as it asked who you socialise with and I tend to try to avoid doing so.
However, I know a few people.
So, I came out as 'technical middle class'.
Surprised
I think it's wrong though, as I don't do either of these things in the description, so no idea where that came from:
Enjoy emerging culture such as going to the gym and using social media
I suppose you could call going to the gym culture. BEEFCAKE!
I think they call it that because going to the gym is the new place where everyone hangs out. I think for young men in particular it has replaced the pub as the place where they socialise