Rather than summarize Lizzy Francis’s article about what it means to be middle class at Fatherly, which I found rather uninsightful, I’ll give you my thoughts on the subject. The difference among the social classes is the amount of risk you bear, some due to your circumstances and family connections, some due to the behaviors in which you engage and the choices you make.
My favorite definition of our social classes is that being upper class means that, no matter how badly you screw up, you will not be allowed to fail. You should be able to think of people who may be characterized that way easily, e.g. Teddy Kennedy or George W. Bush. If I had engaged in the behaviors they did and made the choices they made, I’d’ve been ruined or, at least, my life would have been greatly impeded. They, on the other hand, became a U. S. senator and president of the United States, respectively.
I am decidedly middle class. My grandfather and grandfather’s grandfather back as far as anyone can reckon were middle class. If someone of the lower classes were to engage in the behaviors which Teddy Kennedy and George W. Bush did, his or her life would have been permanently blighted. They’d’ve been imprisoned. That’s what it means to be lower class.
One of the markers of social class is how you perceive risk. Pursuing anthropology as a career, as Ms. Francis has, is an incredibly risky proposition. Being able to prosper in it depends on a large number of very iffy factors. That she did not perceive it as such either tells us she’s a dope or middle class.
By your definition, I’m probably upper-middle class. As long as I remain married to my wife I’m pretty well protected financially. I’m no longer in government or require a security clearance, so major error can no longer easily threaten my career, just my present job. In short, I feel relatively secure but not completely so.
My kids are secure for now, but the oldest is only 15. We have the ability to protect them from some things, but not everything. And we’re not helicopter parents and have made it clear to them they must prepare to make their own way in life.
It is generational. when a young man from the lower class gets advice about life’s choices, it’s usually bad. Bad advice that any college degree is better than none, that the debt incurred will be a winning bet over time. Graduate, get a job at the grocery store, meet a young woman from your class whose family knows no more than your own. Buy a used car on credit, marry, have two children, tell them as you were told, work hard and just be glad you have a job, any job. Tell them to study and listen to the teacher, who will of course tell them to get a college degree. Follow their dream. But they don’t have a dream, they have needs, they ask your advice and all they get is “Do the best you can”. So you go into debt and chase that interest payment until you are old, and even after that.
Something that gripes me is people who know how to get ahead think others are lazy. Not true. They just don’t know the things they don’t know.
Their family doesn’t know and it isn’t taught in public school.
My mom, who devoted much of her life to teaching poor black kids, lamented that their exposure to the possibilities was extremely limited. The only jobs they knew about were entertainer, athlete, police officer, teacher, and “cat”. Becoming an entertainer or athlete was very hard. Police officer and teacher were not appealing. Many became “cats”.
I’m sure that’s true, but it’s not just Blacks. My father was a sharecroping farmer. Never owned any land. He drove truck on the side to get by. Mother farmed and worked at the nursing home to get by.
If he had owned land, I’m sure I’d be a farmer. He didn’t, so I drive truck.
Funny, I could never be a “catâ€,who would teach me? School?
In my opinion that’s a bit too stylized. It focuses too much on the very few wealthy people to make the case.
I don’t know if I grew up middle class or upper middle class. I have visited each of the homes that comprised my childhood. Decidedly middle class shacks. Despite the fact my father was a doctor he never practiced medicine for money. He practiced it the way he thought proper. This chased away patients looking for prescriptions, disability diagnoses or a few days off. The practice was accordingly small.
Class is a state of mind. Despite what the statistics say, I neither live nor consider myself wealthy. (And at age 30 I didn’t have a pot to piss in.) Yes, I’m very comfortably well off now. But I remember when. My only real goal now is too make sure that my daughter, who is considering a career in education reform advocacy (gulp), can pursue that perhaps more noble goal and not have financial worries. She doesn’t want to be an investment banker, private equity guy or M&A lawyer. Good.
Which brings me to the kernel, to coin a phrase. I’m not so sure money shapes a person’s risk tolerance except for the neurotic, be they wealthy or dirt poor. In 20 years I have seen perhaps 500 small business owners. Almost none came from wealth. Some dirt poor, some middle or upper middle class. But their risk tolerance seems almost completely independent from their financial background. Its in the personality makeup.