Danger: sweeping generalisations contained below, read at own risk...
My understanding, which I think is similar to heyiya's, is more or less like this:
Class in America tends to be defined mostly in economic terms, because of the national myths about "land of opportunity" and "free market where anybody can become a millionaire through hard work and effort." Becoming wealthy means you've succeeded and are therefore now higher class. Having a college education means you're able to earn a higher salary (in theory) and is therefore strongly correlated to being higher class.
While this success-oriented culture has its upsides, it can also mean that anybody who remains working class is assumed to do so because they're too lazy or stupid to succeed and don't deserve better. Being working class is something to be ashamed of, so everybody seeks to become middle-class.
Then you get race mixed into it too; if people from ethnic minorities are forced to stay in working-class jobs due to prejudice or historical disadvantages, then the 'stupid and lazy' prejudices applied to white working class people spill over onto them too.
In Britain, class is viewed much more as a cultural rather than economic thing. Money comes into it, of course, but it's not the determining factor. A plumber can earn far more than a teacher, but the plumber is working class and the teacher middle class. Your class is determined and signalled by your job (Do you work with your hands? Is your job repetitive and mechanical? Are you supervised closely or can you use your own initiative? Are you paid by the hour or by the month?); by where you live (rent or own?); by your accent; by where you went to school; by what sort of food you prefer to eat; by which sports you enjoy watching; by which newspapers you read, or which TV programmes you watch. (To be fair, a lot of the former class signifiers in British culture are being homogenised, and since the decline of manufacturing industry in the 80s more and more people are calling themselves middle class. But the old definitions still have a lot of influence.
What that means is that a British person from a working class family can go to university and get a highly paid job, but still regard themselves as working class because that's where they come form, that's who their friends are, and that's the sort of leisure activities they prefer. Of course, their working class mates may regard them with suspicion because they're no longer 'one of us'. Equally, they could embrace their new lifestyle and try to become middle class - and be regarded with suspicion by their new friends because they're really rather common and nouveau, don't you know?
In other words, while practical economic mobility may be equal, more or less in either country, (I wouldn't know) it seems to me that in the US, nobody cares where you come from; in Britain, where you came from will always mark you.
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Date: 2008-02-27 01:30 am (UTC)My understanding, which I think is similar to heyiya's, is more or less like this:
Class in America tends to be defined mostly in economic terms, because of the national myths about "land of opportunity" and "free market where anybody can become a millionaire through hard work and effort." Becoming wealthy means you've succeeded and are therefore now higher class. Having a college education means you're able to earn a higher salary (in theory) and is therefore strongly correlated to being higher class.
While this success-oriented culture has its upsides, it can also mean that anybody who remains working class is assumed to do so because they're too lazy or stupid to succeed and don't deserve better. Being working class is something to be ashamed of, so everybody seeks to become middle-class.
Then you get race mixed into it too; if people from ethnic minorities are forced to stay in working-class jobs due to prejudice or historical disadvantages, then the 'stupid and lazy' prejudices applied to white working class people spill over onto them too.
In Britain, class is viewed much more as a cultural rather than economic thing. Money comes into it, of course, but it's not the determining factor. A plumber can earn far more than a teacher, but the plumber is working class and the teacher middle class. Your class is determined and signalled by your job (Do you work with your hands? Is your job repetitive and mechanical? Are you supervised closely or can you use your own initiative? Are you paid by the hour or by the month?); by where you live (rent or own?); by your accent; by where you went to school; by what sort of food you prefer to eat; by which sports you enjoy watching; by which newspapers you read, or which TV programmes you watch. (To be fair, a lot of the former class signifiers in British culture are being homogenised, and since the decline of manufacturing industry in the 80s more and more people are calling themselves middle class. But the old definitions still have a lot of influence.
What that means is that a British person from a working class family can go to university and get a highly paid job, but still regard themselves as working class because that's where they come form, that's who their friends are, and that's the sort of leisure activities they prefer. Of course, their working class mates may regard them with suspicion because they're no longer 'one of us'. Equally, they could embrace their new lifestyle and try to become middle class - and be regarded with suspicion by their new friends because they're really rather common and nouveau, don't you know?
In other words, while practical economic mobility may be equal, more or less in either country, (I wouldn't know) it seems to me that in the US, nobody cares where you come from; in Britain, where you came from will always mark you.