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In the old days class meant where your money came from. The poor got their money from church, government poor houses. They do what they want when they want.
by VLM 5y ago
In the old days class meant where your money came from.
The poor got their money from church, government poor houses. They do what they want when they want.
The working class was the manual labor class. Their nose is to the grindstone when they're at work, but they do no unpaid work.
The middle class was skilled trades, some sweaty like electrician most desk jobs like accountant, but all very month to month. They are perhaps the hardest working class in that they are required to work "for free" on salaried weekends and nights and so forth.
The upper class got all their money from investment. They do what they want when they want.
Clearly your example is upper class.
- droopyEyelids 5y agoYou present a coherent class framework, but it's worth noting the person you reply to isn't wrong. "Class" has always been an overloaded term, and even when you try to split it into Social and Economic Class, there are competing methods for defining it.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y agoYour class breakdown describes someone's "working life". You wouldn't use it to ascribe class to a person aged 12 - you'd use their parents. Likewise, it doesn't really apply after retirement (which the OP was describing). Anyone who is retired "gets all their money from investment". That doesn't make them upper class.
- metalliqaz 5y agoThe main thrust of your post is correct, but your characterization of the classes is... misinformed. The poor and the upper class do what they want when they want? The middle class works harder than the working class? ...What? In reality, the working class were terribly abused in the "old days." Their days were long and hard, and wage theft was (and still is) rife. For them, there was no such thing as a vacation, which is something the middle class could enjoy. The poor were much too sick and weak to do as they pleased. They had to continuously toil in things from begging and scavenging to odd jobs in dangerous places. It is better to think of it like this. Your class depended on ownership. Poor own nothing and in general doesn't have any way to benefit from their own labor. Working class did not own their jobs, but did receive income from their own labor, though only a fraction of its value. Middle class own their own jobs, keeping most of the value of their own labor. Upper class own the means of production, keeping all of the value of their own labor, as well as the value of most of their employee labor.