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Old 01-21-2017, 07:01 PM   #41
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'Upper class' is suggestive of aristocracy, and they're concerned that Madame Defarge might make an appearance one day.
LOL!

If thye are not wearing powdered wigs and shiny silk breeches and hose and pumps with those fancy buckles I don't think they need to worry....

Wait - the founding fathers were caught wearing those same clothes!!!
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Old 01-21-2017, 07:06 PM   #42
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Somewhat surprisingly, I tested as Elite.
I registered as Elite also, not surprising, more like astonishing.

My (supposed) ranking reminds me of when I returned to school as a (cough cough) 'mature' student.......at one point, close to graduation, one of the instructors announced that "The people in here are among the top 5% in the country"......to which I replied "Well there must be some dumb *** out there because there are some dumb *** in here".
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Old 01-21-2017, 09:06 PM   #43
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Here is an interesting survey from Prof. Mike Savage of the London School of Economics. Historically, the British concept of "class" has been very bound up in one's ancestry. Savage's research on Social Class in the 21st Century takes into account economic, cultural and social factors. At the end, there is a survey. Somewhat surprisingly, I tested as Elite. I would have said I was solidly middle class. Perhaps the fact that I am not British had something to do with it.

What is your 21st Century social class? - BBC News

Interesting.... I am technically middle class.... maybe start another thread on this....
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Old 01-21-2017, 11:29 PM   #44
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Grew up middle class. Got married at 19 and was poverty level for about the first 7 years of marriage. Careers took off. Retired upper middle class. Sold our big house and moved into a little 800 square foot house in a blue collar area. Love it here. The people seem so much more real.

I am sure no one in the would suspect our worth money wise and don't really care. There are good people and bad people no matter where you go. It is how you treat people and how they treat you that is what "class" is to me, not money.
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Old 01-22-2017, 01:27 AM   #45
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Old 01-22-2017, 06:55 AM   #46
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'Upper class' is suggestive of aristocracy, and they're concerned that Madame Defarge might make an appearance one day.
I think we can deal with her. It's Frau Blucher I'm afraid of.
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Old 01-22-2017, 07:33 AM   #47
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^ Love Cloris Leachman - if she makes it she'll be 91 in April, but it seems she's very frail.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:21 AM   #48
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Interesting discussion if not a little self absorbed. Like Katsmeow, my background was solid lower middle class. I was the first of our extended family to go to University. From a financial point of view I have done better than my whole extended family combined. As you move up the financial "league tables" you tend to associate with people who have a lot more than you do. I think some of the "roughness" of my personality wore off. I became quite comfortable moving in these circles.

But I never thought of it as a "class" distinction, rather a "wealth" distinction. A lot of wealthy people have no "class," and many less wealthy people have lots of "class". Obviously, wealthy people tend to spend more money and do things a little differently than less wealthy people. Being confident allows you to be comfortable wherever you are.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:22 AM   #49
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I do not know if I truly ever changed "classes". But one thing is decidedly different now in retirement. When working most friends and acquaintances of social interactions were with white collar. Now it is decidedly blue collar in retirement. What a hoot... We would need a 7 second delay mechanism if conversations were on tv. Some "red" some "blue", all inappropriate!
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:35 AM   #50
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I looked it up and apparently I'm in the H. Sapiens class:




P.S. Missed biology in school. It's comforting to know I'm in the animal kingdom.
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Old 01-22-2017, 08:47 AM   #51
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Somewhat surprisingly, I tested as Elite. I would have said I was solidly middle class. Perhaps the fact that I am not British had something to do with it.
Also the same surprising result. I think one of the things I find is that class in US/Canada has very little to do with money. Money is a great enabler, but not a prime factor in behaviour.
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:11 AM   #52
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It's complicated...

Parents were HS grads, working as a production mechanic at a union factory, and a billing clerk. I suppose their income level made us middle classish, though given the depressed nature of our locale, we were almost upper middle by comparison.

My income over the years was well above median, but certainly any skilled tradesman had the potential to earn more. My income in retirement is about median for "household" income, though I'm single, so if, heaven forbid, I was to marry, that would bump "us" into a higher category.

As far as lifestyle, I'd say solidly middle class. Thankfully, I can eat out at a level above fast food, but well below Ruth Chris. My home is nice, my car is relatively new, but I have no debt besides the mortgage, and could easily cover a few thousand for an emergency expense.

I've seen, up close, both extreme poverty and extreme wealth. Glad I'm neither, not that I have an aversion to wealth, just never had whatever it took to get to that level.

I'm likely on the lower end of income/assets in comparison to the demographic on this board, but I don't give that much thought. I do sometimes find it bemusing that folks with 10x or more my nest egg can quibble so much over seemingly trivial purchases or expenses, but then that's why/how many of us ended up with a nest egg at all...
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Old 01-22-2017, 09:18 AM   #53
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My background was distinctly lower class. Father had about six years in a one-room rural schoolhouse and that was it. Drove a bus for a living (think Ralph Kramden) and mother was a SAHM. I was the first on either side to go to college.

The funny thing is that where we lived (a backwater part of Brooklyn), everyone else was the same, so I didn't actually realize I was part of a lower socioeconomic status group until I finished college and got out in the real world. Quite an eye opener!
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Old 01-22-2017, 10:18 AM   #54
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A lot of wealthy people have no "class," and many less wealthy people have lots of "class".
ain't that the truth. Oh, pardon my use of the word 'ain't'
How classless of me...
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Old 01-22-2017, 10:53 AM   #55
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ain't that the truth. Oh, pardon my use of the word 'ain't'
How classless of me...
Thank you.

I've had an interesting life and have no care of class.

I'm of European decent and spent years w*rking where I was definitely a minority. All kinds of interesting people most very nice folks, many were illiterate, some homeless. One guy who had more common smarts then 90% of the world signed his check "X". One guy couldn't come in for a week cause his wife shot him. Two guys who were in prison for years cause they killed people. We all got along.

Then in a different part of life I hung out with highly educated and wealthy individuals. We ate at some very fine restaurants, stayed in high class hotels all over the world.

I'm grateful for all the experiences. From the toothless logger who told me about being there when Ken McElroy was murdered; to the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company who told me about meeting his wife, it's a great life.

I guess I am middle class. Despite the Elite score.
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Old 01-22-2017, 11:59 AM   #56
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I grew up in a white collar upper middle class household... Both parents were college educated - not typical in the early 60's....but dad was super frugal (aka cheap) so I wore hand-me-downs and rode the bus to high school when friends were given cars. (Or I bummed rides from said friends.). I didn't go straight to college, rather moved out and worked a clerical job... that taught me a bit about how folks who had less, growing up, lived... Gave me new respect for learning about different socio economic groups.

As an engineer who married an architect - kids are being raised in a similar manner... cheap parents who make them ride the bus and wear hand-me-downs... but all their needs are met and they are expected to go to college (on our dime.) I was concerned they would be a bit sheltered in our neighborhood of upper middle class white-ness... so I found academically excellent schools that are in more diverse socio economic areas... They are exposed to kids like them (who were also drawn to the academic excellence from more privileged neighborhoods) as well as kids who's family's don't have the same means.... It's triggered some interesting conversations at the dinner table. And my kids are peers with folks of different races and economics... more so than at the neighborhood school. I'm hoping this will make them grow up to respect diversity...

As for the word "class"... my grandmother epitomized the word and I try to be like her. She recognized that snobbery (oooh - that person used the wrong fork!!!) was RUDE and classless... A truly classy person makes everyone around them feel at ease, regardless of their social standing.
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Old 01-22-2017, 12:05 PM   #57
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I looked it up and apparently I'm in the H. Sapiens class:




H Sapiens is a Species, not a class. You are in the Mammalia class.

And I apparently am in the Pedant class.
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Old 01-22-2017, 12:25 PM   #58
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As for the word "class"... my grandmother epitomized the word and I try to be like her. She recognized that snobbery (oooh - that person used the wrong fork!!!) was RUDE and classless... A truly classy person makes everyone around them feel at ease, regardless of their social standing.
Exactly what comes to mind to me.

I have no idea if the following story is true, but I read of it somewhere. Purportedly at a fancy/state dinner at a meal attended by Abraham Lincoln after the meal one of the guests, having no idea was the finger bowl was for, drank the water from it. Observing this, and not wishing to embarrass the man, Lincoln then drank the water from his finger bowl.

That's class.
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Old 01-22-2017, 12:58 PM   #59
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The funny thing is that where we lived (a backwater part of Brooklyn), everyone else was the same, so I didn't actually realize I was part of a lower socioeconomic status group until I finished college and got out in the real world. Quite an eye opener!
We live in a below median value neighborhood. Gentrifying quickly but certainly not yet a "desirable" place to live in the city. While walking the kids to school one day, they were shocked to learn that we don't live in a mansion and that the average home built today is much larger than our house. It's all relative, and many of their elementary school peers live in single wide trailers, small condos, or apartments.
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Old 01-22-2017, 01:32 PM   #60
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H Sapiens is a Species, not a class. You are in the Mammalia class.

And I apparently am in the Pedant class.
Thank you, never to late to learn some biology. Somehow I missed it in hight school.
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