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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]We don't have social classes here. Now you know.[/quote]

Lol

Yes, we do.

While it’s not as clear cut as in other countries, the USA still has classes.

An overly simplistic way to explain:

-Blue collar vs white collar…but there’s a big gray area since many blue collar workers can amass a fortune and outpace many white collar professionals. To wit: my plumber lives in a nearly $2M home, owns vacation homes in his “home” country plus at the DE beaches, sends his kids to private school, and owns a portfolio of rentals that he flipped. If you saw him roll up in his truck, you’d never realize he’s so wealthy. (He told me he nets $1M/year.)

-By neighborhood

-By schools

-By education (college/advanced degrees)

-By country club(s)

-By status

Old money is a completely different animal. Truly old money status that has been sustained and grown over 4-5 generations is in its own class. [/quote]

This can all be changed in one person’s lifetime. You can be born poor and end up wealthy.

It’s less of a class and more of a current designation, if you care about such things. And, you shouldn’t care about such things. [/quote]

This. Class in the US is not really about class as much as wealth. And unlike other cultures, there is very little real influence that is exclusive to “old” money  that can’t be had with new money.

While OPs post does reveal their immigrant mindset, I give them credit for being more honest about their downward social mobility than American born natives in the same position. [/quote]

Eh, yes and no.

The millionaire plumber wouldn’t be considered in the same class as the guy who is 3rd generation at a top country club with kids who go to sailing camp and summer at the great-grandparents’ beach house on Martha’s Vineyard. Heck, even though I went to private school k-12, have an advanced degree and a well paying white collar career, I’m not even in the same class as the country club set who grew up with generational wealth. [/quote]

Socio-economic cultural group, not class.

The old money country club set is just one socio economic cultural group. It has no cultural power above the self made plumber millionaire. And, of course, old money wealth pales in comparison to tech money these days.

Traditionally, a class society meant a hierarchy of classes that had power over the classes below, both political and cultural, and even morally. That simply does not happen in the US, especially today. Your self made plumber couldn't care less about joining old money clubs, and the same is true for Bezos or Zuckerberg. Which is why thinking in terms of class as a cultural force is misleading. You're just part of a socio-economic cultural group. [/quote]

Precisely.

Yes, Joe the plumber with a net worth of 50M will likely choose very different real estate, social groups, and education than Trey, the descendant of a real estate barron with the same amount of assets; however, there is almost no political, economic, and cultural opportunity that is available to Trey but not Joe.

And I'll go even further and argue the cliched "old money country club" scenario here is invalid. New money can buy whichever property in New England they want, send their kids to any sailing camp they want, and obtain entry to all but a teeny number of clubs.

The people posting in here such examples are simply ignorant of how embedded the class system is most other countries.  [/quote]

I agree with what you are saying but I think this shift is also true in other countries that were originally much more hierarchical. I’m from the UK and I think this is true there too. The “aristocracy” has no actual power and it is not aspirational for anyone. There are activities and events that people in that group go to (eg the royal enclosure at Ascot) but anyone with money can also go there. [/quote]

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