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Does anyone have advice for someone that wants to move up in perceived social class? Is getting a college degree the only way to change ones surrounding environment and social status?
College is a really important socialization mechanism for the affluent class or bourgeoisie. It's where you learn how to talk, act, & dress like them, consume what they do, fit in with them.
I would think there are ways to fake it without actually getting a degree. It's easy enough to get the content one would learn in college for free off the internet. All the intangibles that you get from the out-of-class parts of college, though... that stuff would be harder to fake.
My grandfather did it from reading a lot of books & socializing with people who had gone to college (through church). Everyone was sure he went to college, even though he never did. His dad got sick when he was 18 & he had to stay back & become head of household essentially. I think he always wished he had been able to go. He must have read 2 books a week at least, a lot of it the stuff you would read in college. He read so much that his vocabulary was very elegant & classy. I would think this would be even simpler today because you can find college syllabi so easily on the internet.
Last edited by redguard57; 11-04-2017 at 05:25 PM..
I have long held my OH and I are " upper poor class "(UPC) or "poor middle class "(PMC).
We both came from solid middle class families, my parents both grew up very dirt poor with single mothers ( one widowed and one left alone by a husband who only married her due to pregnancy). My father went into the service and to college on the GI bill. He wasn't even finished with his degree before a top fortune top 10 company hired him on full time. Eventually they Gave him a sabbatical to finish his degree. My mother worked her way through college to get her degree, all paid for by the fruits of her labor. We shopped outlet stores, bought seconds and discontinued clothing and discount brand other items. I remember badly wanting a pair of Levi jeans, they looked like a great fit on others, wore well and looked very comfortable. My mother said no way, they cost too much, and our jeans were off brands, seconds and discounted types. I even volunteered to buy a used pair at a garage sale if we could find them, but mother said " OH no, we don't do that, we only buy you guys new clothes", and " when you make your own money you can buy what you want". We took baloney sandwiches to school three days, but bought at regular price twice as mother felt it important for us to have at least two hot lunches. Baloney is now OK for a tome or two, but it really makes my OH and i cringe we ate so much as kids. They kept EVERYTHING, even when it broke, cause it might be fixable or have needed parts for something else. My parents were squarely war babies.
My OH s parents, also war babies, FIL worked for top 500 company, MIL was from Europe and bombed out as a teen in the war. But they spent well on quality only, and FIL "fixed things" often wrongly, because "I can do it", until getting a professional in that needed to be called, due to his screwup.
Now my OH and I, well as UPC, my OH and I both have some college, pay as you go, so never finished due to lack of money, but the economics have drastically changed from the wealth, excellent pay scales, pensions and ability to save well for retirement that our fathers had, when one income supported a family, even IF we had finished college, we'd still be in the same boat.
My OH has two jobs, both part time as full time is hard to find in our area as companies don't want to pay benefits, and I have my SSDI and I work part time, as I'm allowed to. Neither of us ever worked a job, even full time that ever had a pension offering, we were lucky to have 401ks, a foreign entity to our fathers. Even at full time, we WERE ALWAYS way above minimum wage, but since 1989 our wages have stagnated, even as minimum wage grew, so now we are at about $1 an hour over what we were making back then, and now just above minimum wage. My OH has been victim of " wage REGRESSION" AS WHILE once above minimum wage, no raises came to keep my OH above minimum to correlate to that amount above it. I am only back in the workforce about a year, and will experience wage regression this Dec when my state minimum goes up. Where as I am now, say $0.80 above minimum, since I do not get a raise, when minimum goes up Dec 31, I will be only $0.10 above minimum when minimum goes up. Even if I get the anticipated raised i could get, I will only be $0.40 above minimum, still wage regression. This has been the take of our entire working lives. Where i once was almost 3x minimum, i have wage regressed to being barely above . when I was young and didn't have the medical issues I do now, I always worked two jobs to save for retirement and to have extra money for things like a nice vacation, new vehicles that I kept for 10 years, etc.
Oh, and neither of us had any benefits And if it wasn't for federal mandates, we'd not even get paid holiday pay on holidays we are required to work. No personal time, no paid vacation, though we have to take an unpaid one, and no holidays off with pay. No longer 401ks let alone one with a match, and never had a pension.
The sad thing is even if we had finished college, wed be right where we are only about $2.00 more than minimum, instead of pennies for our chosen degrees.
Sure, So we shop at #5, Wal-Mart, though Amazon can often have good deals that may beat Wally World.
Much of your list speaks directly of us, and here we are with an income at the bottom of our supposed national middle class ( or poor middle class..PMC). Look, however, at what all we have to do to be my UPC (Upper Poor Class).
Ya know, I used to like Olive Garden but they kept raising the prices and the quality went down...
It kinda seems like Walmart - you started out going for the cheap prices but they slowly raised them on you - everyone still seems to think it's a good deal but it really isn't. So I end up feeling a little bad for people who go there (Olive Garden) - but either they still think it's a "nice restaurant" and they are really splurging on a meal out that isn't fast food or the other half are "slumming it"?
galaxyhi, one thing you can take to the bank is that you certainly have become an excellent writer! Your personal story was exceedingly well written from a technical view and the points you make are clear, succinct, and informative. Good job.
It kinda seems like Walmart - you started out going for the cheap prices but they slowly raised them on you - everyone still seems to think it's a good deal but it really isn't. So I end up feeling a little bad for people who go there (Olive Garden) - but either they still think it's a "nice restaurant" and they are really splurging on a meal out that isn't fast food or the other half are "slumming it"?
All the terrific salad and pretty good bread sticks with dipping sauces you can eat. Plus you get a free italian-style dinner to take home. Where's the catch in that deal?
Wouldn’t have it any other way, I’d rather hang with my blue collar buddies than my girlfriends Doctor and PA friends. Ha
I always wanted to attend college but I couldn’t when I was younger because I had to take care of my parents and sisters due to their illinesses and financial hardships. I ended up grinding out a great career and in the next couple years I’m buying a business.
It’ll be tough and a cut in pay but we’ll see how it goes!
Does anyone have advice for someone that wants to move up in perceived social class? Is getting a college degree the only way to change ones surrounding environment and social status?
It's not the only way but it's probably the best way not only because of the degree but because of the environment of being around people who have goals, who read & discuss matters other than cars & football, & potentially the networking that other students, teachers or alumni might possibly offer beyond graduation.
I have gray hair now but only a very short time ago I realized with surprise that I was one of only the 2-3 people in my entire teenage working class social circle that graduated college. I think deliberately choosing to widen my circle of friends with new ones that were curious about the world, had goals or were looking for goals, read books, moving to a new environment where partying wasn't the ultimate goal & not marrying in my 20's made all the difference. These days I would also advise to focus on STEM degrees, I read that Systems Engineers in CS were starting at $100K/yr now.
It's not all fun, but being old & struggling is less fun especially with a family. When I realized I was going to end up being 40-50-60yo+ no matter what I did... then I had to decide if I wanted to spend a few years previous to that setting myself up for not failing in life by pursuing a goal.
The best reason I ever got for getting a decent education is that it will teach you to think & that will give you choices as you go on in life. Money isn't everything but poverty sucks.
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