I've always associated widespread use of the term "working class" with the UK, while the US prefers "middle class". Something like 80% of people asociate with the term "middle class" IIRC. Maybe more.

Is it really any surpise that that's the case though? People love free lunches! Generally people work to make money so they can use it to do other things, so of course it's attractive to look at people who have accumulated lots of money because then your brain can jump right to "think of all the fun I can have!" I don't think many like to look to all the work/effort that PRECEDED all that money accumulation though... no, that would be very boring indeed. Who wants to look at some guy working >80 hours a week at a desk who hardly ever sees his family? BORING!

If thats how you understood that you failed once again...whatelse is new...

I thought the idea was to watch and think about how morally backrupt, wasteful, and pathetic these people were and get angry about it.

Maybe with My Super Sweet 16, the rest of them, I mean, yeah. There are people, and a lot of them, who idolize those people (Bill Gates and Warren Buffett could be legitimate heroes, but a lot of people idolize folks simply because they're rich, and they want to be rich like them).

lol what do you know...after 10 years of rat race about 5 years ago, daddy did put his carrer on hold (thank god for poker) and did exactly that!!!! As a result US economy lost one job (my babysitter) and i am paying about 20k less in taxes. Hows that outcome works for the economy?

I think there's a subtext where the story is that in America, the virtuous (hard-working, intelligent, etc.) become rich. I think many people want to run the inference backwards and conclude that the rich are virtuous.

I worship this man.

By rich you probably mean celebrity since not many are willing to put as many hours of work as your average "250k rich" wall street slave.

You're right... was too strong of me to say that's all the thread was about. I guess I just get really pissed off when I hear lots of people who think there's nothing wrong with taking something from someone under the logic that they have a lot already. It also frustrates me because I think by empoying such logic they're also moving closer to the very sort of end they're trying to avoid. I guess I'm just quite touchy about theft

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I'll respectfully disagree with posters claiming we don't glorify the middle class (by glorify, I mean hold up as ideals, not gawk at their foibles like the Paris Hilton example... c'mon).

I'll leave you with 3 words: "The Greatest Generation" (Hint: they weren't 1980s stock brokers.)

The greatest thing about the greatest generation is that they named themselves.

Income is a poor way to measure "richness". Net Worth is much better.

shouldn't you weight the net worth by age?

essentially we're just trying to justify the lefty-credo "to each according to need, from each according to ability"

They would consider me rich, having never met me and having no idea what my life is like.

If you ask them to imagine the lifestyle of a rich person, they will describe to you something much more luxurious than the lifestyle we have.

This is the disconnect that needs to be addressed, and that you have not addressed.

Out of curiosity, did "The Greatest Generation" pay for all they consumed or did they leave other generations with their bill?

The class system in America is weird. Not that i think ours is great.

Over here class is a measure of the job you do. In America it is the money you earn.

So i have three friends that illustrate the weirdness of it, one earns an absolute ****load of money in construction, owns several cars and bikes, his own house etc etc. He is working class. Another friend works in IT, he is relatively high up with a small team under him and is one of the go to guys when stuff goes wrong. He rents with a third friend, owns a car which he somewhat struggled to get a good loan rate on and isnt going to be in a position to buy a house any time soon, he gets paid a solid amount but somehow ends up with little in the way of savings but has some nice toys like a big TV and he just bought a sofa set for his rented house etc. He is middle class. Then there is my third friend who has a bit of money set aside from living with parents for a long time, but he works min wage as a shelf stacker in a supermarket, doesnt own a house or a car (cant drive) and he is in the worst position of the three by a huge margin but he is considered working class just like the guy who earns the most and owns the most assets.

Fwiw in polls 2/3 of people self identify as working class in the UK, though that trend is dropping off. We genuinely do worship the working class more than the rich and our entire society is like the opposite of America in that way, though we are becoming more like the US everyday with random celebs who do nothing but are famous for some reason gaining in popularity here for example.

That doesn't sound much different than US. We just use "blue collar" to distinguish working class jobs from more professional jobs. (derail: America's original working class.)

If you described your lifestyle to one of those people you think they'd be like "Oh, hey, I can totally see where $12,000 a month goes now that you've told me you spend some of it and save the rest, I guess you're not rich?"

There's a disconnect here, but it's not those envious poors not knowing how bad you really have it.

fyp

Another swing and a miss. I know I have it good. I don't think I have it bad. I think that many people who want to classify everyone who makes $250k as rich imagine that $250k gives you a lifestyle far more luxuriant than mine and they would be wrong.

As we've already seen earlier in this thread, the image that these people bring to mind is spoiled teenagers with luxury cars and private schools, and that's not the way it is for everyone who makes $250k.

So we're judging what's rich on stereotypes now? 25k a month........lol.

But you could have those things. That you personally don't choose to spend your income that way isn't the point.


I mean, set aside your potentially questionable ability to accurately predict poor people's conception of your lifestyle, you're still not getting the picture. If you aren't rich by your personal definition, your personal definition is so extreme as to be meaningless.

It's like someone who is 85 claiming they aren't "old" because there are totally people who reach 110, and also just the other day you went for the walk in the park just like anybody else does.