Social Class: How do you know what social class do you belong to?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

Income inequality isn’t a problem. People who think they can skip education but need $300 sneakers are the problem. Beyond food security and basic shelter we don’t need equality. Leave this country if you don’t agree with its founding principles

Yes it is exactly the problem!!

Income inequality is unfair and it’s the result of unearned Asian and white privilege in the USA.

White person who grew up in the projects, never got a privilege card. Worked to put myself through college and grad school. Don’t mind my tax dollars helping to give someone a hand up, don’t want my tax dollars used as a perpetual hand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My father was a first generation college attender and so was my mom. He became a doctor and made a lot of money but we definitely weren’t “classy”. My grandparents all had dentures and read tabloid newspapers. My father was permanently a fish out of water, too intimidated to join a country club or go to a fancy restaurant, stay an expensive hotel. He pushed his kids into elite schools, music competitions where it felt like we were always kind of clueless, playing catch up. We didn’t have the cultural capitol - didn’t recognize those key words people throw out. For example, knowing that Rye NY or Grosse Pointe are where the rich people live, that the Ethical Cultural Society is like “rich people church .”’I do okay financially and have a fancy job but am also a perpetual outsider. I have tried to give my kids the cultural capitol but don’t know if I succeeded.

I think this is a more interesting story and very common: people who ascend in class but feel like outsiders. It fuels a lot of people's anger and disappointments because once you get into elite circles, there are always people who let you know your lack of knowledge, subtlety or overtly. Or: you feel guilty about what you have now or that your family and former friends behind but you no longer fit in with them either. And you see that these people don't value the working class or they condescend in a corny way. I think of this when I read Steve Bannon's story of his working class father and his experience at Harvard. He seems very bitter about class and I think he represents a lot of people's feelings. It's hard to move up and for a lot of people, it's not satisfying.

[Anonymous]

^^or that you left your family and former friends behind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

Income inequality isn’t a problem. People who think they can skip education but need $300 sneakers are the problem. Beyond food security and basic shelter we don’t need equality. Leave this country if you don’t agree with its founding principles

Yes it is exactly the problem!!

Income inequality is unfair and it’s the result of unearned Asian and white privilege in the USA.

Lol it's very much earned. You want income redistribution to the people who explicitly haven't earned it. That won't end well. Work for what you want, don't wait for hand outs.

NP - Is it better if I say that I want the same safety net for everyone? I want everyone to get SS (not means-tested). I want everyone to get universal healthcare (if you want better get some privatey better stuff). I want everyone to have maternity leave and childcare. School lunch and breakfast.

Then people scream about the "rich" people getting free lunch. You really can't win. Provide it for everyone. Do not means test (you save a lot of money on admin that way) and it gains popular support because it's for everyone so people aren't resentful about hand outs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

Income inequality isn’t a problem. People who think they can skip education but need $300 sneakers are the problem. Beyond food security and basic shelter we don’t need equality. Leave this country if you don’t agree with its founding principles

Yes it is exactly the problem!!

Income inequality is unfair and it’s the result of unearned Asian and white privilege in the USA.

Lol it's very much earned. You want income redistribution to the people who explicitly haven't earned it. That won't end well. Work for what you want, don't wait for hand outs.

NP - Is it better if I say that I want the same safety net for everyone? I want everyone to get SS (not means-tested). I want everyone to get universal healthcare (if you want better get some privatey better stuff). I want everyone to have maternity leave and childcare. School lunch and breakfast.

Then people scream about the "rich" people getting free lunch. You really can't win. Provide it for everyone. Do not means test (you save a lot of money on admin that way) and it gains popular support because it's for everyone so people aren't resentful about hand outs.

It doesn’t really matter what you want. You don’t just get to redistribute other people’s hard earned money. They have a say and vote too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I think of it:

If you don't have access to sufficient funds to provide for basic needs, you're poor.

If you earn money but live paycheck to paycheck, you're working class.

If you are primarily a wage earner but own a home and are able to financially prioritize things like health and your kids' education, you're middle class.

If your money makes money for you, i.e. you live off capital instead of wage earnings, you're rich.

There are a million different varieties here that Americans spend a lot of time bickering over, because we don't have the kind of social consistency of class that exists in other countries. That's mostly a good thing, but it also means that a wealthy person can put on a cowboy hat, call himself working class, and claim that a single mother working paycheck to paycheck as a nurse is not because she makes a low six figure salary.

Ok so let’s say we have couple number one: obese Walmart shoppers who never go anywhere or do anything with tens of millions in the bank
Couple number two has an elegant appearance, expensive possessions, flies first class to their home country all the time but they are actually in a huge amount of debt and have nothing in the bank
Who’s higher class?

The first couple. The richest people are the ones who shop bargains and drive old cars and live frugally. The dumbest ones are the ones who pretend like they’re wealthy when they’re not. Can’t believe how many people I know in group 2, who I always assume are way richer than me but then set up GoFundMes because one spouse gets a thankfully treatable cancer and they can’t afford private school tuition anymore for their one child while that spouse is out of work for 6 -12 months. It’s fascinating that you’d send your kid to private school, fly first class, drive 150k cars, wear designer everything, and not have 50k spare cash lying around to cover one year of private school if your HHI takes a temporary hit.

[Anonymous]

I don't ever worry about this, let alone think about it. I'm probably lower middle class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

No it isn’t. Inequality of opportunity is a bigger problem and even it isn’t the biggest problem we face.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

Income inequality isn’t a problem. People who think they can skip education but need $300 sneakers are the problem. Beyond food security and basic shelter we don’t need equality. Leave this country if you don’t agree with its founding principles

Yes it is exactly the problem!!

Income inequality is unfair and it’s the result of unearned Asian and white privilege in the USA.

Lol it's very much earned. You want income redistribution to the people who explicitly haven't earned it. That won't end well. Work for what you want, don't wait for hand outs.

NP - Is it better if I say that I want the same safety net for everyone? I want everyone to get SS (not means-tested). I want everyone to get universal healthcare (if you want better get some privatey better stuff). I want everyone to have maternity leave and childcare. School lunch and breakfast.

Then people scream about the "rich" people getting free lunch. You really can't win. Provide it for everyone. Do not means test (you save a lot of money on admin that way) and it gains popular support because it's for everyone so people aren't resentful about hand outs.

It doesn’t really matter what you want. You don’t just get to redistribute other people’s hard earned money. They have a say and vote too.

Yet our money is getting redistributed to a war I don't want and for universal health care for israelis. Someone decided that and it wasn't me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's how I think of it:

If you don't have access to sufficient funds to provide for basic needs, you're poor.

If you earn money but live paycheck to paycheck, you're working class.

If you are primarily a wage earner but own a home and are able to financially prioritize things like health and your kids' education, you're middle class.

If your money makes money for you, i.e. you live off capital instead of wage earnings, you're rich.

There are a million different varieties here that Americans spend a lot of time bickering over, because we don't have the kind of social consistency of class that exists in other countries. That's mostly a good thing, but it also means that a wealthy person can put on a cowboy hat, call himself working class, and claim that a single mother working paycheck to paycheck as a nurse is not because she makes a low six figure salary.

Ok so let’s say we have couple number one: obese Walmart shoppers who never go anywhere or do anything with tens of millions in the bank
Couple number two has an elegant appearance, expensive possessions, flies first class to their home country all the time but they are actually in a huge amount of debt and have nothing in the bank
Who’s higher class?

The first couple. The richest people are the ones who shop bargains and drive old cars and live frugally. The dumbest ones are the ones who pretend like they’re wealthy when they’re not. Can’t believe how many people I know in group 2, who I always assume are way richer than me but then set up GoFundMes because one spouse gets a thankfully treatable cancer and they can’t afford private school tuition anymore for their one child while that spouse is out of work for 6 -12 months. It’s fascinating that you’d send your kid to private school, fly first class, drive 150k cars, wear designer everything, and not have 50k spare cash lying around to cover one year of private school if your HHI takes a temporary hit.

Well the first couple is American I'm assuming. The second couple "flies to their home country"- I'd need to know what the home country is. Is it a country that has classes? Because we don't in the US. We have socioeconomic factors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using myself as an example. Immigrant that has been in the States for 25 years now. When I was a kid growing up my father was in a profession that was pretty high status. We lived in beautiful homes in posh neighborhoods around the world and attending private school with children of government officials, CEOs, and the global elite.

However my father was self made and did not have any generational wealth. His chosen profession, although prestigious and elevated our family status and lifestyle, was not something like investment banking where you can amass a lot of wealth.

So when he retired...our lifestyle shifted dramatically. So here we are my siblings and I, literally with champagne tastes and beer budget if you will.

2 of them married rich so because of our lifestyle growing up, easily and smoothly integrated into the upper class families of their spouses.

The other two of us are UMC/MC professionals. We are pretty class conscious and class confused.

Wonder if anyone has been through something similar and has any advice.

In America, you have the opportunity to decide what class you are in. If you believe it, you're in it. It's not externally imposed on you like everywhere else. It's why everyone immigrates here.

+1. There are many people in America who have lots of money but no class; while there are many who are very poor but have a lot of class. Class is decided by how you conduct yourself.

No it's not. There is no class system here. You can buy your way in wherever you want. And if you're poor, nobody cares how classy you are.

Shows how little you know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

Income inequality isn’t a problem. People who think they can skip education but need $300 sneakers are the problem. Beyond food security and basic shelter we don’t need equality. Leave this country if you don’t agree with its founding principles

Yes it is exactly the problem!!

Income inequality is unfair and it’s the result of unearned Asian and white privilege in the USA.

Lol it's very much earned. You want income redistribution to the people who explicitly haven't earned it. That won't end well. Work for what you want, don't wait for hand outs.

NP - Is it better if I say that I want the same safety net for everyone? I want everyone to get SS (not means-tested). I want everyone to get universal healthcare (if you want better get some privatey better stuff). I want everyone to have maternity leave and childcare. School lunch and breakfast.

Then people scream about the "rich" people getting free lunch. You really can't win. Provide it for everyone. Do not means test (you save a lot of money on admin that way) and it gains popular support because it's for everyone so people aren't resentful about hand outs.

It doesn’t really matter what you want. You don’t just get to redistribute other people’s hard earned money. They have a say and vote too.

Yet our money is getting redistributed to a war I don't want and for universal health care for israelis. Someone decided that and it wasn't me.

And? You think the people with the money can’t figure out how to get the election outcome they want? That’s how the world works. You should stop fantasizing about a windfall that isn’t coming and just get a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Using myself as an example. Immigrant that has been in the States for 25 years now. When I was a kid growing up my father was in a profession that was pretty high status. We lived in beautiful homes in posh neighborhoods around the world and attending private school with children of government officials, CEOs, and the global elite.

However my father was self made and did not have any generational wealth. His chosen profession, although prestigious and elevated our family status and lifestyle, was not something like investment banking where you can amass a lot of wealth.

So when he retired...our lifestyle shifted dramatically. So here we are my siblings and I, literally with champagne tastes and beer budget if you will.

2 of them married rich so because of our lifestyle growing up, easily and smoothly integrated into the upper class families of their spouses.

The other two of us are UMC/MC professionals. We are pretty class conscious and class confused.

Wonder if anyone has been through something similar and has any advice.

In America, you have the opportunity to decide what class you are in. If you believe it, you're in it. It's not externally imposed on you like everywhere else. It's why everyone immigrates here.

+1. There are many people in America who have lots of money but no class; while there are many who are very poor but have a lot of class. Class is decided by how you conduct yourself.

No it's not. There is no class system here. You can buy your way in wherever you want. And if you're poor, nobody cares how classy you are.

Shows how little you know.

You clearly think you know, but you have no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

A) That will never happen and B) No, it's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:None of this will matter once we finally eliminate income inequality completely.

It’s the number 1 problem facing the U.S. today.

No it isn’t. Inequality of opportunity is a bigger problem and even it isn’t the biggest problem we face.

Yeah, I should have an equal shot at being CEO of a major corporation as a Harvard graduate. Sadly, on one has offered me an opportunity.