Hellobee Boards

@ShootingStar: I could have written this post (except I got an old Camry). We live in the Boston area as well. I actually often wonder how "normal middle class" people make it work here. We are definitely in the "upper" range and still feel pinched sometimes. I don't think these class definitions can be broadly applied to "Americans" without regard to cost of living. Someone making the low end of "middle class" here would not even be able to afford basic rent/mortgage plus daycare.

@Bao: to me, that's "working class." In historical terms, I tend to think of "the lower classes" as "not upper class." But again, those terms are based more on inherited wealth vs. working for wealth. In that sense, both the working and the middle class are "lower classes." I would say upper and lower working class and upper and lower middle class then distinguishes income.

One thought on class from the resident history nerd:

Remember that the idea of class is a societal construct. There's no such thing as class, until we give it meaning. So, what society's idea of class is can change from country to country, region to region, decade to decade. Generally, the working class came to be seen as such around the 1850s with Karl Marx, and from there, people assigned names to pre-existing and evolving social dynamics. I think this goes to show that it matters what group people feel they're in. Yes, it rubs me the wrong way when people who are relatively well off (meaning, they get by, little debt, some savings, retirement accounts, etc) say they're lower class and insecure, when relative to the working poor who live paycheck to paycheck, they're not. On the other hand, though, just because you have and meet your financial goals is not a bad thing! You can still identify with a middle class values system, which is why I think the upper middle class comes to be a term favored by many. And that's ok, too

@LovelyPlum: Yes, imo the word "class," is kind of a misnomer. The way I define class has more to do with values vs. income. Even talking dollars, a person can make $25K and if they have a 4 year degree, they are middle class, imo, when discussing class as in the dollar sense.

I see a lot of people talking about student loans and how that makes the difference between "being" upper class and "feeling" upper class. I can understand that myself (husband has 90k of student loan debt that, let's be honest, he will never pay off!), but I'm not sure it works to think that way, because many/ possibly most? people who go to college have debt. And most middle class jobs require a college degree. At this point, educational debt is the price of admission for being a part of the middle class. I would almost be like saying you'd be middle class if it weren't for your car payment....without considering that your car gets you to your middle class job, and thus is necessary (although you know, some people are still driving their high school cars, and other people have upgraded, so there is some variation I will admit). My husband certainly couldn't have paid for a professional degree out of pocket but what middle class job could he have gotten without one? And I think this is probably true for most people. So many of my students are returning to college because their old career dried up. I hope that makes sense.