Well it’s somewhat hereditary. I often see class in the US described as exactly equivalent to which bucket of income/wealth you fall into, which is certainly no

Well it’s somewhat hereditary. I often see class in the US described as exactly equivalent to which bucket of income/wealth you fall into, which is certainly not hereditary and feels obviously wrong too: I think a poorly paid academic or teacher is likely to be considered higher class than a successful used car dealership owner. I say it’s somewhat hereditary because it seems at least a little malleable over people’s lives, at least with university and certain professions socialising people into the middle class. I don’t really understand the subject of the article mattering much in life though. Social class matters a lot in the U.K. but no one asks which class you identify with before they decide how to treat you. Instead, it matters which class you present and I suspect the middle-class-identifying-as-working-class will present as middle class both in obvious ways (e.g. accent, grooming, dress) and more subtle ways (e.g. choice of words or phrases, being able to comfortably/knowledgeably talk about certain things). I also don’t really understand the politics of class or the class people identify as today. Maybe I just have a simplistic view of history, but it seems the ideas of working/middle/upper classes don’t really fit today’s society and I’m often surprised when I see contemporary political arguments based on this class system.