UK Class system - what defines working class/middle class/upper class today?

Question

Just interested in people's views really. What makes someone 'working class' or 'middle class' today? The points go to the most interesting (relevant) answer.

Answer 1

"Class" is an hierarchical distinction that families rise and fall through over the years.

Generally the following factors apply: occupation, race, education, income, manners, fashion and cultural refinement.

In the UK it is not landed wealth anymore; that shift started in the Victorian era and accelerated in the inter-war period.

Nowadays, you can be poor and upper class, rich and working class. It tends to be your family history, family traditions, the way you speak, your name etc. Hence it shifts over generations.

Therefore, if the Beckham's maintain their wealth, through Brooklyn and Brooklyn's children etc, in 2106 the Beckham's may well be considered "upper class". At present given Victoria's and David's family background (David's dad was a kitchen fitter, Victoria's an electrical engineer) they are more likely to be consider lower middle class but obviously with significant wealth.

Having said wealth does not define class, it is true to say there are few poor, in the strictest sense, upper class people. Family wealth will reside to some extent in inheritance, property etc but it is gradually being diluted through the generations and recycled again.

Race plays a part in upper classes although there are exceptions. Because of the important of history and generations dating back through British history, upper class people tend to be white and Christian although integration of foreign upper classes, such as Imran Khan, has blurred the lines.

Small things can define your class, do you call it a sofa or settee, are you called Arabella, Stephen or Tracy, is your ideal night out a ball in Fulham, a meal in a Gastropub or a pint and pie after the local disco. Do you read the Sun, the Daily Mail or take the Times.

None of these necessarily indicate wealth although it does facilitate them. No factors mark you exclusively as one class.

Answer 2

Class isn't just about the money you earn or what you can afford to buy, it isn't about the type of job you have either. These can be factors in your class but other factors such as how you behave can alter your class too. For instance I wouldn't put a Premiership footballer in the same class as say Tara Palmer-Tompkinson. They may have similar amounts of money but behave completely differently to each other. You could have a rich person being classed as working especially with the Lottery nowadays.

So class cannot really be defined, it involves your job, wealth, behaviour, manners, education and your outlook on life.

Answer 3

First of all class has nothing to do with money or jobs but all to do with breeding and your ancestral past,,, The upper classes contain the nobility ,working class is broken down into lower working class and working class ,,the middle classes is broken down to upper, lower and middle classes,,,

Answer 4

income is not the governing factor!working class middle class,upper class;these are misnomers perpetrated mainly by the left wing of British politics.all can have good manners,speak without swearing,dress correctly for the occasion,be polite,behave with consideration of others.it is nothing to do with creed or ethnic origin.occupation if used as a definition of class is often misleading.upper class is possibly "Royalty."but even this is questionable.

Answer 5

I think class relates not to your income but to your attitude towards income.

Working Class - Money is hard to come by and you have to strive hard to earn it and it's something to worry about.

Middle Class - Money comes through working and it's not worth worrying about.

Upper Class - Money is always there if and when you want it, regardless of work.

I just pulled the following quote from a website but I think it applies. 'I'm not sure any of us can ever escape the "class" that is defined for us by the accident of family and geography and circumstance inflicted at birth and reinforced in early life.'

I'm 32 and living on benefits with a zero credit rating in a rented flat with damp on the walls in a poverty stricken city in the North of England. I consider myself middle class, you're most welcome to disagree.

Answer 6

class is all about attitude,what you think of yourself and where you are going,or not.
There was talk of a once premiereship footballer on 6ooo grand a week.He lived with his father in an old street house ,and did not own his own,i am sure he feels working class.More to do with ambition i think and what statment you want to make.
I think it is possibly less relevant today due to changing attitudes.

Answer 7

i would describe it as how much disposable income a person has firstly, as to their class.

then their accent.

but not how educated they are - ive known some expensively educated people who knew jack squat.

it should be re-defined:

lower class - those without work or can't work trapped on benefits.

working class - working where ever, when ever, around their family, and always struggling. always low paid. always robbing peter to pay paul, trapped.

middle class - better paid jobs, pension, disposable income.

higher middle class - higher paid, high disposable income.

privileged class - lives in a world of their own, but struggles to maintain their lifestyle.

multi rich class - the celebs of the privileged classes. power without responsibility.

They have in common the thought that they would be happier in another social group.

Answer 8

If you work for a living, you're working class. If you don't - like those on the dole - you're in a class with footballer's girlfriends, royalty., It girls and people like me, housewives! Apparently we're kept and parasites. So definitely upperclass.

Answer 9

I think it is hard to define nowadays.
Working class would be, in my opinion, people who cannot afford to go abroad and who perhaps work in factories, supermarkets/shops/as postmen etc etc.
Working class has changed over the years as before the majority of working class were peasants then after the industrial revolution some working in factories. This was a well defined area, and you knew who was working class in that period. However, now it is much harder to define. It would be easier if you set limits on wages...like under 20k a year collectively or something you are working class etc. This would be hard to do and who would set the limits?
Middle class...well apart from being between upper and lower. They are people who can perhaps afford to go abroad, have jobs like teachers, nurses, doctors, lawyers.
Upper class is perhaps directors of companies, people who own lovely houses and cars, can go abroad. Without a doubt, footballers, royalty, politicians all fit into this category.
Also, partners of law firms, brain surgeons perhaps also do.
This is a very black and white area and is very hard to define which category people fit in as there are so many jobs and types of people.
I think people receiving benefits (not because they are ill!) should have their own class, as they aren't exactly working class as they dont work!
There are so many jobs now it would be easier to define on income.
I also think you can change your class, but this is just an opinion. I think regardless of background your manner, behaviour, wealth etc can change so should your class!
However, then you have a problem because they might have money from inheritance etc etc.
Also, here is something I found...it may be of interest :)


"The British Class System" exists mostly in the fevered imaginings of
foreign tourists and Johnny-come-lately,totally-forgotten-tomorrow
teevee people with one tv series and several failures under their
belt. However, there are remnants of it around for the tourists to
gawp at if they want to:

So yes, it is alive, but only just. It is distinctly unwell in its
conventional guise.

There are, and hopefully always will be the "upper class" toffs with
little or no money, lots of family history and a few thousand acres of
mostly useless farmland out in Wiltshire somewhere. They will always
have their decaying mansion somewhere on the estate and their
collection of toadies who will do their best (out of self-interest, of
course) to perpetuate the myth that their masters are just that. They
exist mostly on the tourist income and grants from English Heritage
which supports the upkeep of Toff Towers and the "Grinds". They are
very much a declining species, and it'll be kind of sad when they all
finally die out in a few hundred years because they always give us
something to aspire NOT to become. Something to laugh at. The merest
glimpse of someone like Boris Johnson or any member of the Royal
Family is enough to start me giggling. They are the Colonel Blimps of
British life. Intellectually dim, they aspire to great leadership, but
seem capable only of talking to flowers, naff architecture and the
mental speed and agility of a slightly-dried puddle of tar.

Then, bless their cotton socks, come the grasping, desperate to
improve, frantically in competion with anything that breathes
especially-those-stuck-up-bastards-next-door "Middle Classes".
Frantically scouring either the Daily Mail/Torygraph or Grauniad
(depending upon their sense of either outrage or smugness) for the
latest "thing to do or have", rampant consumerism defines their very
existence. They plough on through life unaware that they are parodies
of themselves in every sense of the word. They are little more than
jumped-up Alf Garnetts with designer kitchens and detached
palaces-in-waiting in places like Staplehurst, Tonbridge, the "better"
parts of Cheshire or anywhere with "Royal" in its name. Nothing is
ever good enough and everything is always someone else's fault. Their
idea of charitable giving is to turn up at the village fete once a
year and pop something into the vicars box (oooh err missus). Living
an incestuous life among those they consider their peers, they yearn
for walled estates with heavily-armed security guards. Desperate for a
villa in Provence, Tuscany or somewhere unpronouncable in Portugal,
they are unable to fulfil this desire because of the horrendous school
fees that Tabatha and Justin require. Keeping the ponies is a drain as
well, and that horse-box is going to need replacing sometime soon too.
Firm supporters of the Countryside Alliance even though they have
never been anywhere near a foxhunt and would throw up were they ever
to see one. Proud of their boast "I am a Country member" and utterly
confused by the retort "Yes, I do remember". An interesting mixture of
dim shallowness and desperate ambition, they are the Captain
Mainwaring or Major Foulup of British society.

And firmly superglued to the bottom rung, the salt-of-the-earth
Working Classes. Those lovable rogues from Liverpool, East London and
almost all of Essex who would sell their grandmother if they thought
it would pay tonight's bar bill. Chav Central, their enclaves reek of
Lynx aftershave and rattle to the sound of white stilettos and
vowel-free alphabets. Glottal Estuary English rules here,
incomprehensible and deliberately so, they exhibit much the same
traits as the middle classes, except that they read the Star or Sun or
Express, and their palaces-in-waiting are probably terraced (or
end-terraced with a shared drive if they are posh) and have at least
one car undergoing varying degrees of restoration or abandonment in
the front garden. They either work hard or don't work at all (and
don't intend to start) and do a fine line in intimidatory scowling.
Annoyed at their height of fashion (the hoodies) being banned from
shopping centres, they return to their favourite haunts of the local
fast food establishment in search of their all-too-easily achieved
sexual conquest. Consumers of vast quantities of both make-up and
alcohol, they keep street cleaners in business clearing their effluent
from town centres on a Saturday morning. The Private Walker of British
Society.

And then there is the 80% of the UK who are *none* of the above, who
know that although there are people like them around, they are
wankers, all of them. The 80% who just want to get on, be comfortable
and pretty much don't care what the rest of the world does so long as
it doesn't interfere with them. The majority who, if annoyed, will
take to the streets and say so, but it takes a fair bit of annoyance
to make it happen. The majority who give freely to good causes and
don't want to make a fuss about it. The majority who would prefer we
didn't invade other people's countries if its alright with you and
can't see why we just can't get along.