I grew up with the blue collar/white collar distinction more than the working/middle class one. Blue collar is manual jobs--mechanic, plumber, factory worker. White collar is office jobs. It's not a distinction based on wage/salary, or on education or skill level, and it doesn't exactly map onto the "working"/"middle" class distinction.
I don't think social class is defined by amount of money earned, by possessions owned, or by type of job. It's related to economic class, but not synonymous with it (I know tons of college students and recent college grads who are living at poverty or lower class level economically but who move in middle class circles and have traditionally middle class tastes). I think it's primarily defined by your values, tastes, and the people and situations you are comfortable with, but that's...well, very hard to firmly define. Which I think is a lot of why it's so hard to talk about class, even aside from the vast gulf between American and British class systems, for example.
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Re: comment of great density the second.
Date: 2008-02-27 05:42 am (UTC)I don't think social class is defined by amount of money earned, by possessions owned, or by type of job. It's related to economic class, but not synonymous with it (I know tons of college students and recent college grads who are living at poverty or lower class level economically but who move in middle class circles and have traditionally middle class tastes). I think it's primarily defined by your values, tastes, and the people and situations you are comfortable with, but that's...well, very hard to firmly define. Which I think is a lot of why it's so hard to talk about class, even aside from the vast gulf between American and British class systems, for example.