Reply to What is the “upper” in upper middle class?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Years ago somebody posted on DCUM a link to a story about an academic who studies class.  I can't find it now, maybe somebody else remembers. The point was that money was only one element of class; he had sort of a grid or ladder to explain it that also encompassed profession and education and maybe other factors.  [/quote]

We're not very good about discussing class in the U.S. We make it about money or sometimes race. Social distinctions based on education, manner of speech, dress, tastes in entertainment, and things like that are contrary to our self-image as a country that left social class back in the Old Country. Here in America, we are a class free meritocracy. But race and money don't tell the whole story. Who is more middle class: the dirt poor graduate student pursuing a PhD in literature or the high school dropout with poor, uneducated parents who made a bundle with a chain  of car washes? If it helps underscore the point, make the graduate student a first generation immigrant from South Asia and the dropout a white dude whose family has been here for generations. When we talk about poor immigrants versus rich white dudes, we don't really get at this class issue. [/quote]

This is well said and covers quite a lot. I'd add two things.

First, that part of what the class feee meritocracy myth leads to is the fact that something like 80% of Americans consider themselves "middle class." It's nearly meaningless as a self-identifier. Poorer and working class people don't want to think of themselves as that way-- at least not more than temporarily-- and wealthier people feel defensive and weird about admitting they have so much more than others. In fact, most people don't understand how close or far from the middle they are, and tend to assume that most people live more or less as they do. DCUM is Exhibit A for this, on the upper end. A lot of posts that read to me like the UMC version of "It's one banana, Michael. How much could it cost? $10?"

Second, the sort of idealized middle class is frozen in a time that has long since passed-- to the extent it ever was available to people based on race and other factors. The IDEA of middle class tends to be that you are not living paycheck to paycheck, you have a secure job and income, you can afford to buy a home and 1-2 cars, take a week's vacation or more to a place you might even have to fly to, and send your kids (2) to college without loans if they choose it, at least a state school. And maybe you can even just live off of one of those incomes.

Based on the current range of incomes and experiences, this is not usually achievable for most of the middle, say, 35-65th percentile. Class is definitely more complicated than disposable income and so on... but I'd say the above are now mostly markers of the UMC and wealthier. But I think think the UMC and wealthier don't realize this. They think this makes them MC instead of UMC+. And apparently, the wealthy think they can't be wealthy until they own private jets. [/quote]

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