classes in lebanon?

Question

How would you divide lebanon socially? how does the upper class live? the lower class? do you think that there is a middle class?
how big is the gap between them? which group reflects the true Lebanese?

Answer 1

Lebanon is divided socially into many groups

1- Religion
2- Class
3- Where they live
4- What they wear
5- How many cars they have
6- Which phone they hold
7- Is it prepaid or cash payment (bills)
8- How they eat
9- AND THE LIST GOES ON

But if you want to just say by class, then we have mainly 3 classes,
1- The Poor = about more than half the population
2- The middle( getting extinct) = 5% of the population
3- The rich= Less than half of the population

No one reflects the true lebanese in my opinion, because a true lebanese doesnt go after leaders who kill the country each day, either pary.

The real lebanese is a person who cares about his/her country and tries to put some sense into people that care less of their country.

never the less, i love my country deeply.

Answer 2

WOW this is a good one Ms. Webby!!

Well I am no social researcher, but I can speak from personal experience and observation.

The Lebanese civil war surely turned lots of things upside down. Firstly a huge number of Lebanese intellects and Lebanese wealthy families migrated from Lebanon. Secondly, a newly rich class which benefited from the civil war in one way or another, started to emerge.

The Lebanese started to witness these changes on the ground after the Taef Agreement. In this sense, the actions taken by the successive Lebanese governments after the Agreement raises lots of questions. For example the masses of green widgets (i.e. $$) spent on downtown Beirut and the billions of $$ earned through Mobile Operators Sector do raise serious questions about the governments' policies on where the national wealth was being spent.

I believe that the middle class is an endangered species if not already an extinct one in Lebanon. For example, I come from a well off family, but since 1990 things have been nothing but downhill! During the 80's when the civil war was at its peak my family was financially much better. This same holds for other thousands families.

Roughly, a family of four in Beirut needs at least $1500 to live under acceptable conditions (that is if you own your house and do not have to pay rent). I know lots of single people who need over $300 monthly just to spend on gas and phone bills!! Hence taking a look at the average salary there will reveal the gruesome truth about how the majority of Lebanese live.

PS to Webby: Mentioning the confiscated points made me teary.
**Insert sniff sniff here followed by a sad face**

Thank You.

Answer 3

Like you said there are 2 classes the rich people and the poor people. The middle class is almost unexistant in Lebanon. But the weird thing is, all restaurants are full on the weekends, in shopping malls you never find a parking space, all night clubs are over booked, all supermarkets are full of shoppers... I don't know how the poor people do it to keep up with the rich people.

Answer 4

Lebanon is divided between the have and the have not.
somepeople have too much and don't know what to do with their money, others not enough to eat.
and the 3rd class is a big mystery: it's a class of have not who are totally living like the haves.

Answer 5

Thank you for this question.

There are 3 classes in Lebanon.

Rich - Few of them. 20%
Middle - Not Bad # 50%
Poor - The most of them 30%

This are the percentage (%) of classes in Lebanon.

For those who answered there is no middle class, it is not true***

When you mean poor you mean they can't eat at all, most of them Lebenese who have a bread on their table are eating which means they are in the middle class.

Answer 6

before 1975 their was a middle class, but at mean time in 2007 theirs only very rich class, and poor class

Answer 7

I totally agree with Life!