I've recently read a couple of interesting opinion pieces on social classes, and how we are clearly far away from a classless society, despite what some would like us to believe. It is one of the privileges of the elite to deny their own power and influence. Class society ensures that people in a particular social class stay where they are, i.e. social mobility is hindered. It's almost like an invisible hand. If you don't know the social codes and references, you're at a severe disadvantage.
So in your experience, what is social class and how does it work where you live? Have you ever "climbed the ladder", either upwards or downwards? Did you find it difficult?
Based on my reading, those in the upper middle classes are e.g. politicians, scientists, journalists, publishers, experts and managers. People who studied together, tend to their networks, live in the same neighbourhoods, marry each other and have children in the same schools. They are often "suburban cosmopolites". They live by an often unrecognized assumption that their world and their values are everyone's. They set the agenda, define the issues, study measures, make decisions on behalf of the rest of us. They shop at certain stores (Whole Foods, etc). They don't smoke and they're into fitness. And windsurfing.
People in the working class read glossy magazines. They eat and drink unhealthy foods & drinks. They work in call centres and other low-wage retail and service jobs. Some do traditional blue-collar jobs such as in manufacturing and car factories. They may identify certain aspects of middle class culture as repulsive, such as self-importance, pretentious gestures, career positioning and climbing on top of others, selfishness, faking, correctness, calculated mingling and façade.
So in your experience, what is social class and how does it work where you live? Have you ever "climbed the ladder", either upwards or downwards? Did you find it difficult?
Based on my reading, those in the upper middle classes are e.g. politicians, scientists, journalists, publishers, experts and managers. People who studied together, tend to their networks, live in the same neighbourhoods, marry each other and have children in the same schools. They are often "suburban cosmopolites". They live by an often unrecognized assumption that their world and their values are everyone's. They set the agenda, define the issues, study measures, make decisions on behalf of the rest of us. They shop at certain stores (Whole Foods, etc). They don't smoke and they're into fitness. And windsurfing.
People in the working class read glossy magazines. They eat and drink unhealthy foods & drinks. They work in call centres and other low-wage retail and service jobs. Some do traditional blue-collar jobs such as in manufacturing and car factories. They may identify certain aspects of middle class culture as repulsive, such as self-importance, pretentious gestures, career positioning and climbing on top of others, selfishness, faking, correctness, calculated mingling and façade.
Actually some of them were surprisingly sweet and humble.
