MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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Discuss . . .
[url] https://www.indy100.com/article/16-belongings-that-reveal-if-youre-middle-class-7327241 [/url]
Nope. I only have one of those - a few vinyl records that have not been touched for 20 years and I am as middle middle as they come. Nurse son of teachers.
They seem to have the strangest list of items - where are the burr grinders etc?
vinyls
I am going to post that mother****er some anthrax.
I'm pretty sure I bought a spiralizer the last time this thread came up
Ah - please ignore if it's been done already
Double posh me
Our book case is bigger than the tele
Proudly middle class, just not the middle class that they are projecting.
I have old vinyl records. That's it.
But then again I don't even come close to being whatever middle class is?
It's clearly accurate: I am working class and I own none of those items listed.
Tenuously related...
I was on a train between Manchester and Leeds yesterday. A group of 30-somethings were discussing breakfast cereal. One of them had this insight: "Porridge: that's what posh people 'ave. It's just Ready Brek though int it?"
Zero for me but I think that is because I am tight fisted rather than anything else 😉
But then again I don't even come close to being whatever middle class is?
Middle class is about being educated and balanced enough not to have a chip on the shoulder.
I own two, some old vinyl and a woodburner (the only heating in the house) but don't know what four of them are, and they sound so naff I can't be bothered to Google. Ignorance is bliss.
Ha ha you've just made me laugh CaptainSQ I know plenty of middleclass people with chips on their shoulders. Although they are probably lightly fried hand cut sweet potato chips, rather than McCains
Some people are in a class of their own.
Don't be a sheep. 😛
Smart TV, Dyson, BBQ, wood burner (x2), and coasters.
I'm really not middle class in the slightest!
Bbq and woodburner here
To be fair I had a bbq when I was a student also.
Oops, 8 here
Ha ha you've just made me laugh CaptainSQ I know plenty of middleclass people with chips on their shoulders. Although they are probably lightly fried hand cut sweet potato chips, rather than McCains
Not the real deal. Obvs.
8 here, however I don't see myself as middle (middle) class. After all I have to work to pay for things.
Zero for me!
It quite simple. Glance left and right and count the number of chips on each shoulder
no chips = upper class
1 chip (on the left) = middle class labour voter
1 chip (on the right) = middle class tory
2 chips = working class
bag of chips = white van man
I have a 10 year old Dyson we bought off a bloke who buys their warranty returns by the pallet and does them up.
I have a Weber barbecue. I got it off Freecycle.
I have a collection of vinyl.
I have two woodburners, both made by myself from old gas canisters.
My partner bought a spiraliser, much to my dismay.
I have some coasters made out of old sprockets. They're different sizes but they kind of match.
I'm making a hot tub out of pedauk benchtops I got free from work.
So according to the quiz I'm very middle class, which is true, but I think the key point here is quizzes like this tell you foxtrot alpha about individuals.
What is a spiralizer ?
It's strange because I had bree and cranberry paninis for my dinner but balanced it out with chips and corned beef for my supper.
Middle class is riding 26ers when you could afford new bikes, because y'know, overconsumption, it's so bad for the environment.
I have a Weber barbecue. I got it off Freecycle.
That's MORE middle class than simply buying one.
7.
Smart TV, but it's shit. BBQ? WTF? Everyone's got a BBQ. How can you not buy a "set of matching" coasters? Do you buy odd ones? Henry not a Dyson. Function over form.
Guilty as charged with a wood burner and iMac.
I was once called posh because I was going to lunch.
I'm as common as muck me. Proper dragged up.
Only 2. Vinyl and coasters. The coasters are HMV ones though, so match the vinyl. Extra marks?
What is a spiralizer ?
Gods own invention
captainsasquatch - Member
But then again I don't even come close to being whatever middle class is?Middle class is about being educated and balanced enough not to have a chip on the shoulder.
What I meant was that I am somewhere down the low level. But that's okay, I neever understood the class system anyway? I actually don't even know what makes someone a certain class?
I work. So I guess I am working class?
I need to ask my butler if these items can be found in any of my homes.
Looking at the list and % of ownership - not many middle class people have many of the things in that list.
I've only got the vinyl.
Well, I've got a six year old Mac Mini, so scratching the surface, but that's about it.
Although it's plugged into my seven year old Sony Bravia, so it kinda makes my telly a 'Smart TV', I guess.
And I do have a load of vinyl; it's all from befor 1982, when I started buying CD's, so does that count?
Ah, bollocks, it's just a load of journalistic crap designed to help socially inadequate idiots feel better about themselves.
🙄
zeds dead - two different systems of classification - marxist where you have the owners of capital and the working class or socioeconomic where you have people divided into classes according to education levels and type of work. As an Engineer you are lower middle class I think.
University education automatically middle class. University educated parents - automatically middle class. Paid monthly - probably middle class.
these things always amuse me as folk claim to be working class when they clearly are not. They might have working class roots ( I do) but so many folk claim to be working class when they are not
I'm sure we could put together a better list...
Maybe:
Juicer
coffee maker
BMW/Audi/Merc bought new
Wool carpets
SIPP & ISAs
I'd say some of those items are quite chav
What is a spiralizer ?
A means of creating your courgetti at home, obvs.
Hot tubs are middle class? Ok then hahaha!
So I guess I am working class?
As tJ mentions above, lots of people call themselves working class when they aren't. I don't know if people like to fell hard done by and that they've dragged themselves up despite the disadvantages they faced.
<- That seems to be as much about attitudes as an economic thing.Britons have clung to working-class values even when they have moved up in the income scale. Nearly half of people in managerial and professional occupations identify as working class.
I had an interesting conversation with someone at work a few years ago who was moaning about the education system and financial support, and how they have to pay for everything for their daughter to go to uni because the support systems only apply if you're right at the bottom. If you're "just managing" like them then there's no help for you, "and you might as well give up work so you can get some help". She probably earns somewhere around the national average but her husband is a very senior manager in a £billion business, not quite one of the founding directors, but about as close as you can get without being one. They both get a brand new Audi every 2 years, they bought a brand new VW for the 'impoverished' daughter as soon as she finished uni ("but we're not spoiling her, we're making her pay for the petrol"), she casually mentioned that they'd spent £12,000 on a family holiday to Thailand which was the year after they went to Mexico, which was the year after the Dominican Republic....
But if you asked her she'd probably say she was working class, or just about in the bottom of middle class. It's strange.
1/16. The overriding feeling from that little list isn't about class, it's that the only item on that list I own is a bloody suitcase.
It's strange because I had bree and cranberry paninis for my dinner but balanced it out with chips and corned beef for my supper.
What did you have for your Tea?
What did you have for your Tea?
You mean with your tea? Why a digestive biscuit of course.
I scored 7 , I feel ashamed.
No on second thoughts I don't care what others think
But the things on the list I don't have like a smart tv would be concidered normal for many people regardless of income
Is class about income ? For those that aspire maybe
Confused, I own all of them, but never though I was middle class. Then I do also own half of Galloway...
1 out of 16. the telly. keep the red flag flying.
It's a bit of shit. statistics- especially from no. 4 onwards Does it mean that if you own any of the items from the list that you are NOT middle class ?
1. Smart TV (owned by 42% of middle class households)
2. Dyson vacuum cleaner (owned by 38% of middle class households)
3. Barbeque (owned by 31% of middle class households)
4. Vinyl records (owned by 17% of middle class households)
5. iMac (owned by 12% of middle class households)
6. Nutribullet (owned by 11% of middle class households)
7. Antler or Samsonite luggage (owned by 10% of middle class households)
8. Wood burning stove (owned by 9% of middle class households)
9. Spiralizer (owned by 8% of middle class households)
10. Mulberry bag (owned by 5% of middle class households
11. Matching coasters (owned by 5% of middle class households)
12. Boiling water taps (owned by 4% of middle class households)
13. Hot tub (owned by 4% of middle class households)
14. Aga range cooker (owned by 4% of middle class households)
15. Smeg fridge (owned by 4% of middle class households)
16. Brompton bike (owned by 3% of middle class households)
If only 3% of middle class households own a Brompton then surely it's a fairly rare thing, unless my undesrstanding of numbers an' that is rubbish. As Bromptons are for commuting and the upper classes don't need to work then it seems like 97% of Bropmtons are owned by blue collar workers.
Lobby +1 looks like they were scraping the content barrel for that.
I'm almost certainly "middle class" by education, background and career path (although dad's side of the family are more from a skilled labour background) but I don't subscribe to the social climbing, status and stuff based clap trap that everyone seems to attribute to that class.
What was that comment about the BBQ about? Ffs it's just a cooker that you can use in the sunshine and/or to make nice smokey things in. It's not a bloody lifestyle accessory.
If the definition of middle class is just someone with too much disposable income who buys the latest gadget fad, then this list is a pretty accurate guide.*
*Apart from all the couple of items I own off it, which are of course necessities in the modern age.
And Dyson instead of Miele? I don't think so.
What did you have for your Tea?
You mean with your tea?
Why a digestive biscuit of course.
You must be a light eater.
Tea is (1) an excellent drink and (2) pie and chips before 730pm.
Smart TV, but it's a cheapo Hitachi 32"
Dyson, but it's a DC01
That's it.
You're only working class if you stopped going to football when they made you sit down.
We're definitely middle class, I don't need a list to tell me that.
None,
Working Class, will always be working class.
'Middle Class' is a propaganda excorsize invented by the rich to get working class people to vote for policies that benefit the rich, by telling them "hey, you're rich too, don't let [i]those[/i] people hold you back, don't let [i]those[/i] people take our money, don't let [i]those[/i] people run the country".
If you don't have to work to make your way through life, you're upper class,
If you have to work to make your way through life, you're working class because however well you think you've done for yourself, you're only a decent doze of bad luck away from the bottom and no amount of Smart TVs or Bromptons will save you.
A smart TV? I thought middle classes eschew television in favour of bracing walks in the day and a game scrabble in the evening.
I have quite a few of those things... but I work manually most of the time, and in person poo.
Does the latter counter the list???
😉
New thread title needed
Can [s]you[/s] we tell your 'class' from your [s]possessions[/s] confessions . .
I'm middle class apparently. Well, actually I would class myself as middle class - its not a bad thing is it?
3/16. I'm still middle class though. Even though I was the first person in my family to do an A-level, my grandparents were train drivers and housemaids, and I've never earned the average wage for my age, I'm still middle class.
and Hot tubs are a [b]vastly[/b] expensive luxury item - how is that possibly not middle class? 😆
these things always amuse me as folk claim to be working class when they clearly are not. They might have working class roots ( I do) but so many folk claim to be working class when they are not
this x 1000000. I generally think that people who insist the most vigourously on forums (or the guardian comments pages) about how they're [I]definitely not middle class[/I] doth protest way, way too much.
this x 1000000. I generally think that people who insist the most vigourously on forums (or the guardian comments pages) about how they're definitely not middle class doth protest way, way too much.
As the conditions for entry into this completely made up group of people is ownership of a short collection of consumer items, I guess you can be whatever you want to be. Well not upper class though, that is a private club that doesn't accept new member often, if at all.
Hot tubs are middle class? Ok then hahaha!
I've always had those down as a bit chav.
I've just nipped to the 24 hour garage and made myself middle class! Who said social mobility in Britain was dead? Stella anyone? 😀
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Just the job if Greggs is shut.
these things always amuse me as folk claim to be working class when they clearly are not.
Surely, by definition, if you [i]have[/i] to work for a living then you're working class?
No matter what you tell yourself? Its only the independently wealthy who don't [i]need[/i] too who aren't
Trying to elevate yourself above that 'working class' label (oh the shame!) by virtue of what supermarket you shop at, while paying a premium to do so, and sneering at those who can't/don't/won't play the same silly game, just has you down as a desperately insecure, status-obsessed mug whos ripe for exploitation by marketeers who are sat back laughing their tits off at your desperate Hyacinth Bouquet-esque neurosis, and delusions of grandeur?
They're the ones who cooked up the whole 'middle class' thing in the first place, so they can flog you shiny, overpriced things you don't need. Preferably on credit
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Surely, by definition, if you have to work for a living then you're working class?No matter what you tell yourself? Its only the independently wealthy who don't need too who aren't
isn't that a bit reductive though? Then you basically have the aristocracy plus a few of the older STWers here who could retire if they wanted to flog the Porsche and the buy to let, and everyone else.
I consider myself middle class because I work indoors in a job that isn't dangerous. If I lost this job, I could probably find another office job for £20K that I could do. Which means that, compared to those at the real sharp end, I'm pretty insulated from the worst of it. And I'm hugely grateful for that.
It does beg the question of what 'classes' are actually [I]for[/I] in 2016 though. Obviously the labour movement was needed because working people needed a voice, at a time when the middle class was very small. And now the situation has changed dramatically - though with the rise of zero hour jobs and automation, we may find large swathes of people being dragged down an economic rung and towards financial precariousness once again. So perhaps it will become more relevant again, soon?
I still pull firewood out of skips though. My parents taught me well 😆
I've got loads of records. But I certainly ain't got no class.
Personally I think its all 'divide and rule' stuff. Convince those slightly better educated/higher earners/a bit luckier, that they are a class above 'the workers, then you've less chance of any solidarity forming.
Call it 'aspirational' and you can even charge them a premium to do it
Then decimate the pay and conditions of the working class by removing/outsourcing the jobs/industries they depend on
Its no coincidence to me that it was in the 80's that we had the whole middle class being pushed. And what does it mainly focus on? Possessions. Aspiration. Stuff. While they simultaneously dismantled the old working class heavy industries.
its going to be interesting now that technology/outsourcing starts to increasingly shrink what is now referred too as the middle class
We've all been duped. By shiny stuff we don't need, payed for on credit. IMHO. By those who most definitely aren't working or middle class, who are happy to supply the lines of credit
We're like some bunch of isolated natives in the jungle, dazzled by shiny beads
Ah, class.
Surely the most British of the self imposed, fearful, curtain twitching paranoias we use to limit ourselves?
One thing's for sure, you can't buy it.
Be here now, folks.
🙂
Those items define you as 'nouveau riche' / 'new money', most certainly not middle class.
Pjay / doris - thats the marxist definition of class - those who own capital and those who merely have their labour to sell.
socioeconomic class ie working / middle / upper is defined by your education and your job mainly with some influence on your upbringing. Its nothing to do with wealth. for example a lorry driver would be working class despite earning more than a middle class nurse
dragon - MemberThose items define you as 'nouveau riche' / 'new money', most certainly not middle class.
True Dragon. But its academic really. As I doubt the people who aspire to it could tell you the difference. And thats a blurring of boundaries that's been deliberately created
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isn't that a bit reductive though? Then you basically have the aristocracy [i]plus a few of the older STWers here who could retire if they wanted to flog the Porsche and the buy to let[/i], and everyone else.
But, really, when it boils down to it, that's all you have.
I think we assume that because we talk a certain way, act a certain way and do certain things that make us 'middle class' we're insulated from hitting rock bottom, but it's an illusion.
For the 'upper class' this might be true, it's more than just money, it's a real, proper club when you don't have to worry about paying bills or keeping a roof over your head because if push comes to shove one of your old mates from your posh school will throw you a job, or your uncle owns half of Shrewsbury and you can lodge at one of his places until it all blows over.
For the rest of us, it’s all very fragile, you might be Mr. Upper Management, driving your 5 series from your office back to your 4-bed detached in the suburbs, but you’ve got a lifestyle, not some cast-iron right to all of that, it can all be taken away – the 2008 crash saw a lot of people reminded, in very stark terms that it wasn’t their right to be ‘wealthy’, I’ve seen something as relatively mundane as a ill thought out affair, drink driving conviction or in my case a badly timed accident right after a redundancy bring someone who on the face of it ‘had it all’ down to the Council looking for emergency accommodation.
For the 99%, however well you did at school, however glittering your career or how many Dysons you own, you are living on your wits – you leave the safety of your family home at 21 or whatever and you’re on your own. If you work hard and you’re lucky you might get to the point when you can weather a pretty decent sized storm for, a month, 2 months, 6 months? A year out of work? I think that would be a long-stretch for most people, and if you’re lucky you might just reach the point when you don’t have to work anymore before you’re too worn out for anything but a state pension and day time TV, but most don’t/
If you have to work, you’re working class, don’t be fooled into thinking because you’ve worked hard and can buy a Smart TV now that firstly you have to buy one so everyone else knows you’ve worked hard, or it some way you’re special, you’re not – you might have marketable skills, you might be paid for your ideas and not just because you’re cheaper than a robot, but you’re just slightly better paid working class, don’t be fooled into thinking you’re rich and should start voting and acting accordingly.
'Middle Class' is a propaganda excorsize invented by the rich to get working class people to vote for policies that benefit the rich, by telling them "hey, you're rich too, don't let those people hold you back, don't let those people take our money, don't let those people run the country".
If you don't have to work to make your way through life, you're upper class,
If you have to work to make your way through life, you're working class because however well you think you've done for yourself, you're only a decent doze of bad luck away from the bottom and no amount of Smart TVs or Bromptons will save you.
Agreed
I work. I drive an 11 year old banger. I have a mortgage. I don't go on holidays abroad. I don't have loads of hi-tec stuff.
I do view every human the same. Either a good guy or a ****
meh!
i scored 4 so apparently i'm a little middle class...utter bollocks!!
i doubt it makes a difference if i had all of the items on that list...i know i'm from a working class background and no amount of money will change that for me...i'm working class and dare i say it...i'm proud of that fact
Rather hoping not to be classed as vulgar! but borderline - does the woodburner have to be a stove? 😉 Inherited that though from previous.
What is a smeg fridge?
What happens if people are paid annually?
P-Jay your analysis is too simplistic as there is a middle class who don't necessarily have to work, but do and are still a long way from upper class. Think older doctors, lawyers, vets, accountants, also add in some engineers, scientists and professors. But it is also a mindset thing, that can rather simplistically be defined as learning on the tools, vs learning on via formal education.
What is a smeg fridge?
A fridge
+1 for Binners.