General

Classic

Class, in the UK at least, is a funny thing. We’re almost obsessed by it, and it’s deeply entrenched in our society in many ways, from the fact that we continue to absolutely love someone with a posh accent telling us what to do (to the extent that we (collectively) continue to elect politicians that are positively destructive to the interests of the many and continue to support a monarchy, for some reason).

So if we accept that the class system is deeply embedded into the UK’s psyche, then where do we place ourselves?

This tweet interested me:

I maintain that a master stroke of Thatcherism is that it convinced large swathes of the working class that because they could own a house, go on a foreign holiday, and have a relatively new car on HP or PCP that they were middle class, as typified by Essex Man.

The simple fact here is that both the class system is outdated, an anachronism, and that it isn’t a clear cut thing. Many of those builders in the tweet will be company directors, and will probably earn more than some allegedly middle-class professions.

I know several company directors that are definitely working-class, and would be offended if you suggested otherwise, and one of them offered this:

If you are paid a wage, and you rely on that wage, then you are working class.

So then, how to define class?

The obvious one is wage, but we already know that doesn’t work. My above-national-average salary might make me middle-class, but then you might have to include skilled professions like the builders, plumbers, electricians, roofers, etc who probably earn as much or better, but the tweet above unambiguously implies builders are working class.

You might include academic achievement, but then there’s many people who would doubtless count themselves as middle class who are less educated than me, or the aforementioned skilled trades. Civil Servants might be considered middle-class by some, for example, but pay grades in the Civil Service start at around £21k, where the 2021 average salary is £38141.

Obviously, I’m over-simplifying here: the Wikipedia article will go into greater detail, and shows that we’ve actually gained new classes, largely based on profession to try to accommodate the social strata we have today.

Maybe, of course, the tweet is just bollocks, like so much of Twatter, and we should all just drink wherever we like, and accept that the class system is divisive?