Cash or class

[Huguenot]

Another interpretation of the great East Dulwich debate

"A single adult living in the middle will have an annual income of between ?13,400 and about ?29,600. Being at the top of that band entails working for ?15 an hour for a 38-hour week. Live on your own and earn more than that, and you are not Normal - you are in the best-off quarter. Have two kids and a joint income of ?60,000-plus, and you are not Normal."

Middle class means over ?13,400 a year...? Upper class is over 30 grand a year?

Aspirational? Class mobility? Can CWALD regain her credentials by taking a pay cut? I think we should be told?

"You are in the Wealthy group if, should you and your spouse simultaneously drop dead today, your estate would be liable for inheritance tax (the single-person inheritance tax threshold is now ?312,000)."

Does this then mean that the act of being a homeowner in East Dulwich with the inherent househould equity precludes you from being working class? Exercise 'right-to-buy' and the game is up.

[ChavWivaLawDegree]

I'd have to be earning over ?60,000 cos of my kids and as a new fee earner, I'm waaaay below that! So my credentials are intact thank you very much!

[Huguenot]

Lol! I know, only teasing ;-)

Did you read the article? I particularly like 'Most of the old markers of class fade as, for men, a ubiquitous "bloke" is created and women look "smart".'

More importantly, if wealth were the definer, then you end up with a very fluid 'class war' army consisting mainly of callow youths (who'll leave you behind as they age) and geriatrics.

Research I mentioned on another thread suggests that 70% of individuals born into one of these wealth 'quarters' or classes will leave it by the time they're 35. If you need long term resentment to build up sufficient grounds for revolution then you've only got 30% of 25% of the population to play with.

So if in the first generation you've only got 7.5% of the population in indentured long term 'working class', then by the second generation (20 years later) you've only got 2%. Not really enough for a working majority, let alone raising a battalion!

Perhaps the class war has already been won, and rabble rousing will have about as much as success as waving a cudgel to campaign against the vikings?

[ClareC]

money doesnt give a person class.....

[Brendan]

Put like that the mundanity of it all seems so depressing. Perhaps class should be measured by your likelihood to be prescribed Prozac.

[jumpinjackflash]

ClareC Wrote:

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> money doesnt give a person class.....

exactly - look at all our footballers

[Huguenot]

Quite right ClareC, additionally the use of 'class' as a synonym for 'quality' as opposed to 'category' could well be a criteria as well!

Brendan, it's shocking isn't it :( . However we can argue that, as with cricket, the game's not in the rules but in the detail.

However...

"Tell me where you went to school, what your father's job was then, and your home postcode, and I'll quite happily put you in a pigeonhole."

It's a bit pooey to be be told you've got no 'class' as in quality because of what your Dad did. Presumably if you had real class you wouldn't draw conculsions on a person's calibre based on their postcode, but on their actions.

Which brings us into a Nietzschean dilemma - is working class a frame of mind or do you have to actually engage in working class pursuits like sitting on your arse doing nothing all day? ;-) I'm feeling very working class today!

[Keef]

What, you're indulging in some immediate gratification?

[Banksy]

"Sitting on your arse all day doing nothing."

Isn't that a better description of the ruling class (or underclass) rather than the proles? Huguenot - your officially classed as posh or chavvy for today :-)

NB I'm on a very brief lunch break from the Work House (stale bread and water only).

[annaj]

I was told by Mr buggie not that long ago that I am "absolutely, positively, definitively middle class" and I think he was probably right (although we don't quite fit the depressing suburban description from the article)

But it's not something I'm proud or ashamed of, or something I aspired to or wish to change, it just is.

I am who I am, was born to who I was born to and do what I do.

The fact that I fit neatly into a that catgory by practically any criteria is true, but doesn't define me.