Class Status

Beaker · Aug 5, 2007

JR said:

Beaker said:

Class is about much more than income level. Let's say I'm a teacher, and thus have a professional degree-yet (and as some have pointed out, income level can depend on region) I'm making next to nothing. In my mind, my degrees and my profession should make me comfortably middle-class. Yet, lets say, a plumber, for instance lives just down the road. He makes a hell of a lot more money than I do. Now, you could call me pompous or bourgeois, or whatever, but in my mind, he doesn't have nearly the same education I have, or maybe even the same values. Those differences may be manifested in the lifestyles he and I aspire to. So I don't think income alone can't explain "class." As a category (and one of course that is always shifting) class could include factors like class consciousness, lifestyle, social status, income, etc. etc. So while income obviously puts restraints on how we live, I don't think it alone determines our "class" in society.

Damn-I sound preachy-sorry, just my two cents.
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You must be British.

Seriously, you've hit on a point. Class has more to do with than just money.

It's she Mitford U (upper class) versus Non-U syndrome.

You can have all the money in the world but a if I hear someone in an Armani suit say, "See youse guys later", that's solid working class.
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Ha-no, not British, that's just the useless grad degree I just finished talking-the one that hasn't even gotten me a job yet.

shotglass · Aug 6, 2007

Inky_Wretch said:

Idaho said:

Another problem, IMO, comes when people insist on escaping their so-called class. They do it by telling themselves that a $200,000 house in the neighborhood, town or region they grew up in is not good enough for them.

I see it all the time with people mortgaging themselves to the eyeballs, working two or three jobs to be able to afford living in their McMansion when, in reality, there is nothing wrong with living in a house that's not a parade-of-homes showpiece.
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And on top of that, the cookie-cutter McMansion doesn't have half the charm or character an older home.
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Personal preference, Inky. I never had any desire to buy a house with established "character." I didn't want a fixer-upper. I wanted something that was new when I walked in.

Inky_Wretch · Aug 6, 2007

shotglass said:

Inky_Wretch said:

Idaho said:

Another problem, IMO, comes when people insist on escaping their so-called class. They do it by telling themselves that a $200,000 house in the neighborhood, town or region they grew up in is not good enough for them.

I see it all the time with people mortgaging themselves to the eyeballs, working two or three jobs to be able to afford living in their McMansion when, in reality, there is nothing wrong with living in a house that's not a parade-of-homes showpiece.
Click to expand...

And on top of that, the cookie-cutter McMansion doesn't have half the charm or character an older home.
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Personal preference, Inky. I never had any desire to buy a house with established "character." I didn't want a fixer-upper. I wanted something that was new when I walked in.
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I just wouldn't want to live in a neighborhood where I have to check the address when I pull in because every house looks the same.

Inky_Wretch · Aug 6, 2007

From yesterday's NYT, "In Silicon Valley, Millionaires Who Don’t Feel Rich"...

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/05/technology/05rich.html?_r=2&ref=technology&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Rickys The Best · Aug 6, 2007

It truly depends on where you live. I went from making 35K to 50K, and was ecstatic. Felt I was finally getting somewhere financially. But I had to move to a more expensive area to live - one of the most expensive in the country - and I'm still broke as ever.

I've been in the postcollege workforce for about eight years now, and I've found it hard to save. Other than my first post-college job when I made a whopping 21K/year, I've never really had a tough time scraping by. But saving has been another issue altogether. I save through my 401K pretty well, but I don't have anything left over to play the stock market or at least put money in a mutual fund. Sometimes I feel like I'll never be able to afford any house - McMansion or otherwise.

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