What Do The Terms Upper Class, Middle Class And Lower Class Mean To You? Is It All About Money, Or Upbringing?

[Abbot]

No matter what economic situation I'd be in, I'd never consider myself "lower" class. I don't care if I was living in a shelter, with nothing but the shirt on my back, I know I am not "lower" than anyone.Life gives us challenges, shocks, and surprises, but in my mind, I know the difference between lower, middle, and higher class, and none of it has to do with money. It's more about an attitude toward humanity, and integrity.As far as I'm concerned, you could be a ditch digger, and have a higher class mind than some of these rich people who are only concerned about aquiring things, cars, having money, etc.I have seen a lot of this stuff on t.v. lately, with the economics the way they are, and it annoys me, no end.Well, I guess it always has.How do you feel about this? Do you judge people by the money they make? Their education? Or what they bring to the world?Thanks for all responses.

[Schaeffer]

A person can be 'dirt poor' and handle themselves with dignity and self respect...That's 'High Class' in my book.   Then, there's the Desperate Housewives mentality...wealthy, pampered tramps...high income but Low Class, low morality standards.   Middle Class would be your average, hard working Joe, a wife, a couple of kids, struggling along, day by day to make ends meet.  A good and sincere person, not highly educated...but being a responsible member of society.  A nice guy all around...   I've met college grads, well educated people who don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.  Even with their 'superiority complex', they have no class at all.   I don't think having money gives a person class...there is nothing 'classy' about a person who 'steps on the little guy' on his way up the ladder of success...or cheats, lies and steals to get what they want....like some of the banking tycoons that went from mansions to prison.   High Class would have to be a person who respects themselves and has love and compassion for others.  Someone not afraid to give the other guy a 'hand UP' without 'looking down' on him...being self-confident without being a snob......That's Class !

[Hugi]

large part of it.  Some names that come to mind, that have a lot of money, but will always be low class, are Madonna, Britney Spears and JK Rowling.  There are upper class people who have fallen on bad times, but they will always have class.  Of course, I can not think of any names right now.  Class isn't about what you own or how much money you have; it's about breeding and a quality education.   To your last question, I judge people by who they are, not what they own.  I know that I come from a lower SEC(poverty level) and I have risen above that, but I would in no way be upper class, no matter how much I earn or spend.

[Dubh]

Chowfan.Jexebellion said: 1 I'm upper class. I have had tips done. I have a fur coat. So there! 68 months ago

[Esdras]

To me, the world class translates into socio-economic class. It isn't all about money, though, but money pays a large part of it.  Some names that come to mind, that have a lot of money, but will always be low class, are Madonna, Britney Spears and JK Rowling.  There are upper class people who have fallen on bad times, but they will always have class.  Of course, I can not think of any names right now.  Class isn't about what you own or how much money you have; it's about breeding and a quality education.   To your last question, I judge people by who they are, not what they own.  I know that I come from a lower SEC(poverty level) and I have risen above that, but I would in no way be upper class, no matter how much I earn or spend.   Schelli's Recommendations Class with the Countess: How to Live with Elegance and Flair Amazon List Price: $24.00 Used from: $15.25 Average Customer Rating: 2.5 out of 5(based on 34 reviews) Race, Class, and Gender in the United States Used from: $27.00 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5(based on 6 reviews) Class: A Guide Through the American Status System Amazon List Price: $13.95 Used from: $3.25 Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5(based on 123 reviews) Schelli 68 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Tuari]

First, let me say that everything you say rings true for me.  I like the way you defined what is truly important in determining class, and I agree with every word you said.    However, I think it's more complcated than that.  Sometimes things have more than one "truth."  It?s like when you look at a cut gem--there are different facets, all of them real, but each only shows one side of the whole story.  (I want to say that the part of my own "truth" that I discuss here deals primarily with negative issues, and it presents a pretty bleak picture.  If you look only at that aspect, it would seem that I had a totally horrible childhood devoid of any kind of warmth or love.  I feel obliged to say that this was not the case.  I don't feel like I am "scarred" by my past; I actually feel it has made me stronger.  I use these examples because my experiences are a large part of how I relate to the world, and the best way I know to make my point.)   Your definition has given me food for thought.  I guess I?ve taken the definition of class very literally.  --As in:  How would I appear to others if viewed by others on a cursory level?  My definition of myself as lower class has nothing to do with my opinion of my own intelligence, abilities, or self-worth.   It is purely from a socio-economic perspective.   A lot of people are poor without being "low class," and still others live unaware of the extent of their poverty, as everyone around them shares the same circumstances.  But I was low-class in a middle class neighborhood, where the differences are profound and as such, it is hard to ignore.   Amongst our middle-class neighbors with their tidy homes and well-tended lawns, our house stood out like a sore thumb.  By the time I was nine or ten, the house was falling down.  The porch overhang had fallen off, and lay in a broken heap beside the front door.  Broken windows were mended with cardboard. Trees and weeds choked the yard.  The yard itself was festooned with all the stereotypical accoutrements of "white trash" -- including an old washing machine, a refrigerator, and the requisite rusting car on cinderblocks.  The electricity was off more than it was on.  The water had been shut off years ago and we got water from fire hydrants.  My sister and I were dirty, unkempt, and a bit feral. (This was in a time before CPS.)   I had a tough time in school because I wasn?t properly socialized.  I found out the hard way that you didn?t fart or belch in public.  You didn?t sit in assembly and pick your nose or pick scabs.  You didn't spontaneously burst into song in the middle of class just because you felt happy.  Most of the time, you couldn?t say what you really felt, and it wasn?t appropriate to display any intense emotion.  I didn?t know how to dissemble.  There appeared to be rules governing interaction between other children that they all knew and that I couldn?t fathom.    I knew nothing about matters of personal hygiene.  I can only imagine how I appeared, as there were no mirrors in our house.   In the winter, the house was freezing cold. My parents didn?t get up to help us get ready for school.  I didn't comb my hair or brush my teeth.  I slept in my clothes from the day before.  Because it was so cold, the next day, I?d just put more clothes on top of ones from the previous day, so by the end of the week I was nicely padded and probably rather fragrant as well.   We place a lot of weight on a person?s ability to be a "good provider."  People who are unable to support themselves and their families are looked down upon by the rest of society. My dad seldom worked--he couldn?t hold a job.  There was often no food in the house.  I used to routinely dive into trash cans around the school looking for other kids? lunches.  Trash can diving is not a pasttime of the middle classes, who tend to feel that ensuring their offspring are adequately fed is a priority.    Both my parents were alcoholics. Although alcoholism is by no means confined to the lower classes, it is often hidden better than it was in my family where the yelling and fights and bottle-filled trash cans kept everything very much in the forefront.  The inability to control one?s self, one?s life, and thus, one?s destiny are looked down on by our society and it is widely held to be low class behavior.    In my opinion, it wasn?t the poverty that made us low class.  It wasn?t the lack of material things.  There was no reason we couldn?t have been clean and neat.  There was no reason we kids couldn?t have been taught basic social skills.  Although my sister and I were not stupid, our emotional intelligence was badly stunted.  We didn't possess the basic skills we needed to interact and function successfully in the society we lived in.   The major reason we were low-class was because we behaved in a low class manner.    Similarly, it means little if you have all the trappings of the upper class, and no real sense of yourself and your place in the world.   We see this all the time in the celebrity train wrecks that seem to happen on a daily basis.   You need to be grounded.  You need to know who you are and how to behave, how to relate to others.   People always talk about the rights of the individual, and sometimes forget that in order to have a cohesive society, we all need to agree to certain guidelines and boundaries. Tacit acceptance of these boundaries is a sign of "class."  To use a Star Trek cliché, in the words of Spock, "[T]he needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."  We need to agree to follow certain rules to prevent chaos.  Although all people are capable of being self-centered and selfish, the lower classes(often because they weren't taught to dissemble), tend to display inappropriate emotional outbursts.  They are more likely to exhibit overtly selfish behavior than their "more socialized" counterparts, who, though they may be no less self-centered, nonetheless may have a better understanding of what is considered "acceptable behavior."    Probably because I carefully observed people and deliberately constructed an(ultimately) successful public personna, I've always been very aware of how people act and react to each other.   I find sociology and the dynamics of people in groups utterly fascinating.  I've learned a lot about the necessity of "fitting in," how groups think, the mob mentality, the importance of courtesy and respect in dealing with others, and the importance of knowing when to take up a cause and when to let things slide.   And I have to say that, in spite of all of our faults, I still think that human beings are, for the most part, endlessly fascinating and quite wonderful.    If you think of society as a single organism, you can use the analogy of the "healthy" parts attacking and trying to obliterate the "diseased," or non-conforming parts.  A useful strategy, of course, but the flip-side of that is that the non-conforming parts, however strange and frightening they may be, may contain the seeds of evolutionary change.  This modification may eventually become the norm for all, and set our species on the road to higher development and a greater understanding of what it is to be human.

[Hezron]

I'm upper class. I have had tips done. I have a fur coat. So there!

[hareleah]

Class is more about how a person behaves, handles themselves in various situations A person can be 'dirt poor' and handle themselves with dignity and self respect...That's 'High Class' in my book.   Then, there's the Desperate Housewives mentality...wealthy, pampered tramps...high income but Low Class, low morality standards.   Middle Class would be your average, hard working Joe, a wife, a couple of kids, struggling along, day by day to make ends meet.  A good and sincere person, not highly educated...but being a responsible member of society.  A nice guy all around...   I've met college grads, well educated people who don't have the sense to come in out of the rain.  Even with their 'superiority complex', they have no class at all.   I don't think having money gives a person class...there is nothing 'classy' about a person who 'steps on the little guy' on his way up the ladder of success...or cheats, lies and steals to get what they want....like some of the banking tycoons that went from mansions to prison.   High Class would have to be a person who respects themselves and has love and compassion for others.  Someone not afraid to give the other guy a 'hand UP' without 'looking down' on him...being self-confident without being a snob......That's Class ! Sources: Some thoughts   HELENofTROY's Recommendations A Touch Of Class(Zebra Regency Romance) Amazon List Price: $4.99 Used from: $0.01 Average Customer Rating: 2.0 out of 5(based on 1 reviews) Desperate Housewives: Behind Closed Doors Amazon List Price: $17.95 Used from: $3.05 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5(based on 9 reviews) HELENofTROY 68 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.

[Olney]

...I think that the class system is based more and more on your oppertunities.  American is suppose to be the country where if you have an idea or determination, you can accomplish anything, but this is rarely true.  Just because one out of 10000 people can do that does not mean that anyone can.  The class system causes a lot of this.  I hate it.  Class to me in not money or anything else.  It is more the way you treat others.  I am a hardcore humanist and my still accepting the class system is one of my big failures.  I want to believe that I am just as low as anyone, but it is really hard...   ...I also know that I am lucky.  I have a beautiful wife, an awesome son, and a great job, but I was so close to living under a bridge in the past and know how easy it is for someone to make a wrong decision, a mistake, and end up on the streets without a job who will even look at them because they are dirty or whatever.  It is sad.  Once society deems to "untouchable" it becomes so hard to work your way out of that, no matter what some politians want to believe.   Eugene Debs once had the greatest quote that I try to remind myself of whenever I am getting uppity or egocentric:   "Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free."

[Marcus]

Classes... ...I think that the class system is based more and more on your oppertunities.  American is suppose to be the country where if you have an idea or determination, you can accomplish anything, but this is rarely true.  Just because one out of 10000 people can do that does not mean that anyone can.  The class system causes a lot of this.  I hate it.  Class to me in not money or anything else.  It is more the way you treat others.  I am a hardcore humanist and my still accepting the class system is one of my big failures.  I want to believe that I am just as low as anyone, but it is really hard...   ...I also know that I am lucky.  I have a beautiful wife, an awesome son, and a great job, but I was so close to living under a bridge in the past and know how easy it is for someone to make a wrong decision, a mistake, and end up on the streets without a job who will even look at them because they are dirty or whatever.  It is sad.  Once society deems to "untouchable" it becomes so hard to work your way out of that, no matter what some politians want to believe.   Eugene Debs once had the greatest quote that I try to remind myself of whenever I am getting uppity or egocentric:   "Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." TheAmazombie 68 months ago Please sign in to give a compliment. Please verify your account to give a compliment. Please sign in to send a message. Please verify your account to send a message.