Following on from the 'posh' thread......

Kate1949

We have a friend who is a GP and definitely not middle class.

That's one person! All the GPs I know are very solidly middle class. The foreign-born GPs probably have even higher social status in their countries of birth.

We have a friend who is a GP and definitely not middle class.

CrazyH
I won’t put that to my Dr. A card carrying of the communist party 😄

Harris27
I’ve lived with that for years, even here on GN: I live in Southend.
Could be worse, I suppose, it could be Clacton or Jaywick sands. But if I’m ever asked where I was born, it’s different look and attitude. I was born in Bath.
People are strange.

Doctors and Lawyers are middle class, I would think. Although there’s no class system in this country, I think there is an educational hierarchy.

I’d say the class system is alive and kicking. It’s still possible to go up the system to a point, the ‘lower’ parts of the system are more mobile, but professionals can’t become upper class. Family provenance, centuries of land ownership and inherited status still count.

A child born in Barrow in Furness to poor parents, who aren’t addicts, will probably do as well as a child born to a secret alcoholic in Tunbridge Wells. The child from a better off family is unlikely to be recognised as needing help or intervention. People do make a lot of narrow minded judgements.

Most of my childhood was lived on a council estate but people took care of each other. Children would often be sent out with a cup to borrow sugar and occasionally to ask for money for the gas meter. Being poor does not make people sub human or uncaring. They still love their family!

kittylester

I wouldn't think doctors and lawyers are (or ever have been) Upper Class.

But you said in your opening post that we don't have a class system, and then you say that certain professions are not upper class!

For what it's worth, I'd say that doctors and lawyers are solidly middle class.

We definitely have a class system, IMO, although the lines are blurred.

I’d say yes definitely..I remembered t this story …..

I do think where you live is immediately classed as a social,barrier. We live in the north east and wherever we go they say’ geordies’ lovely. Then look down on us great south north divide.

I wouldn't think doctors and lawyers are (or ever have been) Upper Class.

I think we do!

Not as set in stone as it once was and not insurmountable for individuals who have the tenacity to see a way through and out the other side if born into a life of deprivation. It can be turned around in a generation, not impossible but a damn sight easier for the child born into a world if everything is in place to make their ascent into a successful life almost a foregone conclusion.

Nevertheless for some I imagine it would be impossible to move up the social ladder as so much is stacked against them, the vicious cycle of having a poor upbringing themselves and and then being so ground down by their own demons and poverty that to even parent their child/ren is a struggle let alone imbue them with aspirations, add failing schools, lack of facilities into that mix and odds are stacked against that child from birth.

Lack of opportunities and where you are born are deciding factors, for example, a child born in say Barrow in Furness where from what I read life is bleak to parents on the poverty line who have addictions is probably not going to fare anything like as well as one born into a comfortable home in Tunbridge Wells for example. where schools are good. The added bonus of having parents who in turn inspire their own offspring to work hard at school, engage in extra curricular activities and generally develop them as people is that child's good fortune.

Whilst everyone is equal, not everyone has equal opportunities, there are enormous disparities depending on where you happen to be born, who you're born to and the standard of schooling received and that in itself is a can of worms as to levelling up the playing field!

The class system is alive and well. It has got a bit confused over the years. I know several very working class,uneducated ladies now married to doctors or lawyers, very wealthy, who now regard themselves as better than the rest of us. I wouldn't regard them as upper class.

I think the class system is dying out as more people believe they are equal to others.
I was brought up to neither look up to or down on anyone else and that included royalty.

Blossoming

Yes we do, and we always will while we have a monarchy that clings on to its rights and privileges.

According to two measures, Norway is one of the most financially equal societies in the world. The World Happiness Report gives it top ranking. It also has a constitutional monarchy.
www.theguardian.com/inequality/datablog/2017/apr/26/inequality-index-where-are-the-worlds-most-unequal-countries

I can’t think of any society anywhere in the world, or in history, without some kind of class system. I think there is more social mobility in the UK than in past centuries, and class is less important than it was.

The existence of social classes is compatible with people being equal in value. Two people can be equally valuable and also belong to different classes.

JRM’s mother is the daughter of a lorry driver.
Social mobility is so important.

I think with the exception of the aristocracy the class system is disappearing.

I think all humans are equal, I have friends on basic pension only and friends who are multi millionaires some with titles

The only difference is our bank balance, our values, hopes and dreams are the same.

Yes we do, and we always will while we have a monarchy that clings on to its rights and privileges.

Not financially! I think I get on with almost everyone I meet but I can’t imagine JRM and I would have anything in common because his life has been so very different.

Lots of people have had different lives to me, of course, but whereas as I can empathise with someone who has perhaps struggled in life, his privileges are beyond my ken.

But, what do you think SueDonim? Are you his equal?

Oh goodness me, yes. The likes of Jacob Rees Mogg would never consider someone like me to be his equivalent, I am sure.