3 ms·

Both the middle class and upper middle class can and frequently do operate with no "real" safety net, especially before age 40. Those people sending their kids

Both the middle class and upper middle class can and frequently do operate with no "real" safety net, especially before age 40. Those people sending their kids to private school and have a nice house can and are leveraged like crazy, and can't afford a big layoff, economic downturn, or huge emergency medical bills. Upper middle class delineation to me isn't about security, its about being able to scrounge better quality things. Sure, there's money put away in a 401k, investments etc. > The upper middle class is unconcerned with skills and only concerned with leeching off of the upper class. I've seen in broken down before as separate ladders according to social class - Lower class, Working class, Upper Middle class, and Elite class, with different values and principles for each. Is the successful county plumber who owns several businesses upper class, despite blue collar values? There's a delineation here between economic and social classes.

fjsolwmv 9y ago
Small business owner was the original middle class, "bourgeoisie". Ben Franklin was a member of the middle class,and he believed that middle class -- where anyone could take a vacation to run for government office -- was essentially to democt Im modern world, the working class started being called middle class so they woul stop complaining about their poor lot in life.
- dragonwriter 9y ago
  > Small business owner was the original middle class, "bourgeoisie". “Business owner” was the original (well, feudal) middle class named the “bourgeoisie”, they became the capitalist upper class (with the same name.) Small business owners (more particularly, those who live by applying largely their own labor to their own capital) are the middle class (“petit bourgeoisie”) in the original descriptions of capitalist economies. > Im modern world, the working class started being called middle class so they woul stop complaining about their poor lot in life. No, the higher income subset of the working class got called the middle class to forestall the development of common working class identity.
notabee 9y ago
This is the link you're referencing, right? I also found it a useful model of how social and economic ranks can substantially but not completely overlap. https://web.archive.org/web/20151006183427/https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/the-3-ladder-system-of-social-class-in-the-u-s/ https://web.archive.org/web/20151006183427/https://michaeloc...
- taurath 9y ago
  Yeah that was it - I found it a really good primer for starting to think about social class as a construct, however there is a lot more inter-class mingling and subtlety that isn't covered there, which is I think why he eventually took it down, because once you really start to think about it its not that hard to pick apart, and probably doesn't reflect his current views anyway. The simplicity of only "4" ladders leaves out maybe the majority of people, especially in the US. People's and communities values just tend not to fit into those categories, and tends to be more an expression of each person's individual and group experiences. The idea of alternate ladders based on values, how that ties into money and economics, and how groups can become inaccessible to each other, is a worthwhile and big idea I think to hold onto.

fjsolwmv 9y ago

Small business owner was the original middle class, "bourgeoisie". Ben Franklin was a member of the middle class,and he believed that middle class -- where anyone could take a vacation to run for government office -- was essentially to democt Im modern world, the working class started being called middle class so they woul stop complaining about their poor lot in life.

dragonwriter 9y ago
> Small business owner was the original middle class, "bourgeoisie". “Business owner” was the original (well, feudal) middle class named the “bourgeoisie”, they became the capitalist upper class (with the same name.) Small business owners (more particularly, those who live by applying largely their own labor to their own capital) are the middle class (“petit bourgeoisie”) in the original descriptions of capitalist economies. > Im modern world, the working class started being called middle class so they woul stop complaining about their poor lot in life. No, the higher income subset of the working class got called the middle class to forestall the development of common working class identity.

notabee 9y ago

This is the link you're referencing, right? I also found it a useful model of how social and economic ranks can substantially but not completely overlap. https://web.archive.org/web/20151006183427/https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/the-3-ladder-system-of-social-class-in-the-u-s/ https://web.archive.org/web/20151006183427/https://michaeloc...

taurath 9y ago
Yeah that was it - I found it a really good primer for starting to think about social class as a construct, however there is a lot more inter-class mingling and subtlety that isn't covered there, which is I think why he eventually took it down, because once you really start to think about it its not that hard to pick apart, and probably doesn't reflect his current views anyway. The simplicity of only "4" ladders leaves out maybe the majority of people, especially in the US. People's and communities values just tend not to fit into those categories, and tends to be more an expression of each person's individual and group experiences. The idea of alternate ladders based on values, how that ties into money and economics, and how groups can become inaccessible to each other, is a worthwhile and big idea I think to hold onto.