[Closed] What class are you?

or maybe

Class Fool

Thx, I am glad that we agree about, why put yourself in a box? There seems to be an obsession about it (especially here). On a forum yesterday, one bloke was asking another (several times) to identify which professional, background, inside trouser leg box he was in!!! Strange, isn't it?

What I found puzzling about this particular 'test', was that at the end it told me that the 'elite' classes mix with all sorts of people from different backgrounds and professions. Where in reality, the economic elite simply don't. Yet somehow feel qualified to comment on others. There's a diffrence between [i]thinking[/i] you know about stuff, and [i]actually[/i] knowing about it.

Some folk base all of their ideas of society from figures and statistics. Strange, isn't it? 😉

I don't think this fits me at all.

Tehnical Middle Class like many on here but that seems to be mostly as I don't know a wide range of people - mostly professionals. Otherwise I pretty much match the Elite graph.

Maybe it considers me a failure 🙂 in previous generations my family were upper class and I went to public school.

It's just a bit of fun on the BBC website, rather than some definitive work.....

I like to think of myself, as Elite, sub class 'Dangerous'

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I'm going with my Grandpa's classification:

"If you work with your hands in clothing made for the job - you're working class. If you sit on your arse most of the day and go home as clean as you started, you're middle class. If you tell people sitting on their arse, to tell people working with their hands what to do, you're posh."

Charles E Torr.

It's a 'bit of fun' that helps reinforce social boundaries though, in a time when society is becoming increasingly fractured and divided.

I have neighbours who look down on other neighbours, because although they may be in a similar income/wealth bracket, the first group do not accept the second as 'true' middle class. They feel threatened by the johnny-come-lately interlopers, who they believe will devalue their own status. Snobbishness is rampant amongst the insecure.

Snobbishness is rampant amongst the [s]insecure[/s] British.

FIFY

Traditional class identification is often easiest using language as a test - do you say loo or toilet? Sitting room or lounge? Pudding or Dessert?

Technical Middle.

Quelle surprise.

Refuses to take the test.

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Traditional Working.

Which is hilarious for those that actually know me...

Traditional class identification is often easiest using language as a test - do you say loo or toilet?

One would never use such vulgar terms. Perhaps, 'water closet', if one really must refer to that particular convenience (such as when needing to instruct persons employed to service said facility, but seldom on any other occasion, and certainly never in front of a lady).

Of course we probably wouldn't all still be so obsessed with class in this country if we weren't still operating under the feudal system.

One would never use such vulgar terms. Perhaps, 'water closet'...

Oh Wikipedia have more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U_and_non-U_English

Mmn. It does look a bit arbitrary. I had miss read the bit about savings, added my pension and suddenly I'm Elite. Bollocks.

'established middle class' - yay! I think this officially makes me the King of Crumpsall! I'm off out to claim my lands 😀

I had miss read the bit about savings, added my pension and suddenly I'm Elite. Bollocks.

You have a pension. QED 😉

I don't see how I can be Service Class when I'm self-employed and can tell you lot to **** off any time I like...

It's seems to be primarily based on Wealth/income and home ownership. I decided to re-run it with lower income and both renting or claiming to own a sub 125K home, but kept all the other entrys identical and it labeled me "Traditional Working Class" pop in my actual financial circumstances and I'm suddenly "Established middle class"... the truth is I'd have probably labeled myself as "Technical Middle class" without reading the definitions but apparently my house is too cheap or something...

The other thing I noticed is that they've applied an average age against each group (I'm almost a Decade ahead of myself apparently) suggesting that far from being 'Just' social groupings there are more life stages and that you can chart a sort of social/Ecconomic/cultural trajectory for people, seems a bit more like what marketeers like to do, subdividing the population by class, income, cultural interests and age to help them target better...

TBH as a society we are probably are well past the old sociological definitions now, but I think that online class tester is a shade clunky, I'm sure the full survey and work on interpretation they did was a bit more in depth... Right?

I do love it when clearly Middle class people deny their middle class-ness and Start up with the "I'm Working class" nonsense... You work in IT, Drive an Audi, live in a £300K house and ponce about listening to Puccini, A Miner you ain't. Accept it and and move on.

I'm a right old pain the (cl)ass.

The Swedish Chef - Member
Elite......
Must have been the jizz.

Yeah, they do say for the Upper Classes it's all in the breeding... 😀

Amazed to find out I am in the elite 😯 . The classification seems a bit weird tbh, just because I know a CEO, few professionals and own my house I am magically elevated from scumbag to prospective tory parlimentary candidate.

Wahay first time Established Middle Class, then all I changed was people I socialise with to just a Scientist [Toxicsoxs you know what you are]

And suddenly I'm downgraded, thats last time I'm riding with him 😉

Coming from a very definite middle class back ground - from which I distance myself considerably im amused to see I come out as an emergent service worker

It makes me feel like I have really managed to escape my roots

But aside from that the test is rubbish as it doesnt acvount for single peoples incomes just taking a household - does that mean I will go up a class if I decide to settle down?

I prefer to think of myself in a class of my own - its not a brilliant one but its all mine 🙂

But aside from that the test is rubbish

It worries me that you thought a 5 question survey on the BBC website would be anything else...

seems a load of tosh to me-- precariat according to their parameters...

Elite, but I don't fit in.

Dont worry footflaps my intelligence does go further than that - it was a source of amusement for me just as for everyone else 😀

But quite a bit of effort seems to have gone into this:

BBC Lab UK's Great British Class Survey was launched in January 2011. More than 161,000 people took part, making this the largest ever study of class in the UK

The Great British Class Survey was designed and the data analysed by Professors Mike Savage and Fiona Devine and their teams at the London School of Economics and the Universities of York and Manchester

What a bizarre questionnaire!

I'm "Elite", apparently.

-by virtue of knowing all kinds of people and visiting museums, according to the results. Privately educated too, apparently, although I was under the impression that the comprehensive I went to was state-funded.

Who came up with this? A school pupil on work-experience?

I'm educated, inquisitive, have a technical bent and would regard myself as able to mix with most people, although I'm not sure that makes me anything other than "a person".

Nonsense.

New Affluent Class. Strange as my leftover income at the end of the month does not seem to match the word affluent.

'Some of my best friends are black' though so that's good.

But quite a bit of effort seems to have gone into this:

If so, it just shows how low the quality of BBC Researchers is.

The wealth questions just test for age (older people have more wealth) and when you bought a house eg anyone pre Thatcher could easily be sat on £500k or more for what was a £10k house back in the 70s.

Established middle class.

The labels are bollocks though; class as it used to be is becoming less and less distinctly broad and more granular. I just see myself as someone that works, but doesn't own enough land to farm.

emergent service class here... wonder if that'll change when I move into my bought property...

+1

Emergent service worker going on New affluent worker if I were to believe it.

I have absolutely no doubt in mind that this test/survey is completely out of tune with what's really going on, tosh.

I'm warrior class,
I'm in a constant battle with the government, poor manners and other road users.

For instance, today I'm fighting the battle of paying Nottingham city council £10 to replace my wheelie bin which was stolen by a road user.

If I answer it as though I am part of a couple with someone in the same financial situation as me I then become elite - and apparently am likely to have been to uni

Why not just have the questions - are you single and have you been to uni?

It would give a more reliable result and a better reflection of the population

"I know my place"

Two things I noticed from this survey:

The UK now has people in two new classes of society below working class. Progress?

Education isn't surveyed, but your social circle is key.
As ever, it's not what yo know but who you know.

Education isn't surveyed

No longer a differentiator.

When my parents went to University less than 5% of the population went. When I went, only 10% did, now it's just about 50%.

[i]Why? Because of the perceived 'glamour' associated with that notion, brought about through various mythical constructs created by those with a vested interest in categorising people within a society? Why allow yourself to be put in a box? [/i]

You're looking at it from the wrong angle. It's not that people, including myself, want to be associated with working class particularly (although the percieved ideals are another matter), it's that we don't want to be associated with the middle class.

Mainly because they appear to be a bunch judgemental, arrogant ****s who think they own the place. I don't want to be associated with a group of fairly useless middle managers with BMW's and AUDI's and 50 inch TV's, who have kids named Tarquin and Flossy, wear red trousers and buy authentic hand made furniture from 'farm sales'. I'm not like that so I resent the 'box' middle class.

I'm fine with working class because the ideals I would associate with working class (hard working, not afraid to get my hands dirty, support the masses etc) are ones that reflect my perception of myself.

How true any of the points are above is irrelevant. It's why I don't like the middle class box and I suspect I'm not the only one.

It's all a bit of a laugh though, I admitted I'm middle class and I'll just carry on operating as I am. Only the people are the far ends of the spectrum will take any class structure seriously.

Emergent service worker and over 40

Not good

[s]traditional working class[/s] oops missed a question out, "established middle class", hmmm don't think so

pretty silly questions but then again the class system is bloody stupid to begin with

I just dont want be in a box, my grandmother bought me up to have respect for all

Middle class - working class it didn't matter the only category she looked down her nose at were nouveau-riche, not that she had anything against people being sucessful it was more the lack of taste the exhibited when spending their cash

Maybe you can tell the nouveau riche by the bikes they ride . . . .

😀

Mainly because they appear to be a bunch judgemental, arrogant **** who think they own the place. I don't want to be associated with a group of fairly useless middle managers with BMW's and AUDI's and 50 inch TV's, who have kids named Tarquin and Flossy, wear red trousers and buy authentic hand made furniture from 'farm sales'. I'm not like that so I resent the 'box' middle class.

I'm fine with working class because the ideals I would associate with working class (hard working, not afraid to get my hands dirty, support the masses etc) are ones that reflect my perception of myself.

I think part of the point that was being made is that a great, great many of those people you despise self-identify in exactly the same way you do.

Elite 8)

Class is irrelevant and used by lazy people to justify their poor life choices.

I know people who would probably be considered "lower" class that act with more intelligence, better social graces and are more successful than so-called "upper" class people.

Yes, I know: That is probably a very "middle-class" thing to say, but it is true: You can do anything you put your mind to and you shouldn't be pigeon-holed.

I am underclass. Non-class. In a constant state of anxiety due to the dishonest ****s who lead my country and the world.

I keep getting knock backs, so any aspiration I had has been totally destroyed. That's saying something for this once text book persevering and ambitious Capricorn. My degree and masters now almost irrelevant.

I don't need no effing test to tell me wot class I am.... 😳

I'm a council house boy gone bad.

Mods - can we Elite users get a logo like the Premier clique?

Bottom of the class, round the back of the bike sheds smoking and snogging girls 😛

I am underclass. Non-class. In a constant state of anxiety due to the dishonest **** who lead my country and the world.

I keep getting knock backs, so any aspiration I had has been totally destroyed. That's saying something for this once text book persevering and ambitious Capricorn. My degree and masters now almost irrelevant.

Nice. Blame everyone else. Oh, and further points off for referring to astrology.

[i]I think part of the point that was being made is that a great, great many of those people you despise self-identify in exactly the same way you do. [/i]

Precisely.
/polishes AUDI.

Mainly because they appear to be a bunch judgemental, arrogant **** who think they own the place. I don't want to be associated with a group of fairly useless middle managers with BMW's and AUDI's and 50 inch TV's, who have kids named Tarquin and Flossy, wear red trousers and buy authentic hand made furniture from 'farm sales'. I'm not like that so I resent the 'box' middle class.

Bit like saying all working class people are ignorant and bigoted and their only entertainment is football, booze and fighting though.

Almost all my school friends were thoroughly middle class and I don't recognise any of the above quote. To me that sounds more like upper class or at least upper-middle. 🙂

Maybe you can tell the nouveau riche by the bikes they ride . . . .

People with Gears, can't stand them, thinking money will buy them speed.....

Bit like saying all working class people are ignorant and bigoted and their only entertainment is football, booze and fighting though.

You mean they're not? 😉

I know people who would probably be considered "lower" class that act with more intelligence, better social graces and are more successful than so-called "upper" class people.

'Twas always thus. Look at Victorian working men's societies, and you often find a miner who is also an expert on Tuscan pottery or a lathe operator who also knows all about the life of Mendelsohn, and is happy to give a lecture on it.

Money can buy you speed (wouldnt recommend it though!)

And it can also buy you epo - which is probably a more middle class version 😀

samuri - Member
Mainly because they appear to be a bunch judgemental, arrogant **** who think they own the place. I don't want to be associated with a group of fairly useless middle managers with BMW's and AUDI's and 50 inch TV's, who have kids named Tarquin and Flossy, wear red trousers and buy authentic hand made furniture from 'farm sales'. I'm not like that so I resent the 'box' middle class.

Whilst surrounded by the people described above, we choose to drive modest, dirty, class-less cars with no external baubles.

I don't own any red trousers.

We have a CRT(!) TV

We buy things when we need them and we have quite a bit of stuff that was being thrown-out by friends and relatives.

Incidentally, the wealthiest, [i]old-money[/i] people I know are similar, albeit with much more in the way of assets and living in rambling piles rather than a suburban semi....

Maybe the survey was correct, but I don't really have the wealth to match the attitude....

I'm fine with working class because the ideals I would associate with working class (hard working, not afraid to get my hands dirty, support the masses etc) are ones that reflect my perception of myself.

I know people who would probably be considered "lower" class that act with more intelligence, better social graces and are more successful than so-called "upper" class people.

Wealth is not an indicator of intellect.

It's not that people, including myself, want to be associated with working class particularly (although the percieved ideals are another matter), it's that we don't want to be associated with the middle class.

Mainly because they appear to be a bunch judgemental, arrogant **** who think they own the place. I don't want to be associated with a group of fairly useless middle managers with BMW's and AUDI's and 50 inch TV's, who have kids named Tarquin and Flossy, wear red trousers and buy authentic hand made furniture from 'farm sales'. I'm not like that so I resent the 'box' middle class.

So, no arrogance or judgemental prejudice there then...

I'm fine with working class because the ideals I would associate with working class (hard working, not afraid to get my hands dirty, support the masses etc) are ones that reflect my perception of myself.

So other classes are incapable of 'getting their hands dirty' and 'supporting the masses' then?

You're looking at it from the wrong angle

Am I? Really? 🙄

Apparently I'm traditional working class...

I am Elite 8)
bow down to my over-inflated London house value 😈

Snobbishness is rampant amongst the insecure.

Certainly in my experience, that is absolutely the case.

Class is irrelevant and used by lazy people to justify their poor life choices.

Very true

Wealth is not an indicator of intellect.

The snobby insecure lazy sorts would say otherwise.

Double post

What a daft survey.

Emergent service worker... actually, 'emergency service worker' is not such a bad description of my job (NHS).

That said, the poshest class of all is 'destitute aristocrat' - one cannot simply [i]buy[/i] that. 8)

Guessing we're all Proletariat really, apart from a select few....

Apparently I'm "comfortably well off and secure": a contributing factor to me being Established Middle Class. Just HTF do they know sh1t like this? Oh wait a sec, they don't ... it's just the usual BS spin.

"New Affluent Worker". 😀

Are [s]young [/s] 40-something
Come from a working class background
Own their own home

Two out of three right ain't bad I suppose.

Got some worryingly mental and unrepresentative results until I spotted the "after tax" caveat in the household income section.

Technically none of us are working right now, just reading this shit so where does a time thief fall into the class system?

[i]Am I? Really? [/i]

Yep, You were asking why I wanted to be put into a box and I said I didn't. Hence the wrong angle.

Really fella, chill out. You appear to be taking this way to seriously, make yourself a camomile tea or something.

Emergent Service Worker here. Clearly I listen to the wrong genre of music...

Emergent Service Worker here. Clearly I listen to the wrong genre of music...

Only a very high earner could appreciate such a thing as Jazz.

Snobbishness is rampant amongst the insecure.

Including it seems inverse snobbishness.

You were asking why I wanted to be put into a box and I said I didn't.

Erm, except that you did:

I'd like to be seen as working class but only because I'm a northerner.

😕

Really fella, chill out. You appear to be taking this way to seriously, make yourself a camomile tea or something.

I'm sorry, it's just that when people say one thing then claim they didn't, even though they actually did, I get a tad confused. 😳

Look! I put this in a box. If you too would like to be in a box, stick your photo in a quote.

I apologise unreservedly.

never mind

[i]Only a very high earner could appreciate such a thing as Jazz. [/i]

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Niiice.

According to the survey: Established middle class

What I believe myself to be: Working class

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8535/8616149583_6633d0574e_b.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8535/8616149583_6633d0574e_b.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/58162507@N07/8616149583/ ]Elite![/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/58162507@N07/ ]SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

According to the survey, I'm established middle class - but as soon as I take out the savings/share values it drops to Emergent Service Worker. Bit of an oversimplified survey, but then I guess I would always describe myself as middle class I reckon, so maybe not so wrong. Definitely not a class warrior or faux-working class pretender for sure. But then I was born in Essex.......

The Beeb are pushing this one:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21953364