Re: Are you really Middle Class?

That's very true, when I married my husband earned about £150 a week and we were fine earns about £250 a week now and we struggle. Some wages have risen faster of course but our rent back then was £25 a week it's over £100 a week now.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

I think common sense and experience tells you that is not true. My very middle class headmaster father only had a motorbike until I was about 14 and then bought a cheap secondhand car. These days my 20 something kids buy brand new cars without a second thought. Except during recessions wages always increase far ahead of inflation especially so during these days of low inflation.

The UK looks like it is going to go through a very bad period for some time perhaps a decade (who knows?). Today I was surprised to see that while the Australian $ is falling against the US$ (as it must - the current AUS$ = US$1.03 is not sustainable) it is still going up against the UK £, it is not that many years since just before the GFC when the AUS$1 was worth 40p currently it is worth 68p - such a dramatic drop will affect your personal purchasing power. The Euro has held up much better but I suppose in the long term the cheap currency (and hence costs) will allow the UK to start manufacturing competitively again.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

As long as people keep going on about which class they are there will be a class system.

We are all human beings born into differing degrees of wealth and all with a contribution to make to the whole population from the street sweeper to the Lord of the Manor. That is it as far as I am concerned.

I don't define myself as any class

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

I dislike the class system - it is just too divisive. I herald from very, very left-wing parents who just happened to be middle-class but they also despised the class system. More people may consider themselves middle class now but another set of statistics show that Britain is one of the most unhappiest places on the planet; all that rise in income and status doesn't seem to have done our mental health much good.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

You may not Meg but alas you live in the UK where your accent and upbringing do. It is a corrosive and all pervading part of British society.

I am sure that its relevance is declining but you only have to read about the modern UK to realise it is still alive and well. It is just like the obsolete caste system in India which is still going strong - it is ingrained in the culture.

Could someone with our Prime Minister's accent (or its equivalent) become a Prime Minister in the UK? I think not.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

I consider myself to be middle class as I am comfortable financial speaking but certainly not rich. I don't think you can get away from talking about class at all personally as its always there and always will be. It doesn't mean you should look down on people though if they've got less than you are fortunate to have.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

I think another factor is that many working class families of our parents' generation, like my parents, did everything they could to assure a better education for their children than they had had.

My mother knew she was bright but was made to leave school at 14 because the money was needed. She vowed not to let that happen to her own children. And at that time tertiary education was essentially free and so my generation of working class offspring moved up a notch via the jobs they trained for. The money earned made it possible to live a "middle class" lifestyle but hopefully, we have never entirely lost our working class roots which make us respect others and fight for fairness and equity.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

Middle Class

I guess I would fall into that category as we have to pay additional charges to maintain our roadway. (just under £100 per annum) in addition to all the other charges.

However I do not see it like that.

If we had not worked hard we would not now be living in this location.

Also it enabled us to retire early (1999) and enjoy the time we have left on 'Terra Firma'
.

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

It wasn't always because a family needed money that females didn't progress. At school, I did quite well at several subjects and I really wanted my parents to be as pleased with me as they were with my brother's academic achievements (well, it was mainly my mom - Dad did give praise). When I asked her why she didn't seem to care if I did well or not, she told me that there was no point in my doing well at school as my role in life was to become a wife and mother and run a home and I didn't need exam passes to do that. I really went off the rails at that point and caused my parents no end of heartache with my antics but the legacy was that at 56, I can't get a job for love nor money!

Re: Are you really Middle Class?

'I agree. In high school I had a group of four friends - two of us went to Uni, one went into nursing because she wasn't allowed by her parents to leave her home town, and one who was just as intelligent as us, was forced to go straight to work because she had three brothers who were considered more important to educate and that was in the 60s.Thank goodness my mother didn't have the same ideas.