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It's an amorphous and a bit daft topic, but it's fun to pursue it, no? And the posters who paraphrased Paul Fussell all deserve bonus points. The subject book is now knocking on 40 years, but remains as vibrant and amusing as ever.
To further complicate matters, "social status" depends heavily on, well, social skills... who adept we are, at managing relationships, at exerting influence and at getting people to like us. Raw money only goes to a certain extent. Real leverage comes only partially from paying people to do your bidding. The greater part is in garnering respect, confidence, and trust. Some of us, regardless of financial success or academic credentials or whoever many private-jets we own, simply aren't adept at people-skills, and so, our "social status" will suffer.
Neither does having a big portfolio, by itself, matter much. One might have a very healthy number of millions of dollars, and yet be mired in entirely quotidian (or even below-average) circumstances. Besides the aforementioned social skills, what matters is how we deploy that money. Two paupers sleeping on adjacent park-benches have equal status, even if one of them secretly owns the Ramjac Corporation. How big are your basketball shoes?
The wealth that we acquire, or don't acquire, is ultimately in the abstract service of a very private vanity, ours alone to husband or to abjure. What outwardly we do, depends much more on outward doings, than on the price-tag affixed to our persons.
Individual #1: A 39 year old ADN Nurse (2 year Associate's degree) who works at a hospital making $45K/year. However, she has made outside investments that nets her an additional yearly passive income of $155K/yr. Making her total yearly income $200K. Her net worth is $1.2 Million.
Or
Individual #2: The 49 year old director of operations at the same hospital making $140K/year. However, this individual holds a Phd in business management and a Masters in Economics. His networth is $900K.
Of course you'd have to meet both of these hypothetical individuals and get to know them to judge, but the nurse is PROBABLY high prole to middle-middle class and the hospital director is PROBABLY upper-middle.
This is not something that's going to be meaningfully answered in a few hundred words by random strangers.
The first part of the problem is that the US long maintained that it was a classless society, which was nonsense on the face of it (like many national-pride declarations) but had an air of truth because of significant instances of social mobility. Yes, poor street kid could grow up to be a wealthy industrialist; a working class child could become a respected professional, etc. But we didn't really let go of this notion of "class free" society until quite recently, and it still warps most discussions. (As in the C-D trope "anyone can succeed if they really want to, no matter what their roots or situation" — which is demonstrably untrue.)
The other part of the problem is that class in the US is almost impossible to disentangle from current economic status — a well-groomed man in a tux whirling some female celebrity around a party floor will be seen as much higher class than the shabby guy standing outside... never mind that one started as a Philly street thug and the other is a world-class neurosurgeon fallen on hard times. From our earliest days, we've respected people on a hierarchy of wealth above nearly all else. (And since we're in the C-D barroom, see any of the current discussions where people who take 'intellectual' or classic college degrees are derided as idiots because everyone knows STEM will make you rich.)
So any attempt at analyzing social class has to overcome those two hurdles before the fine details can be sorted out or brought into meaningful focus.
I’ve achieved a state of quietude, and no longer see class.
This is a stupid question. Class what class, I don't see it.
To me the only way separate people is by category (not class), There are 3 life styles, the first is the schooling years, then comes the working years, and then retirement years, that's it.
Of course you'd have to meet both of these hypothetical individuals and get to know them to judge, but the nurse is PROBABLY high prole to middle-middle class and the hospital director is PROBABLY upper-middle.
LOL -- I was going to postulate "high prole" but wasn't sure how many fellow C-D forum readers were familiar with Fussell's formulations.
Pleasantly surprised that his book still is so widely known.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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One can have a net worth over a million and yet be struggling to pay the bills. One of my neighbors for example is a retires sales person, with only Social Security income. Yet his house is paid off, bought new in the 1970s and now worth $900,000. He's getting ready to sell now and pay cash for a smaller place in a less expensive area, but right now the property taxes and insurance plus medicare advantage are using up much of his income. Here in our city with a median family income now at $183k most of us are still considered middle-class. That income in many areas of the country would be upper class.
Class is something money can't buy is something my Grandmother would say...
Status is a mixed bag... a family friend of my Grandparents owned one of the largest ranches in Nevada and you would never have know him from the hire hands... drove and old pickup and dressed like a ranch hand even into his 70's
Then you have Steve Jobs catching a bite at the diner on Skyline Blvd... unless you recognized him you would never know.
Money can pay for a lifestyle and this is nothing new... old aristocracy weds new world wealth... a win-win some would say was not uncommon back in the day...
1.2 million net worth and a passive income of $155K does not mesh. At all.
I agree ,those number don’t jive ......I can see having a great year with that portfolio and generating 100k IN PROFIT ..... plus your pay ....but that is not the same as generating a regular passive income that size perpetually
In America IMO the only thing that separates rich, upper-middle, middle and poor is the grooming and the clothes. You can drive a Mercedes and be neck-deep in loans, but grooming can show if you really "own" it.
And living in an apartment means you are poor and can't afford a house.
The only thing I can think of that defies that would be cleric. Rabbi, minister, or priest if you have any social graces about you at all.
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