How do you define middle class?

Question

I would like to determine whether I am middle class.

Answer 1

how delightfully middle class of you to be worrying about whether or not you are middle class....if you were working class (does that still exist?) or rich (upper middle class) you would know, be very sure of your status and probably proud of it

Answer 2

Look at it this way. Upper class don't need loans. Middle class hopes to qualify for a loan. Lower class can't get a loan.

Upper class don't need a formal education.
Middle class better have a formal education.
Lower class have little to no formal education.

Upper class invests to get a raise.
Middle class hopes to get a raise from their job.
Lower class doesn't expect a raise anytime soon.

Upper class makes the decision.
Middle class lives with decsions.
Lower class awaits everyone's decison on everything.

Upper class owns,
Middle class has to purchase and make payments.
Lower class makes due.

Upper class doesn't care about missing opportunities because others are on the way.
Middle class creates opportunities and tries to seize the moment to get ahead.
Lower class tries to gain opportunities by any means necessary.

Upper class sets societal norms.
Middle class imitates the norms of society. And lower class has no means to a norm.

Upper class has a tendency to be wasteful.
Middle class has a tendency to over reach.
Lower class has nothing to reach with.

Upper class passes on wealth.
Middle class tries all their life to gain wealth.
Lower class can see the wealth but can't get to it..for themselves.

Upper class says it is hard work.
Middle class does the work.
Lower class does the work that middle class can't get to.

Middle class is always between a rock and a hard place. In the middle.

Answer 3

hmmm curious.

Class is defined by so many things - family history, inheritance, regular income, education, community standing, (housing), what job you hold, General Values. What privileges were you born with? It is a combination of all these things that define class, however you may have all attributes and no manners - does not make you upper class.

I think middle class is when you've started with some financial or educational backing - ie, university or college education, or You are starting out with a "future assisted by your parents". You hold a job / business (white collar jobs) for a regular income, and it's enough to live reasonably comfortably without HUGE financial worries.

Do you have - tertiary education, own your own house, have a job with some reasonable responsibility? Then you're middle class.

Also I would say - if you're questioning it - you're middle class. If you were upper class you'd know it. If you were working class, you wouldn't care.

Answer 4

Our own Government has different ideas of what the middle class is. Each political party has a different idea. It also depend on what the argument is for such as tax relief, housing etc.

I am sure there is one definition that can fit your circumstances. I can only tell you what I think is middle class for my area in northern Illinois. Single wage earner with wife and two kids would be about 60K a year. If they both work and gross 100K a year that would make them upper middle class. It goes up from there. The bad side if when there is one wage earner with wife and 2 kids that make 30k a year.

An individual can control their circumstances for a good part. Possibly waiting for children or waiting for a new home. Both spouses working etc. Things you cant control, lay-offs health problems are one of the reasons a person should live close to the vest.

The real answer to what middle class is a changing thing. You most likely are if you fall into one of the categories I listed but depends on area you live in. Good Luck either way.

Answer 5

Normally to be upper class, you need to be very very wealthy. Think of being a CEO or someone running a corporation like Campbell's. To be lower class, a person normally works in an area of the economy that is working class or is unskilled labor (i.e. a janitor). Typically, this is class that has trouble getting by and live in a place like the ghetto. If you live pretty decently, in a suburb or in a decent area in the city, and you parent(s) work jobs that aren't paid by low hourly wages, then chances you are middle class. Besides, most people are middle class anyway, so you probably are just by chance.

Answer 6

I'm lower lower class but i have a nice smile...middle class is when u spend more than 20 mins choosing the wine at Tesco. As it goes the middle class are the tightest buggers out there...

Answer 7

People who have to work for a living but they often think they are part of the upper class, in my experiance.

I guess you can be financially middle class or culturally middle class, the two do not always acompany each other.

Answer 8

If you are British I might be able to help, if you are American or from somewhere else it is more difficult.

In Britain there are 6 classes in my opinion:

1. Schemie peasants or chavscum - worthless benefit scrounging wasters. Always have a chip on their slumping shoulder.

2. The working class. May live on council estate, may have a job ranging from low to middle income. May or may not have a chip on their shoulder. Are not usually ars*eholes.

3. Schemie peasants or chavscum masquerading as the middle class. Affluent, right-wing Tory voting, non-smacking parents. Their children will be awful bullies due to the lack of discipline. They will indulge in petty one-up-man-ship, constantly redecorating their house to impress, drive vulgar vehicles (SUVs, jeeps). Always have a chip on their shoulder, look down on working class, but treat people they perceive as being more genuinely middle class than them with equal contempt. Certainly will have bare floorboards, and decking and chimineas in the garden. Probably children go to university. Constantly boast about children, holidays etc. Not generally very bright.

4. Middle class. Leftish/liberal, will probably be intelligent enough not to vote Labour though. Do not care much about redecorating, will keep car, cooker, kitchen units until they fall apart. Will have nicer children, no chip on shoulder, children will go to university. Most people considered middle class are not in this category but the one above. Generally quite bright. Not bothered about fitting in.

5. Posh people, landed aristocracy, all go to public school, Tory voting, do not try to impress, will wear their parent's clothes and have 19th century bathroom fittings. Loads of self-confidence, no chip on shoulder. Not generally very bright.

6. Aga louts. Like the above, only ars*eholes.

Answer 9

i believe ..... I am middle class...
i live in the "ghetto" of this beautiful city and i don't have all kinds of lavish things or a Benz or a 2 , 3, 4 story house .....
but i do have my car and a house... and soon to have a better job....... you should give more detail on your living situation and all cause i have no clue what "class" you are

Answer 10

as a student i list the classes by how your finances work. So middle classes are those whose parents can help pay towards their childrens uni education but you still need a loan. While upper class are those whose parents can just give them all the money they need without batting an eyelid