Anonymous wrote:26, but thinking it's artificially high b/c the job that made me hurt all over was being a ballerina.

Best post in the thread!

ouch - 41

0–43: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person who has made a point of getting out a lot. Typical: 9.

Anonymous wrote:All of this anti-elitism only succeeds in showing that we're out-of-touch with a certain part of America. How are they arguing that that's the REAL America and ours isn't? And when it strays into anti-intellectualism it's downright scary.

People like me, who are urban and educated but have modest, middle-income families and depend on government funding for public service-oriented work, are being hurt by Tea Party attacks, not the real fat cats still laughing all the way to the bank.

The problem is that people like you (and like me) are still only about 15-20% of the American population. The other 80-85% of the population is still rather outside of our bubble. Let's face it, the educated, urban, upper-middle to rich classes are still somewhat insulated from what the majority of Americans are like. And nowhere is it more apparent than on DCUM where those making $250K and above are whining about being middle class without realizing that they are in the top 5-10% of the economic scale and nowhere close to middle class. Those people have no clue what middle class really is. That's kind of the point of the quiz and obviously this thread. The quiz points out a lot of the disparities between classes.

26, but thinking it's artificially high b/c the job that made me hurt all over was being a ballerina.

Anonymous wrote:This is all well and good, but (and I am speaking as someone who got 24), who are they to determine what the REAL America is? Who cares? Why isn't our America the REAL America?

I think some posters are misunderstanding. Murray is not saying one is the "real" America and one is not. He is speaking of mainstream or average American life, which many of us are completely insulated from. As for "who cares," I think the point is that there is an enormous gulf that has grown tremendously over the past few decades, and we should all care about that.

37. First generation American, but married a redneck

I got a seven. Didn't expect it would be TOO much higher . . . probably between a 15 and 20.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this anti-elitism only succeeds in showing that we're out-of-touch with a certain part of America. How are they arguing that that's the REAL America and ours isn't? And when it strays into anti-intellectualism it's downright scary.

People like me, who are urban and educated but have modest, middle-income families and depend on government funding for public service-oriented work, are being hurt by Tea Party attacks, not the real fat cats still laughing all the way to the bank.

Charles Murray is not anti-intellectual. You can disagree with The Bell Curve all you like -- and I do, strongly -- but his new book makes a lot of important points about class divisions in the U.S. Rather than attack the quiz as a straw man, you might want to read the book. Many public intellectuals and cultural critics are picking up his themes. Even the NYT had a long news piece about this on Sunday.

Link please? I'm at my quota for the month so I need to click through from another site.

Here you go:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/15/us/two-classes-in-america-divided-by-i-do.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all

I do think the NYT piece oversimplifies -- for example, the unmarried woman didn't finish college, while the married woman did -- but it's still well worth reading. When Murray's new book came out, David Brooks made a key point: We keep talking about the 1% vs. everyone else, but we ignore the vast divide between the top 20% and the lowest 30%.

This is all well and good, but (and I am speaking as someone who got 24), who are they to determine what the REAL America is? Who cares? Why isn't our America the REAL America?

I just googled Jimmie Johnson to figure out who he is.

I am AA and got a 20. I used to live in Charlotte so the Jimmie Johnson question helped a lot. I am from here and definitely think if we had not moved to Charlotte for a few years, I would have skipped at least 5 questions. Funny.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of this anti-elitism only succeeds in showing that we're out-of-touch with a certain part of America. How are they arguing that that's the REAL America and ours isn't? And when it strays into anti-intellectualism it's downright scary.

People like me, who are urban and educated but have modest, middle-income families and depend on government funding for public service-oriented work, are being hurt by Tea Party attacks, not the real fat cats still laughing all the way to the bank.

Charles Murray is not anti-intellectual. You can disagree with The Bell Curve all you like -- and I do, strongly -- but his new book makes a lot of important points about class divisions in the U.S. Rather than attack the quiz as a straw man, you might want to read the book. Many public intellectuals and cultural critics are picking up his themes. Even the NYT had a long news piece about this on Sunday.

Link please? I'm at my quota for the month so I need to click through from another site.

Anonymous wrote:All of this anti-elitism only succeeds in showing that we're out-of-touch with a certain part of America. How are they arguing that that's the REAL America and ours isn't? And when it strays into anti-intellectualism it's downright scary.

People like me, who are urban and educated but have modest, middle-income families and depend on government funding for public service-oriented work, are being hurt by Tea Party attacks, not the real fat cats still laughing all the way to the bank.

Charles Murray is not anti-intellectual. You can disagree with The Bell Curve all you like -- and I do, strongly -- but his new book makes a lot of important points about class divisions in the U.S. Rather than attack the quiz as a straw man, you might want to read the book. Many public intellectuals and cultural critics are picking up his themes. Even the NYT had a long news piece about this on Sunday.

48 - I grew up in a blue-collar family in small-town America. Apparently a lot of you had a very different childhood than I did. I do think some of the questions would be more relevant to those of us who grew up in a southern region.

All of this anti-elitism only succeeds in showing that we're out-of-touch with a certain part of America. How are they arguing that that's the REAL America and ours isn't? And when it strays into anti-intellectualism it's downright scary.

People like me, who are urban and educated but have modest, middle-income families and depend on government funding for public service-oriented work, are being hurt by Tea Party attacks, not the real fat cats still laughing all the way to the bank.