Class

L said:

Thanks for creating this thread and discussing this topic. It's played on my mind since I read it.

I'm really glad you have enjoyed it

Those are my thoughts on this exactly. It does matter but to certain people, under circumstances and in certain areas.

There's a lot to take in to consideration with this.

Thanks for creating this thread and discussing this topic. It's played on my mind since I read it.

L said:

Do you think class matters? Debbie I would be interested to know your opinion on this topic.

I have been mulling this over in my mind and I can't give a straightfoward response.

I just think it's too complicated but I would simply say that it does matter to certain people and in certain circumstances.

Thank you for the original post! 

Matters is so relevant as it depends on the person, their views, interests and so on.

I know for myself class never crosses my mind but for some it will be all they think about.

L said:

Do you think class matters? Debbie I would be interested to know your opinion on this topic.

I will need to think on this as the word 'matters' is very relative.

'Matters' to whom is what is in my mind.

I've got a visitor soon but I intend to return.

Thank you for the question.

Classes aren’t as important as they used to be by the seems of it but I think a lot of it depends on where you’re from.

There’s some upper class locations which someone from a working class background would never be welcome, not out of spite, not really, but just because it’s the way people were brought up. To them, it’s right.

The area I’m from classes don’t really play much of a part in life anymore. Here we are all as one. Some people I  think decide their own class.

There’s one man who lives at the end of the track road and he has a very nice old Mercedes which likely when new would have been bought by someone well off, a person who was important and wanted people to know he or she had money and mattered. My late dad used to say a person’s car in some cases told you a lot about that person.

I don’t know how true it is but in the man who lives down the track from my estate I think it may be true.

He dresses smartly too, seems to have the finer things in life but I remember my dad saying he was from poor stock. So working class.

Anyway to answer your questions Debbie… :)

1. I think I was born into working class. At times it felt like middle class but I think that’s because we had a working farm but my dad never stopped and never had many of the finer things in life and neither did I.

But we did have a big farm estate, lots of livestock and were able to bounce back from Foot & Mouth disease twice, before I was born.

2. Definitely working class LOL.

3. I do believe in it yes. I don’t think it really matters though.

4. Classes do exist still, they don’t play as important a role as they used to but I think it does depend on the area.

5. I think you can move class for sure.

What an interesting topic! I’ve not really thought about this before but this is actually interesting to think about. 

I am definitely working class but at times, perhaps when I was first born I might have been middle class.

Fascinating this is! :)

Do you think class matters? Former Member I would be interested to know your opinion on this topic.

Pegg said:

I believe in inequality, the real inequality is money, above all else.

Absolutely! 

Thanks, it always makes me chuckle.

Thank you for replying to this.

I find it a perennially interesting subject. 

It's also good to learn a little more about one another. 

On a different thread a member believes that a degree is a prerequisite for middleclassishness so, if correct,  I am set to be forever working class 

I would always be working class at heart anyway no matter any life changes.

As Class has recently been discussed elsewhere - 

1. Hard to say. My father's family were certainly 'working class' by any objective measure. My mother came from a middle income family - but again, her mother was from a poor background, although her father was not. 

I was brought up by my mother, for the most part, so perhaps I am 'middle class'. But I grew up in severe poverty, so am I? 

It's not so simple. 

2. Now? I don't know. I went to University, because I was interested in learning, not because I was joining a 'middle class' profession. Indeed, it wasn't clear to me then what I would do. Eventually I became a teacher, but that's hardly a prestigious career these days, you do it for the love.

So my profession doesn't make me any class. 

Then my mother died and as a surprise consequence, I ended up being a homeowner, which otherwise, I probably wouldn't have achieved. I wasn't expecting that at all, for various reasons.

Does that make me 'middle class'?

1. 3/4. I believe in inequality, the real inequality is money, above all else. Class, as it applies to the traditional model of 'working' and 'middle' or professional class, is largely a politically useful fiction which can be used to create imagined division. Divide and Conquer, or, Culture Wars, if you like.

Actually we're all subject to the same laws and will all be effected by what our government decides. But if we believe we're opposed to each other, we won't complain, we'll just blame the other side.

The upper class does exist, and despite several attempts to lessen their hold on society in the past, they cling on to their power and privilege- in fact aim to increase that still further.

5. As I don't really believe in it, in the traditional sense, no - but, you can gain more wealth, in which case your self-perception may change. 

1. I was born into a working-class family, but I feel it would be fair to say that it was with middle-class aspirations and values.

2. Currently, I see myself as lower class (below working class), but possibly with middle-class values.

3 & 4. I do believe the class system still exists, just that it has changed from the way it used to be. For example, a person can have what might be perceived as a middle-class job, and live in a middle-class home. However, financially, they may struggle just as much as a working-class person.

5. I do believe it is possible to move class and to adopt the values and aspirations of the class one moves to.

As I understand it, the class system consisted of 5 categories and was all about wealth and social standing:

Lower Class, Working Class, Middle-Class, Upper Class, and Aristocracy.

That link looks to be unavailable now, here's another one youtu.be/W34CsPPw5uM

Lol that made me smile. It really is 

I think I am lol 

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 

Billy87 said:

I remember once though, playing football with a lot of working class guys and everyone was discussing their favourite pies and I said mine was "chicken, ham and leek" and they looked at me like I'd just walked in from Surrey 

That's so funny and such an autistic thing to say haha

Yes! I have often thought that, its just another way that NT's catagorise people that we dont belong to 

Billy87 said:

I said mine was "chicken, ham and leek" and they looked at me like I'd just walked in from Surrey 

LOL.

I think you're similar to me actually in this between-the-classes class.

I was homeschooled so Im not sure where Id fit into that but I agreee, schooling and education has a lot to do with it. Kids who go to Grammar schools always end up acting more middle class even if they are from poorer working class families 

I have always felt kind of between classes. At the risk of steryotyping, I have always seemed too intellectual and have too refined tastes to be fully accepted by the working class but too rough and ready with too working class a sense of humour to be accepted by the middle class.

Also I have spent most of my life fairly poor and live in a council house so I guess that rules me out of the middle class. 

I remember once though, playing football with a lot of working class guys and everyone was discussing their favourite pies and I said mine was "chicken, ham and leek" and they looked at me like I'd just walked in from Surrey 

I guess I really don't fit in anywhere lol