Sunday, June 17, 2012

Thoughts on Class, Culture and "Green-ness"

One of my readers suggested recently that I might like the writings of a fellow named Joe Bageant, a writer who quite sadly passed away several months ago.


So I read some of his work online, and the suggestion was totally spot on. Joe was a white liberal from the rural south... and to be honest, I didn't know that such a creature ever existed. He had an open disdain for the middle class, especially white urban liberals, which I found totally interesting. I have only scratched the surface of his writings, but his take on the topics of class and culture brought up some very interesting questions for me.


What actually defines the middle class? Is it purely income level, or is it something else? And what exactly is meant by working class? Is that below middle class? Is the distinction white collar vs blue collar? And where do I fit in with these classifications?

I've always sort of considered myself to be middle class, but the truth is, I've never really fit very comfortably into any of these pre-defined class groups. Financially speaking, I've generally existed far below the line for what's considered middle class, but culturally... well I don't really know.


I had a college professor once who was from India. I think he was actually here for only a year or two under some sort of cultural exchange program. Anyhow, the class was a required freshman course called "General Education: The Roots of Western Civilization." It was quite interesting to be taught such a topic from a fellow with his perspective.

He had been a leading proponent of the "green movement" in India, which, in this context meant the shift to a western style of agriculture, and he had come to believe that it had all been a horrible mistake. According to him, the advent of modern farming techniques had essentially destroyed the Ashram system, upon which much of Indian society had been built.

This meant that millions of rural Indians could no longer be self-sufficient, and were forced to migrate to the urban areas where they either became slaves to giant corporations, or eeked out an existence in one of India's now legendary slums. I wish I could remember his name because I'd love to learn more about the fellow... But I digress...


Anyhow, one of the things this guy believed was that the economic classes in modern America,  rather than simply being an indicator of income level as we were all taught to believe, were actually the equivalent of the caste system in India, consisting of a whole network of rigid cultural rules.

Now let me tell you, this postulation was enough to send a few of my more affluent classmates into apoplectic fits. Their outrage was palpable at the mere suggestion that America, the land of opportunity, could be accused of maintaining such a restrictive and oppressive social system.


But whether or not the US system can be labeled as one of caste or not, if you accept the notion that the defining factors of class in America are somewhat more complicated than mere income level, it brings up a variety of interesting social dynamics, especially for me personally.

You see, my parents came from dramatically different backgrounds. My mother was a member of what you might call the working wealthy. Her father was one of the top executives for the Ford Motor company, and she grew up in a world of money and privilege.

But a falling out with her parents, and a subsequent decision to marry, and then divorce my father - a man who had grown up in abject poverty - left her in a decidedly lower income bracket. Yet even though our income barely clung to the bottom rungs of the middle class, my mother retained many of the attitudes and prejudices of her wealthy upbringing.


My father, on the other hand, was raised by a single mother who ever-so-barely kept him fed, clothed, and with a roof over his head. He joined the Air Force right out of high school, and as the story goes, when he had to apply for security clearance, he had to list every address at which he had ever lived - the list included well over 25 residences - most of which they had been evicted from.


Nevertheless, the military turned out to be his saving grace because, as fate would have it, he ended up stationed on a small island in the Aleutian chain, spending his days sitting in a shack out in the middle of the tundra waiting for radio signals from incoming weather balloons. Since the job was boring at best, he asked his mother to send him books to read  to pass the time.

My grandmother, who had no education beyond primary school, struck a deal with the woman at the local Woolworth's shop - Grandma gave her money every month, and the woman sent my father books. Well, thanks to some combination of the literary prowess of the Woolworth's lady, and the long hours of isolation, my father ended up becoming an academic.

As you might imagine, my parents' union was a short lived one, and I have very few memories from before the divorce. I often wonder what it is that drew such opposite souls together, but given my father's desire to cultivate a liking for all things upper class - opera, wine, etc...


... and my mother's desire to do anything possible to piss off her wealthy parents, one can only imagine. But I'm sure on some level they were speaking completely different languages. Come to think of it, save the occasional hurling of invectives, television sets and puppies, I really don't remember them interacting at all. (OK... he didn't exactly throw the puppy at her, but close enough...) Anyhow, once again, I digress...

I guess my point is that if you look at all this through the lens of a class/caste system, I was basically raised by two people who were living outside of their respective castes. I mean they sort of split the difference somewhere between wealth and poverty, but neither one was ever very comfortable in the middle class.

It sort of explains at least part of why I always felt like such a misfit among my peers. I guess in a very real sense I'm sort of a person without a class - or I suppose one could argue that I'm just a person with no class! :)
And to tell the truth, I've always felt a bit like I was an outsider looking in. Even as an adult, most of my friends are musicians & hippies, which means they are by in large highly educated people who make very little money, just like I am. I never really thought about it before, but I guess people like me are an odd minority.

It sort of makes me wonder if the relative ease with which I adopted the voluntary simplicity lifestyle is, at least in part, due to the fact that I never felt a strong class identity to begin with. It's sort of hard to feel like you're missing out on being part of a group that you never really felt you belonged to in the first place.


Anyhow, I had a bit of a revelation about class, culture and frugal/green behavior when I was out working in my yard today. My neighborhood is lower middle class... barely, and mostly populated with blue collar folk and recent immigrants. With the "cool" weather that we enjoyed today ("cool" meaning low 80's) people were out and about. There were a few guys across the street working on a car, a fellow painting his house, some people gardening, and lots of folks walking and biking around.

It suddenly struck me that much of the behavior that is considered laudable, "frugal" and "green" by the wealthier white collar crowd, is just day to day normal for those on the bottom end of the financial spectrum. I mean, I am seen as a bit of an oddity in my neighborhood, but it's mostly because I'm white and educated.


People think it's curious when I walk or bike to the store, but when the Mexican immigrants up the street do it, everyone figures it's because they can't afford a car. When I take on various DIY projects, it's a blog-worthy event... but my neighbors fix things every day, because they have no other choice. I hang my laundry out to dry because I enjoy it and because it saves energy, my neighbors do it because they can't afford a drier. The list goes on, but you get the picture.

I'm not exactly sure what my point or conclusion here is, but I just find it sort of fascinating to look at the different assumptions that we make about ourselves and each other based on race, class and culture. And maybe the "have nots" of this society are really the people who we should be looking to as our environmental role models... as opposed to the Prius driving, organic food eating hipster "green" crowd.

Sorry this post is so long and rambling, but I'd really love to hear your thoughts on this whole topic. Do you consider yourself to be a member of the middle class? What assumptions do you make about "normal" behavior based on your class? Do you avoid certain behaviors because they seem "low class" to you? I'm just sort of curious to hear what people who do have a strong class identity think about this entire subject.




49 comments :

  1. Hmm... I wonder if the people who hang washing out or walk/bike everywhere would still choose to do those things if they could afford not to- I'm guessing a lot of them would not as most people tend to choose convenience over everything else (or perhaps I am being cynical today!)

    I think I would class myself as middle class- went to state school (i.e. did not pay for eduction) and have a degree...we never had piles of money growing up, didn't go on foreign holidays etc, but neither did we worry about not having enough food or non paying the mortgage...so middle ish!

    I'm not sure what sort of behaviours I regard as 'low class'- perhaps stuffing unhealthy food at McDonalds?! Not that I have anything against burgers, but in what is probably a totally middle class way I prefer my burgers to be made from decent quality beef...

    I think, going back to the transport thing, that walking, biking etc is more common in the UK- google the London Mayor Boris Johnson for an example of a very posh man on a bicycle!

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    1. I think you're totally right that once people make more money, those sorts of frugal/green behaviors go out the window pretty quickly.

      I'm chuckling over the fast food thing. I suppose some of this may be generational... my mother fully embraced fast food and TV dinners, but she refused to eat beans because she considered it "beneath" her.

      The first time I ever had beans was when we went out to eat, and the soup of the day was lentil soup. Against my mother's wishes, she let me try it, and I thought it was the most delicious soup I'd ever had! She sat there through the whole dinner shaking her head and muttering about how she'd managed to raise a child who liked beans!

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    2. Haha, I would consider lentils etc middle class or hippy food :p Not low class at all...

      It always amazes me how many things I consider normal are considered weird by people from other countries (and vice versa)- like line drying washing...apparently this is a very British thing, but not so common in the US and Canada....

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  2. I haven't sorted out the whole class system (or caste system). I just know that we are usually most comfortable with what we're familiar with. This can be based on region, cultural (food and customs) as well as income factors. The whole problem comes when we start making assumptions about those outside of our circle.

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    1. I think that's very true. Whatever we see around us on a day to day basis is what we see as "normal." It sort of makes me wonder what effect television and pop culture in general has on our perceptions about consumption and the whole "keeping up with the Joneses" thing.

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  3. Really interesting post and I don't have any light to shed on the matter, but I know in Australia, from my perspective anyway, class isn't that big a deal. Or 'thing'. Maybe because we're convicts :)

    Um, I always considered myself middle class when I fleetingly thought about it, but now I give it some actual thought...we were lower middle. Now as a student living by myself and not really working...what is that?

    We sort of have Hardcore bogans, the neo-Bogan who owns a home and car and huge tv and everything is on credit and the hubby is a tradie (good money in trades over here), middle class, upper middle and rich people. I don't think I fit any of those, and I never realised we weren't middle class. I had a public education, access to more education, always worked, owned a car and could afford to go out and never wanted for anything. We weren't green, I'm trying to be now but don't think I'm a green wanker.
    I'm just rambling because you've stoked the embers in my thinking organ! I don't like the idea of class systems. I don't like judgement of others and caste is a mostly acceptable way to pass judgements on others and that is off.

    Ramble complete.

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    1. I'm totally laughing at the Australian slang. I had to do some research to translate your comment... "bogan" and "tradie" are words I've never heard before!

      You make me wonder about how our national histories affect this whole topic. I've been sucked into the Ancestry.com vortex lately, and my basic conclusion is that all of my ancestors came here because they were either religious zealots, or they were starving back home.

      Anyhow, I wonder if the whole "America - land of opportunity" thing feeds into the consumer culture. I mean when various immigrant groups arrived, they all pretty much started out on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder, and the goal was to both collectively and individually climb higher. I wonder if that whole dynamic feeds into the crazy "more more more" thing.

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  4. Oh I think class is definitely alive and well in Australia, even though we pride ourselves on egalitarianism. It determines where we live, and influences our behaviour. I had someone comment to me that they were so wasteful before they became green, but we really never had money to waste so I couldn't relate. Perhaps class is a little more veiled here than other countries but you don't have to dig too far to find it. I grew up in a poorer area and then went to a university that is highly sought after. There were whole classes of children from the wealthy inner city private schools there, and just a few fellow students from my large high school. Class is incredibly apparent when you start making decisions about where to send your kids to high school, people are incredibly snobbish about the public school system and don't mind openly sneering at government schools. I would consider us middle class, definitely poorer than most (one of the few renters) in the area we live, but far better off than many. I agree poverty can create green behaviour through necessity. However, there are some behaviours that seem to crop up in poorer areas that I would say are definitely not green -there seems to be more rubbish in these areas, more junk food outlets, more gambling, perhaps a sadness that makes people care less about the things around them and themselves. My parents grew up in working class families in the country, they were parents in their late teens and did it tough for many years, they maintained a frugal ethos even when they were well off. I get your feeling of not belonging, I think we grew up misfits too. A friend told me that their child asked them what a hippy was recently, and they gave me as an example. Quite chuffed to be the definition of hippy. What class would you say a hippy was?

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    1. Ha! More Australian slang... "chuffed" I love it!

      Well, I can totally relate to the whole private school thing. I ended up at a private east coast university... a "patriot league" school (just under ivy league) populated with a lot of very rich people, mostly from New York. It was total culture shock. People would talk about their fancy private prep schools, as if everyone in the universe knew what they were and which ones were "better." They drove BMW's wore ridiculously expensive clothes, and were generally the most wasteful and hateful people I'd ever encountered. I think that was my first real taste of upper crust snobbery and it left quite a sour taste in my mouth. One quote from a well-meaning yet ignorant friend sticks in my mind "You know," he said, "I think the worst part about being poor would be being dirty all the time." Oh my!

      I also agree that if poverty breeds green-ness, it's certainly not because of any conscious concern about the environment. I guess poor folk are just less wasteful because they've got less to waste!

      And while I've never heard the word "chuffed" before, I'd be quite honored to be considered an example of a hippy! It's an interesting question, what exactly defines a hippie. I know folks who lived on communes back in the 60's... people who pretty much dropped out of society, some who got deeply into drug culture, others who are peace activists... but I'd be hard-pressed to define which actual characteristics define a "hippy." I'll have to churn on that one for a while!

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    2. I also went to a private east coast university just under the ivy league. Most of the students were from New York also, though I also had friends from Massachusetts, Atlanta, and Iran, and one was from upstate NY (very different than Brooklyn). I attended in 1980 when they were telling us that financial aid would cover anything we couldn't afford, and it was almost true.

      Fortunately I had a better experience than you. The only snobby one I met was a visiting cousin of one of my friends. What surprised me most was how some of their parents insisted on a very limited number of majors. Two of my friends were told they had to become doctors or lawyers. One friend felt that her chemistry class was too dangerous, so she wanted to switch her major from biology to psychology. Her parents flipped, which shocked her. In the end she double-majored in biology and psychology and became a psychiatrist. She did get a BMW for her 16th birthday, but it was a hand-me-down from her grandmother. I did teach her how to make hospital corners. I loved that all my friends enjoyed thinking. I disliked that they were too busy with homework to have enough fun. I spent more time touring the area when my best friend from high school came for a visit and when my parents came up for graduation than I did with my college friends!

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    3. I didn't mean to imply that they were all snobs. There were some great people there too. But I definitely observed an inverse relationship between the amount of money one had and the degree to which they cared about anything but social climbing and binge drinking!

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    4. Good. My school was all about the studying--I didn't even know any binge drinkers although I did manage to end up at a keg party once. (My school got a 1 out of 5 on social life in some national survey. The students were all upset that we didn't get a 2. Heh.)

      I did not notice that relationship, but then I'm not sure I knew how rich anyone was.

      I do, however, know I have a bias against rich people because I think it's hard to make THAT MUCH money without being a jerk. However, I do recognize that it's a nasty bias and I fight against it to try to treat people like the individuals they are.

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    5. Good point about people being individuals. I've known some very wealthy people who were just wonderful human beings.

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  5. Love the post. And, please, if you find out that professor's name, POST IT. He was saying what I've been thinking for a long, long time. The West exports its lifestyle to developing nations saying This Is How YOU Should Live. WRONG! So people in China, Africa, etc who grew the food for their families & did relatively fine, now live in slums in big cities, picking trash to get money to buy food. And, so much of the world is turning into deserts because of raising livestock & farming, where the people were once mostly nomadic. I could go on & on - species disappearing & planting crops for export instead of for food. Communities/countries/peoples evolved to live in harmony with their environment - except for the non-native humans who invaded the "New World" have almost completely destroyed the entire US. We mostly destroy whatever we touch.

    My parents lived in a trailer when they first married in 1936. I refer to myself as trailer trash, even though I've always lived in a mortgaged house. And I don't like snobs, which occur in both middle & upper classes, IMHO. Personally, I've rarely felt as if I fit into much of anything. But, I prefer to look at that as being unique. At least that's my spin on it. Trust me, if I won $100 million in the lottery I could never live like the Rockefellers/Astors/Kennedys/Romneys. I would, at the least, be setting up free spay/neuter clinics everywhere with all that money! Paintings, fine jewelry, expensive wine - what a waste of money. A confirmed Do-Gooder here - guess that's the class I belong to.

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    1. My lottery winning dream involves a large bit of land, with a house the same size (three bedrooms) that we live in now, but lots of land for veg, horses, rescue kitties etc. actually, rescue animals of all types!

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    2. The do-gooder class... I LOVE it!

      I'll have to do some research and see if I can find that guy's name. He was really a fascinating character. He used to say that he thought the downfall of western society was the paper cup, because once people got the idea that something as basic as a cup was disposable, everything became disposable.

      Not sure what I'd do if I won the lottery, but I love the free spay and neuter clinic. How bout we spay and neuter all the republicans! (And for anyone who is getting their panties in a wad about that jab... it was a JOKE!)

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    3. Okay, I'm disappointed. I was tempted to throw that into my comment (spay/neuter Republicans). If I've offended someone, well I've been offended since 2000. But, seriously that would solve the 2 biggest problems on the R agenda - no Rs would need contraception or abortions, right?

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    4. Ha! Somehow, I don't think they're so concerned about themselves having access to contraception and abortion, after all, they've got money, they can always get what they want. They just don't want anybody else to have access!

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    5. You could try contacting the Registrar's Office in your university and ask them to look up the faculty of the class during the time you were taking it. The more you can narrow down the semester, the course number, the course title, and even the day and time, the easier it would be for them.

      If I suddenly had loads of money, my temptations are to build a large ballroom dance hall in the center of town and give the local ballroom dance club free use and dibs. I'd also want to make ultimate frisbee fields and give ultimate players dibs over soccer players. But those aren't do-gooder acts--they are quite selfish! I've also always wanted a gothic sort of mansion/castle, big enough to have lots of houseguests, but now that I know how expensive that would be and how much I probably don't even want houseguests, I'm settling for a small 1950's house in the city.

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    6. Ballroom dancing and ultimate frisbee... not activities I generally think of in the same sentence! :-)

      I will try contacting the university and see if they have any records.

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  6. This is a brilliant post and I agree with you wholeheartedly. I always considered myself working class, but then I am British and if you're born working class in England you'll always be that whether you make money or not. It didn't occur to me that success and money raised me up a notch and, to be honest, I'd actually rather be working class than middle class (which sound so boring doesn't it?).
    Now I'm older and well-travelled, I realise that class comes from within not without. You can have all the dosh in the world, but if you have no kindness, style, grace or manners you'll always be low class. My mother was poor all her life, but managed to get a scholarship to a private school in England which changed her attitude dramatically. Even when we were poor, she acted like she wasn't, which made her a fish out of water always: "putting on airs and graces" they might have called it and they were right, only she wasn't a fake, it was taught. She sounds like your mother. We actually have a lot in common! Anyhow, you've inspired another blog post and I'll link to this because it's so prescient. Thanks and have a lovely Sunday!

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    1. "class comes from within, not without" those are profound words.

      Have you ever seen the "Seven Up" series of documentaries? A group of film makers followed a group of British children from the time they were small children until they were in their 40's. They chose kids from all different socio-economic backgrounds and went back every 7 years to see how they got on. I think the idea was to see how their class affiliations would determine the directions of their lives.

      It's a fascinating study... but it was a bit confusing from an American perspective because it wasn't readily apparent to me which kids were well off and not (the fact that they all wore school uniforms confused me, and I couldn't tell a posh accent from a low-class one if my life depended on it.)

      Anyhow, their conclusion was pretty much that class was fixed, and people couldn't really escape it. I wonder if that's more true in the UK than it is here, or if it's just more accepted.

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    2. I've never seen 7-Up because I didn't buy a television until I got to the States and even then, I didn't have cable so I eventually got rid of it. I have heard of it, however. It sounded really depressing! I believe class is fixed - or affixed! - but it's up to us to shake it off and embrace our individuality. Keeping up with the Joneses, as mentioned here in the comments section, is just another way of trying to fit in. I've never even tried to fit in. To paraphrase Thoreau: you have to blaze your own trail!

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    3. Strangely, I didn't find it at all depressing. I guess I found it to be less about the class issue and more just interesting to watch the directions that their various lives took. I watched it all on Netflix.

      But I heartily agree with the blazing one's own trail thing!

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    4. Ack! That's the name of it! A friend of mine is always telling me to watch those documentaries so that I don't kill my husband for lacking the "upward mobility gene" so common in most Americans (he hates his low-paying job and won't do anything about it). My buddy keeps saying that it is because he's British and it's a cultural thing. So. True.

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    5. The "upward mobility gene" I totally love it! I fear I lack it as well... can't blame it on culture though, just pure laziness!

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    6. My husband is the hardest working man I know. That's why it makes me so crazy. I keep telling him--you can work half as hard for 3 times the pay in a job that you actually enjoy. But what do I know? Feh. Shin kick!

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    7. "a job you actually enjoy." I dunno if such a thing really exists. Personally, I hate the whole idea of a job just on principle. But I suppose if you have to have one, it's best to choose the least onerous and highest paying one you can get.

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  7. Highly educated, low income...sounds like me! I've almost made an art form out of disappointing my middleclass parents. This sounds so snobby, but I don't really identify with being poor even though I don't have a lot of money. Although I've simplified my life voluntarily to keep my costs down, my interests and lifestyle are still fundamentally educated, white, and middleclass. I actually don't think it would be a bad thing for there to be more of us who are low impact out of both necessity and consciousness.

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    1. "made an art form out of disappointing my middleclass parents" I love it! It's funny, I have so totally surrounded myself with folks living the Bohemian lifestyle that I'm generally shocked and horrified when I encounter "normal" people.

      And I'm totally with you in terms of not identifying as poor. I mean, even when I was getting by on $8K a year, I still thought of myself as "middle class."

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  8. I think most Americans consider themselves middle class, regardless of their income, but there is also a group of people who consider themselves working class and are proud of how they actually actually create things at their jobs. But we also like to deny that there are any classes.

    In high school I took sociology where I was taught that class is based on several factors, both monetary and cultural. Monetarily, my family fit in one of the lower classes, but culturally, they were middle class (I remember specifically the example that my parents prefer wine over beer). My grandfathers were both engineers, so perhaps upper-middle class. My parents escaped that class--my dad joined the military and then went into sales. My mom was stay-at-home for a while, then got a nursing degree and then ended up doing bureaucratic work (for insurance companies).

    My boyfriend likes Paul Fussel's Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (1983). He says it was a revelation to him and turned him into a person who is always aware of class. The book says that some people transcend class, and my boyfriend thinks we're in that group. He also likes The Preppy Handbook, which he said tried unsuccessfully to argue that anyone could join the upper-middle class if they just did the right things.

    I'm one of those people who likes to think that our classes are super flexible and mostly irrelevant, though we definitely have loads of cultural islands, even though I've also read Fussel's book. I'm just glad that my favorite subcultures (geeks/nerds and hippie types) allow me to hang with them.

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    1. "most Americans consider themselves middle class, regardless of their income." Now that's a fascinating comment - and probably quite true. I wonder what it says about us culturally... like on some level we all want to think of ourselves as equal? I always shudder when I hear of people making six figure salaries who think of themselves as "middle class" because to me those people are filthy rich. But maybe it's not such a negative thing.

      Hmmm... you've given me a lot to think about!

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    2. Actually, I think we all want to think of ourselves as special. Just watch the traffic! But nobody feels rich (except Warren Buffet and probably Bill Gates and maybe a couple of other people). You can always imagine more stuff you wish you could have. (I go back and forth between feeling rich and poor. Mostly I feel rich because I really can have just about anything I want, though not everything I want all at the same time. Although nowadays, I really do have an amazing amount of stuff I want all at the same time. It quite helps to find cheaper ways to get the stuff you want.)

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    3. Ha! I used to LOVE the TV show "Northern Exposure" and there was a wonderful episode where one of the characters goes to work for the local "rich guy." There's a scene where the rich guy is reading some article about an even richer guy and saying things like "wouldn't it be wonderful to be really rich, to never have to worry about money?" I think therein lies the trap!

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  9. I'm confused right there with you! I grew up in a house considered "middle class". I have highly educated parents who chose to start a family young. They are cultured in some ways and crass in others. I always felt poor, however. They didn't put their money in typical middle class things like a bigger house or nicer cars. Yet we always had food to eat, new clothes every school year, and were involved in activities. I think the way my parents lived actually forced me to deal with the societal pressure to keep up with the Joneses from a very young age.

    As for us now, it's hard. We are technically "upper poor" as I like to say (actually posted on this dilemma), but seem more middle class. On the one hand, we have our house and a car, our kids wear nice clothes, one kiddo is in preschool, etc. Yet, the boys are also on WIC and state health insurance. Since I had never used any government aid before having our first son, I felt very wrong about applying for it. Surely, I wasn't one of those "poor" people! But we are, and we appreciate all of the assistance we have received over the past 4 years. It's funny though because whenever I have to apply for programs, education level is asked. Pretty much every employee is surprised that I have a Bachelor's degree considering my age and income level. I think it's expected that since I have a degree, we should be doing better. If only I could explain that a degree in a social science field does nothing for income lol! Having the experience of now being technically poor, I now have a complete shift of how I think of others. As embarrassing as it is to use the WIC checks while receiving gruff/comments from cashiers and dirty looks from fellow shoppers, I try to keep a smile on my face and never forget the gratitude. My only hope is that more can understand what that shame feels like so that they can be more empathetic in the future.

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    1. Dirty looks from other shoppers? Wow... that's disheartening. I actually know lots of people who have had to rely on social programs to get by. In fact, one of the things that convinced me not to attempt a life as a professional musician was having to fill out Medicare paperwork for so many of the music teachers, just so they could take their kids to see a doctor! I mean these were people with master's degrees and more talent in their little fingers than I could ever hope to posses. It still leaves me shaking my head at how little our society values certain professions.

      But I've always seen voluntary poverty as a sort of badge of honor. It means that you're living your life according to a set of values and ideals that go beyond consumerism. I mean, I'm sure your financial situation is not entirely "voluntary" but on some level it is... because if making money had been a high priority for you, I'm sure you could have easily excelled at it.

      I may have mentioned this before, but my dad had a great deal of guilt about accepting Social Security money... even though you pretty much don't have any choice but to accept it, he's so frugal that he didn't think he needed it. But what made it OK for him was the realization that a huge part of the reason we have social programs like WIC and Social Security is to keep money circulating in the economy rather than have it all locked up in the bank accounts of the uber rich. So he's been on a mission to try to spend all of his Social Security money because he sees it as his civic duty. He's failing miserably, but it's still fun to watch!

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  10. I think we mistake class with money.There are only two classes the working class, that's all of us who work for a living and the upper class folk who have inherited wealth.
    The other class that folk allude to is the "poor";people who can't work because of health(physical or mental)or because there is no work for them...a class that will be expanding as our financial problems worsen.
    I think class is character and how you treat people, especially those we consider the poor class shows whether or not you have it.
    So to choose which class I'm in?Someone mentioned upthread about living in a trailer- which we did for ten years, I think I'd like to be trailer trash.

    Marie

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    1. That's a very interesting way to look at it... those who work and those who don't. So does that mean that I'm now a member of the "leisure class" since I haven't had a job in 6 years? :-)

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    2. We don't work either...retirement is a wonderful thing :) but I consider us members of the working class because that's how we earned our retirement.
      Marie

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  11. Lots to think about here. Big picture, my family is probably middle class. I have a decent salary, bills are paid, and while we do run out of money every month, we never go hungry. But I work with people who make more money than me and don't think of themselves as rich, but have lots of toys like dirtbikes and boats and travel much more than I do.

    My maternal grandparents grew up on farms in Colorado in families that were so poor they "didn't notice" the Great Depression. But they went on to become teachers (my grandpa was a principal when he retired 30+ years ago) and have had a good, stable life with good cars and nice houses.

    My husband's family probably didn't have any less money, but tended to more "lower class" preferences and behaviors than mine. But frankly my mother's family (the one I grew up with) was less elitist and more borderline puritanical.

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    1. So poor they didn't notice the Great Depression! I think my Dad's family would fit into that category too!

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  12. Very interesting post. I definitely grew up poor (and immigrant), but I didn't realize we were poor until I went to college. I met many middle-class kids and even some rich ones, but I was blissfully ignorant since my crowd was mostly other immigrant kids or "alternative/hippie" or pseudo-hippie. I think one of the problems I have with my upbringing is that I still feel more comfortable with poorer people or people who came from lower-income backgrounds. This did not bode well in terms of networking and my career. At the same time, with my education, I'm culturally middle-class for sure. I guess I also don't quite fit anywhere.

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    1. Interesting point about who we feel most comfortable with. I definitely gravitate to the alternative/hippie crowd. I'm starting to wonder if any of us really "fit" anywhere!

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  13. My upper middle class mother always told me to "be nice to everybody" and, while I believe the implication was "you never know who they might become," I met a whole lot of people who turned out to be wonderful nobodies!
    When I worked in radio, I interviewed people from all classes who, for one reason or another, wanted or needed their voices to be heard on an issue. It's funny how class constructs fly out the window when someone's well-being is threatened. Maybe class is just something we "do" when things are going well to distract us from the fact that we're all going to die exactly the same way as the person on the other side of the tracks.

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    1. "Maybe class is just something we "do" when things are going well to distract us from the fact that we're all going to die exactly the same way as the person on the other side of the tracks." Wow - that's an amazing insight, one we should all try to remember more often!

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  14. *is a white liberal from the rural South* (and there are plenty of us!

    Anyhoo, I just want to scream YES to this--"And maybe the "have nots" of this society are really the people who we should be looking to as our environmental role models... as opposed to the Prius driving, organic food eating hipster "green" crowd."

    I haven't read through all the comments yet, but I will add my 2 cents. I was raised in a lower class environment by folks who were raised in the lower class and eventually worked their way into the middle class. And I'm pretty sure that back in the day, class structure had elements of behavior intertwined, but since we are all about the cash now, it only revolves around money these days. Anyhoo, although my income places me firmly in the middle class, I will always consider myself part of the lower classes (primarily, working class). I wrote a post about this called "Poor People" (I think, anyhoo) many moons ago. Basically, I don't think those first identities ever really leave us, and those who try to shed them generally end up looking like asshats.

    Have you ever read the book "Limbo: Blue-Collar Roots, White-Collar Dreams" by Alfred Lubrano? Deals with the issue of class beautifully, and addresses folks like me, who grew up poor but straddle both worlds. Interesting stuff. And I'm too tired and lazy to make any real point here.

    Now, off to read the other comments.

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    1. Hmmm... that sounds like an interesting read... I'll put it on the list, right after I read Married to Bhutan! (Did I mention I'm a lazy bastard?)

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  15. GODDAMMIT CAT READ THAT BOOK BEFORE I KICK YOU IN THE SHIN!

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    1. Eee Gads! I guess it's either read the book or go get some good shin guards!

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