I have always thought of it this way: - Lower class: convert social good into survival, dependent on others for basic survival - Middle class: convert work in

I have always thought of it this way: - Lower class: convert social good into survival, dependent on others for basic survival - Middle class: convert work into survival, provide for yourself and maybe your family - Upper class: convert capital into survival, provide for yourself, your family and potentially society. I stopped saying lower/middle/upper colloquially and started saying simply dependent, middle class or capital class.