What is Middle-Class?

**Slartibarfast** · February-28-12, 07:24 AM

Hello.

I know i'm only a recent arrival on this Forum but i have been reading it extensively for a few weeks [[once i knew i'd be living in Detroit) and i have a question about a phrase that i've read quite a few times.

'Middle Class'

Now, i'm British and over here the perception of your class is generaly based on your economic background, education, profession and to a lesser extent political orientation. Is it the same in the US and if not what is it based on?

Now take me... My parents both worked, Dad was an electrician and my Mum was a care worker in a home. I survived school and did ok at college [[college education was and is free in UK). I didn't fancy [[and couldn't really afford) University and one day because it was raining i joined the Army [[long story). Then did 22 years as an infantryman so few socialy acceptable transferrable skills.
I can speak eloquantly amongst the aristocracy and swear like only a soldier can seconds later. I'm not religious and my politics are my own but i'm neither willing to hang them all or wag my finger at them before letting them go out to do it again. So, what am i? [[not too insulting please, i'm a delicate soul)

The top part is a serious question but the lower part [[the me bit) can be ignore or commented on as you see fit, as can everything in this post come to think of it.

Thank you for taking the time to read this..

**Barbara Nadel** · February-28-12, 09:21 AM

Oh, class. Now I know you really want a Detroit perspective on this - which I'm sure you will get - but let us get the fellow Brit out of the way first. Supermarkets. Waitrose, Tesco's or Asda. I am definitely Asda myself [[on the verge of Lidl). To explain to all Detroiters, Waitrose is expensive, Tescos' a little less so, Asda is basically the working class supermarket and you go to Lidl if you're really hard up. So I go to Asda but I am university educated, I'm a professional author and I have my own home. But I consider myself working class because that is what my ancestors were and also because I've had to work very hard to do what I do. It's probably a money thing these days. I mean I expect that David Beckham considers himself to be middle class. But is he, because of his wealth, in fact upper class? And also, would Douglas Adams have worried about this? 42.

**Slartibarfast** · February-28-12, 09:31 AM

Hello.

@Barbara Nadel
Douglas wouldn't have no.... but i'm 42 as it happens

With regards to my question i pretty much know where i stand when i read the words 'Middle' and 'Class' in the UK but after seeing it written in quite a few of the threads i'm just after a point of reference. Although as with all things that rest on an opinion i'm more likely to get several conflicting points of reference..

**jcole** · February-28-12, 09:50 AM

Below a Knight and above a serf

**gazhekwe** · February-28-12, 10:32 AM

Hmmm, in my opinion, middle class here in southeast Michigan means a couple of things, not just income, but mindset. Middle class = enough money, usually, to have a car or two, a nice house, a fund to send the kids to college, a couple weeks for a nice vacation, maybe a cruise or a cottage on the beach. If you don't have it, you work to get it. You are proud of what you earned and you take good care of it.

**old guy** · February-28-12, 12:29 PM

I think what used to be considered middle class, might now be considered reasonably well to do. If that's actually a class. I always felt that I was lower middle class or from a working poor family when I was growing up. Now, I have no idea where I fit in. When I was a kid I always wanted to be a hobo.

**SMRJim** · February-28-12, 04:52 PM

I always thought of it as strictly in economic terms, what you earn per year, with each class then subdivided again into levels of lower, middle and upper. So basically 9 categories, with lower-lower class probably being someone living in poverty, and upper-upper probably being multi-millionaire. Not sure if there's an 'official' definition. I know at some point in time I've seen earning per year values for the categories, though it could have just been one person's interpretation. I will say that it seems that more and more Americans seem to be falling into lower categories these days, and the ones in the far upper reaches seem to be getting richer. Not saying this is a fact, and I have no statistics to back it up, just my view of how things seem to be going these days. If things are as they seem, and I have no reason to believe they're not, it's scary to think of how things will be in the not-too-distant future.

**Django** · February-28-12, 08:43 PM

Read Max Weber. It is a complicated definition.

**Jimaz** · February-28-12, 10:10 PM

The Wikipedia article on the American middle class might help.

This might devolve into arguing semantics. Using numbers like wealth or income might bypass those arguments.

I think it's traditional to accept that retail shopkeepers are in the middle class almost by definition.

Some confusion might arise from the fact that, uniquely in Detroit, it was once possible for members of the working class to easily earn their way into the middle class due to the higher-paying automotive manufacturing jobs.

I recall reading somewhere that medical doctors were once considered middle class. I think today their class has been considerably elevated.