UKC

Looks like more and more people are trying to fund the lifestyle of Middle Class but with a Working Class wage.

What's wrong with being Working Class or living within your means?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id...

In reply to The Lemming:

nothing their only doing what there beign told to d oby the advertising of aspiration.

ohh all those white goods adverst and homes abroad shows.

who can blame em

when we all see our elected leaders ripping at the carcase of the state and the dumbest and most vain and crass rewarded on our TV's, and when carol vordermand and carol smiley tell us its ok to sell the kids and grandma then their are no longer any aceptable limits to behaviour.

and prudence is just a catchword

In reply to Earl Tyrconnell-Smythe:
And everything was much better in the good old days, right?

In reply to The Lemming: Theres a hell of a lot of inverted snobs on here who are sipping their chardonnay and claiming to be working class while their missus with a job in the health service funds their lifestyle and still claim to be working class, but they dont seem anything like them folks in Dewsbury - There will be one along in a minute

In reply to The Lemming:
just in case you forget what a wretched readership this rag pulls in, check out the comment from Tkd, Cambridge...

In reply to The Lemming:
I am a Peon trying to survive on a Prols wage

In reply to The Lemming: Nothing wrong with being 'working class' and living within your means. I find it shocking that people are in so much debt. Don't get me wrong, i have a little debt, but no more than a few hundred pounds which is gonna be paid off as soon as i get my bonus from work! But some people really seem to not realise they are in so much debt and have no plan to get out of it.

'A report from the price comparison website Moneysupermarket.com identified around 2.7 million "social climbers" with an average personal debt of £13,000 excluding mortgages.'

I find this quite insane. If 13 grand is the average, however big is some people's debt?

I would love to have all those nice things you see in the shops or on TV.
I would love to have a climbing rack with loads of cams! But i cannot afford it and therefore am not getting it.

Looking forward to a payrise soon though!

In reply to The Lemming:

Seems like it's partly to do with not being able to manage their finances.

Saw some report today that says that more people are using cash nowadays, rather than a credit card, because they don't want to get into debt.

How mad. It's perfectly easy to use a credit card, and not get into debt, by simply not spending money you can't pay off at the end of the next month.

In reply to The Lemming:

Working Class. Is it a stigma?

Some of the accents can be. Good elocution, like good manners, doesn't cost anything, so why can't people speak proper?

In reply to Alex Roddie:

dunno, were they?

i think your reading views into my post that were not there

stop projecting lad!

In reply to The Lemming: The whole economy is doomeed because too many people of ALL "classes" or income levels are living beyond their means.

Not enough willingness to save and too much expectation of "me, now"

In reply to Earl Tyrconnell-Smythe:
Sorry, I just get speeches like this from my parents about how everything was better in the old days and the country's gone to the dogs. =) It wears me down a bit, frankly. Lots of things are MUCH better now than they were right after World War II, as I'm sure most objective people will realise.

In reply to The Lemming:

How is 'working class' defined?
I know post-docs in our institute who do over 50-60 hours a week and own less than 1000 pounds/month (after tax), which could be qualified as a 'working class' income.
In fact, not many of the post docs own really that much more, and I know hardly any scientist who's working 9-5 and is never in in weekends...


However, all of them have a PhD, which is not very 'working class'

In reply to The Lemming: Very poor reporting, how are they defining these groups? the working class I know are earning more than the 'middle class' that I guess this article is refering too, so what do they mean? is what they mean a lot of very stupid people are spending their future wealth on silly items of no real value? what is a middleclass wage?, what is a working class wage? I'll give an example of what I mean, my mates fully qual self emp sparky, earns £1500 a week, a teacher mate who has been in the system for a few years now, with some 'management' points is on £600 a week, go figre as they say across the pond.

In reply to Arjen:
"Watching the English" by Kate Fox is a great book that demonstrates that class differences are no longer defined much by income, but rather by residual habits and almost imperceptible traits that you can learn to pick up on. Some are almost cliches (like whether you say 'dinner' or 'tea') but others are far more subtle. It makes a lot of sense.

By using that book I've managed to classify myself as being on the upper end of the lower middle class band. Not sure how accurate that is, but it sounds about right.

In reply to The Lemming:

Ugh, feeling slightly unclean after visiting the Daily Mail website.

What I find disturbing is what’s driving this endless quest for consumerism? Are these ‘social climbers’ so unhappy and dissatisfied with their lot that they feel the urge to spend and acquire goods beyond their means? Is it just to fill some void?

I mean, if you dissected the £13,000 on average that the people in the case have run up, what would they have to show for it? An ugly plasma TV? Loads of tacky ‘designer’ clothes? Umpteen £2.75 posh coffees consumed? Several weekly trashy magazines piled up in the recycling that provided the fuel for much of the spending in the first place?

Credit has come too easy and debt too acceptable. I think many have lost all sense of what constitutes value because there’s just no incentive to make those kind of judgements any more. Nothing is scarce nowadays.

The banks and credit card companies have a lot to answer and it’s all building up now to come back to bite them. Credit cards, store cards, consolidation loans etc. Bankruptcy, well that’s starting to be seen as an ‘easy’ option to bail out!

In reply to The Lemming: 'Working Class' is a state of mind- which is why people end up going nowhere and need to find an enemy to blame.

Oddly enough, people who get on with there lives, live within there means etc. don't have to be 'working class' and may appear throughout society.

Prejudice is frequently from both sides.

Terry Pratchett got it spot on with his shoe theory- buy something to last, not to fit in somewhere, that, in your opinion, is the most happening place to be

In reply to stuckonarock:



Don't forget the iPhone contract at £35 per month - £420 - plus the phones on contract for the kids.

And the Sky subscription. Plus the huge electricity bill for running the plasma TV (plus leaving it on standby all day and all night when it's not actually being watched)

In reply to Alex Roddie:


Eeeeer! Tiffin?

In reply to Tree:


Not sure that's right at all, lots of people myself included are proud to think of themselves as working class, why do people need to classify themselves as middle class or other, seems a bit like keeping up with the Jones'.

In reply to The Lemming: Just cooked 'dinner' and it struck me, I have the perfect test for working v middle class, do you have a melon baller and have you used it?

In reply to ICE:

Oooooi! What you calling the missues!

In reply to The Lemming:

I just find it funny that people have to define themselves in this way? Don't know what i am and not too bothered really

In reply to The Lemming: Unless you don't work you are working class, the middle class doesn't exist

In reply to The Lemming:

Not half as much of a stigma as reading the Daily Mail!

**runs and hides**

Seriously, I would disbelieve anything that pile of [deleted] says on general principles. It has almost no relation to the truth and merely prints what it thinks will grab a headline.

In reply to Chris Tan Ver. L - Lost in Time: Hah hah, you got one then?, I got one for my birthday, I am going to use it to make my signature desert of vannila panna cotta with frozen red fruits and tiny little raspberry chilli sorbet balls.