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Hello everybody,
What exactly does "working class" mean?Does it mean people who work for a living?Or does it mean people that did not go to college and work blue collar jobs?Can it mean both?Thanks in advance.
Hello everybody,
What exactly does "working class" mean?Does it mean people who work for a living?Or does it mean people that did not go to college and work blue collar jobs?Can it mean both?Thanks in advance.
You'll get a million different definitions depending on who you ask.
The U.S. doesn't even like to use the term. Americans, rich and poor, all like to think of themselves as middle class.
Generally speaking, the working class are people who work for a living (as opposed to living off government assistance), but often at lower paying jobs. I don't think they have to be strictly blue collar jobs. There are people in the working class who earn good incomes, but most do not.
It's also usually an education thing, not just a money thing. The working class generally has less formal education. While there is obviously some overlap, their tastes and lifestyle choices differ from those of the middle & upper middle class.
our definition:
1. pays taxes. all of them. federal, state, etc.
2. is an actual legal citizen and can prove it.
3. pay for work pays the bills.
You forgot (4) waves the flag, along with (5) (6) and (7) about being good heartland (probably white) folks.
"Working class" is like every other socioeconomic label: it means exactly what the speaker wants it to, and it's heard exactly the way the listener expects to. Nothing really tops the slippery meaninglessness of "middle class," but nearly all the labels are purposely indistinct, so that everyone comfortingly hears exactly what they already believe and no one ever has to be pinned down to inconvenient facts or numbers.
That anyone could write the above definition with any degree of seriousness says it all.
I would think working class jobs are those where you are paid by the hour, you punch in and punch out a time clock as opposed to a salaried job where you get paid by an agreed monthly salary.
Hello everybody,
What exactly does "working class" mean?Does it mean people who work for a living?Or does it mean people that did not go to college and work blue collar jobs?Can it mean both?Thanks in advance.
To me, working class is those who work approximately 40 hours per week on average, but are replaceable workers in the sense that allows employers to be very strict with policies and stingy when it comes to stability and fringe benefits. Usually this means blue collar workers, but not always. I would consider adjunct faculty at colleges and universities to be working class even though many have doctoral degrees, because they are replaceable enough that the employer sees no need to give them even partial stability or fringe benefits.
It is also a fuzzy concept ( as all the classes are), and can refer to a range of incomes as well. In that case the working class would be above the poverty line but below the area median income.
To me it would mean you still have to work, not independently wealthy or retired.
That would be my personal definition as well. But I didn't list it because it's so far outside the mainstream. If you can't fund a modest middle class lifestyle through investments, pension, etc. you're working class.
What exactly does "working class" mean?Does it mean people who work for a living?Or does it mean people that did not go to college and work blue collar jobs?
In the United States, “working class” refers to people who do blue collar jobs and are not college-educated. It is usually a label given to whites and not so much blacks or Hispanics.
That makes it a little strange because there is almost no white working class where I live in the DC area.
To me it would mean you still have to work, not independently wealthy or retired.
There's an awful lot of high wage earners who are neither of the latter, living more or less paycheck to paycheck, who would not be considered "working class" in any meaningful sense.
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