What class do you consider yourself to be part of

[memphis]

The upper class have come a long way since
 and
They're a much more diverse group (as are all classes) than certain posters are giving them credit for.

[Torie]

You are a very disruptive "pupil" Memphis.

[bullmoose88]

No idea.  All over the map really.

[J. J.]

No idea.  All over the map really.

You will end up upper middle or upper.

[Earth]

I have to admit, I quite like being middle class. One of my teachers once said, that social class is like a glass of beer. At the top you have the foam (upper class) Sure it looks nice, but it's meaningless. The beer in the bottom of the glass (lower/working class) is mostly slush. But the middle of the beer (middle class, duh) now that's one of the best things in the world.

If someone was incensed enough to punch your teacher in the face, I think I'd understand.

They're a much more diverse group (as are all classes) than certain posters are giving them credit for.

Poor, taken-for-granted, upper class. What has become of us?

[bullmoose88]

No idea.  All over the map really.

You will end up upper middle or upper.

Oh I hope so. 

But for now, I'm all over the place. 

[TheDeadFlagBlues]

I expect to be upper middle class as a part of the bobo set. It's inevitable.

Am I arrogant for thinking this?

[Ronnie]

3. An upper middle class person wants furniture with style, that is hip (maybe even cutting edge, to get in on the beginning of the next fashion trend), and of course looks great, and might well hire an interior decorator. They understand that you don't use furniture that is too big for the room, something the lower middle class has trouble comprehending (less is more).

4. An upper class person just gets stuff that they like, and does not care what other folks think. Or maybe will just get it randomly, since they are not interested in furniture.  

I consider myself somewhere in between those two scenarios.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

If someone was incensed enough to punch your teacher in the face, I think I'd understand.

Yeah. I mean, I'll admit to being a click away from posting DIAF as a response, so... yeah.

[??????????]

Blue collar middle.

[opebo]

Aspiring to be deklasse

The phenomenon of declasse you mention is incredibly useful for those of us who are actually from the upper-middle-class or nouveau riche.  If we happen to have or can easily muster the attitudes of the upper, then in our post-partum poverty we can pretend to be better than we are.   

What did you parents have in furniture that they wanted to switch out, and with what, is the first question. An upper class person of course, would not per se view such an expenditure as a waste of money..

This is where I definitely part ways with the upper class, then, Torie - I find all sorts of things, and certainly the purchase of almost any and all new material goods as not only distasteful, but a dire waste of precious resources which could be better used in debauchery.  Life is short, and a $2,000 settee is anti-life.

[Torie]

No Opebo, it is perfectly appropriate for an upper class chap short on cash to prioritize on that which really gives his life meaning.

And trust me, I can relate to your priorities, and in your position, would be doing close to exactly what you are doing. Isn't it interesting how sometimes ideology has almost no impact on behavior? I mean we disagree on a lot of stuff, but in the end, it doesn't matter vis a vis what we do.

[Vepres]

Contra to what is often assumed, I think that the reason that the sentence "Manufacturing jobs created the broad middle class in the twentieth century" makes sense in American English but not in British English has little to do with the aristocrats - they are mostly a silly insignificant bunch these days, and besides we have our Hamptons crowd who are just as different from normal professionals as Sir Gerald Willoughby-Snotnose is from a southwest Londoner Lib Dem type.

No, there is a far more important difference between American and British class structure than this, which provides certain reasons for expanding the "middle"...

If you're stuck, the name "Martin Luther King Jr." might give you a few ideas.

You're right that race explains a lot of why class attitudes are weak in American society, but (1) It hasn't always been that way and (2) the myth of the universal middle class doesn't have much to do with race at all but rather with the whole American Dream myth.

[opebo]

...I mean we disagree on a lot of stuff, but in the end, it doesn't matter vis a vis what we do.

Yes, certainly my respect for a man is based on the extent to which he follows his d**k.  Ideology is mostly irrelevant to personal likability.  (though I will say the extreme Horatio Alger types of right-wingers are a bit too hard to bear).

[opebo]

I've been thinking about this a little bit more, and I'd like to interject the notion of the rentier class.  It seems to me, even though I do 'know myself', a bit odd that I have developed such an oddly 'upper class' persona, even coming from a very humble place in a very humble state, with only a moderate family income in the 250K/year range, maybe a little more.  I think perhaps it has to do with the fact that these incomes and the family station come entirely from rents:















Our little family empire produces, net, no more money than the lowest paid doctor would earn (though I have to admit I have a suspicion that like most landlords, they skim off a large portion in cash and no one ever knows about it).  While it does bring us in contact with some 'entrepreneurs' of a sort, and local government officials/lawyers, the great majority of the people we deal with are of the working class.  Of course technically no one in my family has 'worked', as in for other people, since the 1960s, until myself in grad school and now overseas.  

[Storebought]

The stratum just above 'underclass'. I don't steal for an income.

[Vepres]

opebo calling $250k a year "moderate" family income proves he's upper class

[fezzyfestoon]

Definitely middle culturally.