From Precariat to Elite
Discussion
t.
turbobloke said:
TheJimi said:
Trying out different answers, I completely skipped the social / cultural parts, yet the indicators are that I'm in a group with high social & cultural leanings.
So it found you out then you fibber 
From what I can gather, earnings / property status have the biggest influences on the results, which I'm not entirely convinced about.
ETA: More disturbingly, I find myself nodding in agreement reading twinner's posts
Edited by TheJimi on Wednesday 3rd April 13:31
Jinx said:
I suspect it may be a little biased (given >25% are in the >40k bracket in the survey and only 10% are higher tax payers in the UK) .
That sounds about right to me. I'd say there was a huge skew on here (and in the News, Politics & Economics forums in particular) as to what constitutes 'average' and 'normal'. Not healthy IMO.Twincam16 said:
This survey is deeply flawed IMO.
I just did it twice, feeding in all the information it asked.
First time around, it said I was a 'New Affluent Worker'.
Second time around, the only thing I changed was not ticking 'lorry driver' on the 'what do people you know do for a living' section, as I only really know one lorry driver so he's not exactly representative of my social circle.
The end result changed from 'New Affluent Worker' to 'Established Middle Class.'
According to the 'New Affluent Worker' description, my parents are members of the traditional working class (wrong), I live in the ex-industrial North (wrong), and I don't enjoy going to the theatre or listening to classical music (wrong).
I pretend I don't know Andrew the lorry driver, I jump TWO social classes.
How on Earth does that make sense?
Same results for me conclusion its utter crap but right up up the beebs allyI just did it twice, feeding in all the information it asked.
First time around, it said I was a 'New Affluent Worker'.
Second time around, the only thing I changed was not ticking 'lorry driver' on the 'what do people you know do for a living' section, as I only really know one lorry driver so he's not exactly representative of my social circle.
The end result changed from 'New Affluent Worker' to 'Established Middle Class.'
According to the 'New Affluent Worker' description, my parents are members of the traditional working class (wrong), I live in the ex-industrial North (wrong), and I don't enjoy going to the theatre or listening to classical music (wrong).
I pretend I don't know Andrew the lorry driver, I jump TWO social classes.
How on Earth does that make sense?
so they are milking it to death.
It's utter tripe. I'm working class, because I was born and raised working class. You can't change your own class, regardless of how much money you make or the circles you move in. All you can do is to change the class of the next generation. My kids are middle class, so that's good enough for me.
TheJimi said:
More disturbingly, I find myself nodding in agreement reading twinner's posts
I could honestly tick ever box in the friends and interests questions. Likewise the lack of any question about mortgages is interesting. at about £800pcm for a £200k mortgage that makes a lot of difference if you are mortgage free!
hornet said:
So how long before we see marketing based on these new definitions? Indeed, being cynical, you could suggest this was a deliberate ploy to get us familiar with the "new" classes purely so we can be advertised to ever more aggressively.
I'd say marketing has been using class distinctions like this for years before academics worked it out.Traditionally you had the Cleese/Barker/Corbett model, upper->middle->lower, and the survey shows that those classes are still there ('Elite', 'Established middle class' and 'Traditional working class').
The four sandwiched in between have been marketed to for years.
The 'Precariat' (so called given the precarious and infrequent nature of their employment) are the ones patronised to and duped by shouty tabloids, parasitic payday loans firms and ads telling them they've got the right to buy their council houses.
The 'Emergent Service Workers' seems to be a term to describe a new kind of white-collar working class, who in spirit are no different to the traditional working class, but because they wear suits and don't come home with dirt under their fingernails, can be convinced by marketing that they're middle class, and can be persuaded to part with (often quite large) amounts of cash to buy things to confirm this status. I'm half-tempted to suggest that they're thought of by marketeers as the Stella Artois class - middling, acceptable lager sold as some kind of sophisticated Belgian delicacy. Make the attainable seem 'classy' and they'll lap it up in their droves to convince themselves they've pulled away from the world their parents lived in.
The 'New Affluent Workers' seem to be absolutely everywhere. If advertising is to be believed they're the only people who buy anything, ever. Unquestioning, brand-worshipping types who fart every last brainsqueak onto social media and judge others by what brands they own. The whole 'young and active' thing seems to be heavy on the sell too - these people supposedly spend their entire lives going on 'city breaks', inevitably to New York or Barcelona, or doing extreme sports, or buying a new phone every three months because Samsung told them to.
And the 'Technical Middle Class' - no wonder they've emerged from nowhere in recent years and don't have the 'contacts' of the traditional 'Elite' - they're the part of that 50% who went to university who actually benefitted out of it. This seems to be the bit that actually represents some degree of education-based social mobility. As far as advertisers are concerned, these people are boring and 'safe' and are best sold to on solidity and traditional values. These people have been inhabiting Volvo and Ikea adverts for years.
Sorry if all this seems damning, but the whole raison d'etre of the marketing sector is to view people as prey.
ewenm said:
otolith said:
The questions are very metropolitan biased and very arts biased.
In a study sponsored by the BBC, who'd have thought it?!fido said:
Motorrad said:
How embarrassing, I'm 'Established Middle Class', I'd been labouring under the impression I was a working class lad from the North of England.
Ditto. Presumably because I listen to Jazz.fido said:
Motorrad said:
How embarrassing, I'm 'Established Middle Class', I'd been labouring under the impression I was a working class lad from the North of England.
Ditto. Presumably because I listen to Jazz.Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff