Are you working class ?

[adzii_nufc]

I'm working class, I could make a hell of a lot in a single year but at the same time I can make less than £12,000

That's the risk of these Zero hour contracts.

Originally Posted by Pierre

Well that shows you that you certainly don't grasp the class system

oh but I do it is you out of touch

[Osem]

I dare say some inadequate lazy folk rather like wearing the 'I'm working class' badge since it allows them to blame all sorts of oppression and class prejudice for their perceived failings. They should spend more of their time emulating the millions of ordinary hardworking people who aren't content to languish where they are but work very hard to improve themselves and their lot. Wealth, power etc. clearly aren't within the reach of us all but that's not a reason for blindly accepting a label and having no aspirations to do better in life.

Originally Posted by Osem

I dare say some inadequate lazy folk rather like wearing the 'I'm working class' badge since it allows them to blame all sorts of oppression and class prejudice for their perceived failings. They should spend more of their time emulating the millions of ordinary hardworking people who aren't content to languish where they are but work very hard to improve themselves and their lot. Wealth, power etc. clearly aren't within the reach of us all but that's not a reason for blindly accepting a label and having no aspirations to do better in life.

You are one of the most judgemental people I have ever seen post on this forum

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

oh but I do it is you out of touch

The size of your bank balance does not dictate what class you are.

[TheDaddy]

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

guess you do not quite grasp what the class system means then seeing as a top business man still goes out to work and earns 6 figures a year does that make them working class as well?? course not

It is all about how much you have and where you live

There is the underclass which nowadays means the chronically unemployed

I think it's the need to actually work rather than the work that makes you working class, I read some where that (I can't remember the figure so I'll make it up) over 50% of the population have less than one months salary in savings, that's working class to me.

[Mick Fisher]

Is there such a thing as working class these days?

There are the "Haves" and the "Have Nots" but the vast majority of us languish somewhere between.

[richard s]

A good old song the working class can kiss my ...

I wonder if this was devised by the upper classes... probably not.

You still have first class on trains, planes, boats which costs more money to sit away from the underlings.

Originally Posted by Pierre

The size of your bank balance does not dictate what class you are.

did I say it was just that? no

---------- Post added at 16:42 ---------- Previous post was at 16:41 ----------

Originally Posted by Mick Fisher

Is there such a thing as working class these days?

There are the "Haves" and the "Have Nots" but the vast majority of us languish somewhere between.

there are manual workers and none manual workers

[Taf]

My father told me many years ago that a man with a trade or skill was working class, a man who sat behind a desk and pretended he controlled the working class was middle class, and the upper class were all twits who didn't have to work as all their money was inherited but enjoyed taking on roles overseeing all of us down below.

So I suppose we also now have an unworking class with no trade or skills.

Originally Posted by Taf

My father told me many years ago that a man with a trade or skill was working class, a man who sat behind a desk and pretended he controlled the working class was middle class, and the upper class were all twits who didn't have to work as all their money was inherited but enjoyed taking on roles overseeing all of us down below.

So I suppose we also now have an unworking class with no trade or skills.

I guess that means you can tell which class someone considers themselves to be by which classes they slag off ...

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

did I say it was just that? no[COLOR="Silver"]

No you said it was 50% that

Originally Posted by tizmeinnit

It is all about how much you have and where you live

And 50% location, which is equally as daft.

[idiosyncratic]

I wonder what the equivalent of the nostalgia expressed in the OP will be in another 50 years time?

In my case I am quite happy to live now & not in my grandmothers house in the early 1960s. She still had an outside toilet, no hot water other than that heated in the 'copper', no bathroom, electricity only for lights upstairs & only a few 'sockets' downstairs. She was considered quite 'posh' because she had a television (9" screen) & a fur coat that she got after a win on the horses. She was a widow as my grandfather died from a chest infection exacerbated by his working life as a coal miner & cement lorry driver.

My other grandmother's house was a bit better - still an outside loo, but it had a bathroom & an immersion heater for hot water. My grandfather on this side of the family had been a docker since the days when they went every day to see if there was work & were sent home if there was none.

Neither set of grandparents owned a car, or had a telephone.

So what will be the equivalent, today? - only having a 32" telly & a DVD player, not being able to afford Sky sports. Having to make do with a 'text only' mobile, not a touch screen?

Personally I think we have it easy, these days & while I agree there was something in the camaraderie of earlier times, I wouldn't want the freezing bedroom, the dentist with a drill driven by rubber belts round a pulley or having to have a bath in a tin tub next to the fire to come back again...

Nostalgia ain't what it used to be.....

Originally Posted by Osem

I dare say some inadequate lazy folk rather like wearing the 'I'm working class' badge since it allows them to blame all sorts of oppression and class prejudice for their perceived failings. They should spend more of their time emulating the millions of ordinary hardworking people who aren't content to languish where they are but work very hard to improve themselves and their lot. Wealth, power etc. clearly aren't within the reach of us all but that's not a reason for blindly accepting a label and having no aspirations to do better in life.

^^
this