Of course after the fire the Winchesters experienced significant downward (albeit voluntary) social mobility. But before then? Your own business and your own respectably-furnished good-sized house in a decent urban neighborhood are just not indicia of belonging to the working or lower class. Everything we see about Winchester life pre-fire indicates lower middle class or even better.
And afterwards, as you say, John lost his mind. You can't tell from the hand-to-mouth lifestyle of the post-fire years what his attitude towards money would have been if Mary hadn't died (having a mortgage is the antithesis of that, you know) and you certainly can't tell from the fact that he brought up his kids to fight demons rather than go to college that he wouldn't have wanted Dean and Sam to pursue higher education in a world without them.
(I wouldn't take Mary's absence from the workforce as definitive rather than indicative either way--you're correct that there are a group of people who have so little ability to generate income outside the home that it can't make up for the loss of the imputed income provided by their labor within it--but the fact is, John's business generates sufficient income for him to pay the mortgage and meet his family's needs without cash contributions from his spouse.)
I really wish you would stop saying women who don't have jobs don't work
"Out of the workforce" does not mean "not working." The workforce is generally defined as people available for work outside the home.
no subject
And afterwards, as you say, John lost his mind. You can't tell from the hand-to-mouth lifestyle of the post-fire years what his attitude towards money would have been if Mary hadn't died (having a mortgage is the antithesis of that, you know) and you certainly can't tell from the fact that he brought up his kids to fight demons rather than go to college that he wouldn't have wanted Dean and Sam to pursue higher education in a world without them.
(I wouldn't take Mary's absence from the workforce as definitive rather than indicative either way--you're correct that there are a group of people who have so little ability to generate income outside the home that it can't make up for the loss of the imputed income provided by their labor within it--but the fact is, John's business generates sufficient income for him to pay the mortgage and meet his family's needs without cash contributions from his spouse.)
I really wish you would stop saying women who don't have jobs don't work
"Out of the workforce" does not mean "not working." The workforce is generally defined as people available for work outside the home.