Middle Class Conflict
Вставка
- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- Exploring the three types of middle class person.
SUBSCRIBE: www.youtube.co...
FOLLOW ME:
🇨🇦Support me on Patreon! / jjmccullough
🤖Join my Discord! / discord
🇺🇸Follow me on Instagram! / jjmccullough
🇨🇦Read my latest Washington Post columns: www.washington...
🇨🇦Visit my Canada Website thecanadaguide.com
Some music by:
Craig Henderson- / @craighendersonmusic
ComradeF- / comradef ,
HASHTAGS:
I grew up lower-middle class and I always thought of "rich" people as anyone who thought they were too good for Walmart.
People who purposefully shopped at Safeway or Raley's instead of Walmart were always seen as upper middle to me when I was growing up.
For myself, I only wish that were true.
Did you get the “don’t throw the shampoo bottle away, fill it with water and you can get a few more uses.”
In Canada, even upper middle class goes to walmart. Canadians are around 1 class poorer than Americans (it's true! search it up!).
I’m upper middle class and yeah I always found it humiliating to enter a Walmart. It was always viewed as the place the poor and uneducated shopped. Publix was the place we shopped
This is an excellent analysis. Growing up without a dad in the 1960's, my 5 siblings and I always understood from Mom that we were middle middle class. I figured out by college that we were lower middle class. We all eventually realized that Mom just didn't want us to know we were actually poor.
I was a very happy, poor child and i worry very much about my non-poor children. i'm afraid life may be too soft
@@benjaminwatt2436 Just beat them so bad they developp lifelong trauma to hate you over forever and ever
@@no3ironman11100 balancing it out is key
if you were actually poor you wouldn't call yourself lower middle class. you'd be working class
@@muffinmonk are you gatekeeping poverty!?
One of my favorite subtle Simpsons jokes was when Homer referred to the Simpson as "us upper lower middle class types". I dunno, it struck me as perfect just because that's how I always conceptualized my family
I know that episode, that line has always stuck with me.
Along with Lisa needing braces.
Homer owns a house in a decent neighborhood, has two cars, can afford to eat good everyday, can afford to raise 3 kids, and is employed as a nuclear plant safety technician. He's comfortably in upper middle class.
When I was a kid, I used to think I had a comfortable middle class family, since Puerto Rico's pretty poor; but one day, I went to visit some family members in Pennsylvania, and saw a dish washer for the first time. I legitimately felt like I had seen something out of a sci-fi movie.
My parents we're divorced so I used to swap back and forth between living lower middle class and upper middle class depending on which parent I was living with at the time. One of the things that really stuck me about the kids in the upper middle class neighborhood was the fact that they had unopen snack food in there houses that they could eat whenever they wanted but choose not too. Things like chips, lunchables, little Debbie products, and even things like raspberry and strawberries weren't really openly available in lower middle class households. You could buy one cool snack when grocery shopping and that was it for the entire week. Wealthier household didn't have that problem, so while sets of kids eat basically the same amount of these snack foods, one though they were an amazing luxury product that was inherently special, and one set thought they were food, and often didn't even like a lot of the snack foods that were so coveted by other kids. If food in wealthy houses were restricted at all, it was on the basis that they were filled with sugar and terrible for you rather then any monetary concerns.
Yes.
oh.
This is so true! I have a walk in pantry bigger than some of the rooms in my house filled with un-eaten food.
I'm not sure exactly how to describe it but I figured out how to get yourself to covet food.
I have enough money that if I wanted to I could just walk into any grocery store and buy some kind of junk food but I figured out a way to make it so that whenever I end up actually buying the junk food I feel like this is a rare treat that I don't get it very often. I will admit that I was unable to do it with every piece of junk food but I did it with some.
My dad was mad frugal and would purposefully buy the minimum amount of groceries necessary. I remember being shocked when I wen over to a friends house and they had a giant pantry the size of a closet full of food.
JJ, I don’t know if you’ll see but I wanted to tell you that you made my heart leap with the beginning of the video with quoting John Updike. I live in his hometown of Shillington PA and would pass his house often walking around town. It’s a museum now with the blue sign that Pennsylvania uses to denote historically relevant places. Sorry for the long comment, I got rather excited seeing a local man get mentioned by one of my favourite UA-camrs.
me as well! I've lived in Berks County my whole life and immediately jumped to attention the moment I heard Updike's name
@@mono-no-aware.Lem. I went to his old school of Governor Mifflin, the English department there is trying to get some of his books into the curriculum but because of certain “things” in his books it’s rather difficult.
@@jamesrodriguez8981 what kind of things?
@@hydrolifetech7911 He talks about sex a lot in his books which is why the school board is pushing back so heavily against integrating his books into the curriculum.
I’m upper middle class that grew up in one of the richest counties in the United States. When I was a teen, I worked at a gas station because of the good pay and there were a ton of lower middle class people that could instantly tell I was upper middle class by my lack of accent, articulate speech, and use of “big words.” I also find it interesting that you point out upper class rebellion because I was always super self-conscious just how well-spoken and educated I was. Like people would see me as pretentious or not fun to be around, so I’d purposely dumb down my speech slightly (use more slang, care less about proper grammar when texting, etc.). Also when you mention that the comfortable middle class wants to appear higher class is funny to me because my family always tried to appear comfortable middle class. We lived in a big house in a gated neighborhood (which my dad hated) and when I brought over one of my poorer friends he called me rich. I found that funny and told my father and he actually found it to be offensive.
A lot of my friends at university are careful to make their families seem middle or lower middle class (I think they do it subconsciously). Every time one of my friends mentions his private high school, he always reminds you that he went on scholarship and couldn’t actually afford it otherwise, it’s like he really doesn’t want you to get the wrong idea that he grew up rich. A lot of my friends get considerable college money from their parents ($15-20k a year) but frequently mention family money troubles or otherwise downplay their privilege. I think it’s because work ethic and individual accomplishments are highly valued in American culture, and because liberals are hyper-aware of their own privilege and that makes them uncomfortable. It’s rather funny to observe and notice myself accidentally doing the same thing on occasion.
I grew up in the Deep South, but in an affluent county, and it's very rare to hear a zoomer from around there with a southern accent, even in my friends that are in a lower socioeconomic class than I am. I used to palatalize /t/ and /d/ before ⟨you⟩, but I made an effort to eliminate that from my speech, and I don't do it as much anymore.
@@brownbricks6017 that’s a shame
I'm lower middle class
Anti establishment communist
Being lower class, I cannot condone elitism
No higher education, I have read books, watched lectures, etc.
To my shock the lower classes have always held no political
I am all for equality and the rights of the peasants and lowest class
I have have adopted a distaste for elitism, a champion of the people
Capitalism can no longer be justified, communism is the future.
Big words, LoL! 😆 I did the same thing with dumbing down some of the things I said in when hanging out with certain friends when I was in school. I never really thought about it before but that exactly what it was..👍
I was a kid in the 70's in suburban Western NY. As a kid and a teenager my personal defination of "rich" was "any family that can afford two cars and a swimming pool." Now, as an adult who made it into to that class, I still think it's accurate.
I Don't have a pool but we have 4 cars but i agree.
As a young adult now, I think of rich as anyone who could afford to take a mortgage out in a home.
I grew up working class/lower middle class and have somehow found myself getting a masters degree. I feel like I've been torn in two. I've had to leave a lot of how I grew up to fit into these upper middle class spaces and it's unfortunate and frustrating. Unfortunate because I have a lived experience that's worth preserving and frustrating that they don't want to truly engage in it (nor do I think they are even able to). I've made friends with homeless people and I've made friends with children of venture capitalists, and I can tell you with that living with the possibility that you might not have basic needs changes your entire worldview. When you have a comfortable amount of money you see the world as much less dangerous and unstable-because it simply never has been dangerous or unstable for you. More than anything, I wish people would listen to us who have straddled this middle-class divide because there's good in it: I love how close poor families and communities are because you gotta have someone watch your back in this world. I love how we have fun and the loud music we listen to, I love the way we challenge authority because we see firsthand the effects of policy/government/whatever! And on the other side, I really like the upper-middle class world of art and philosophy and the emphasis on esotericism. It's just fun, and it makes life seem much more wonderful. The lower-middle class world can be tough as we can be pretty mean to people we don't trust, but the upper-middle class can be just as snide. I think the comfortable middle is where I've found most of my base political ideologies, because I'll never be as radical as the upper-middle wants me to be because I've seen firsthand the danger to poor peoples lives that can occur from it. I also won't be as "unaware" as the lower-middle wants me to be because I've simply experienced so much and seen the good that can sometimes come from weird "esoteric" philosophies. I always tell people my political opinion is "poor people": I don't care about the minutiae of identity politics and I don't care about what I'm supposed to think. I want to uphold and ensure that all people who work hard day in and day out can have a stable, safe, and fullfilling life with the comforts afforded to a country as wealthy as mine. That simple.
Thanks for this comment! I know we're total strangers, but you've hit so many of my own lived experiences right on the head. I appreciate how you articulated it all.
I appreciate your comment as well. I feel many of the same things growing up in rural poverty, getting my Ph.D. and moving into the world of the upper-middle class. There's so much value to be had from a variety of experiences. I think it gives perspective on how there is truth in everyone's lived experience.
@@derekweil8800 Hell yeah! I've noticed recently that my closest friends are all like us. No one else understands so we gotta stick together 😎
Have you read "Book Ends" by Tony Harrison?
So much of my life is wrapped in this post. I moved from the border between lower and comfortable to a truly upper middle class but still rural life. People who have lived their lives only in the upper middle bracket seem to be missing the point so often it hurts.
I'm an upper middle-class student at university, and I loved what you said about the upper-middle class adopting lower middle-class fashion, I thought it was a spot-on analysis. That sort of style and mode of thinking is absolutely rampant in the college setting. However, something to add to it may be that I have noticed that a lot of agricultural students with upper-middle class backgrounds have a tendency to adopt what their idea is of lower-middle class agricultural culture is. Like cowboy hats and boots, jeans with tucked in plaid shirts, fake country accents, and so on, kind of like a form of class based cultural appropriation.
As a Brit I love hearing about the ideas and conceptions of class in North America and how much they differ from our own even though we share so much cultural similarity ☺
Can you tell how it is in the UK? I'm quite curious because I found the video to be very accurate for Germany.
@@derhenri2002 I think it's because the UK has an aristocracy which kind of pushes everyone down a class.
@@derhenri2002 The same goes for me as person from The Netherlands, most differences mentioned are also notable in the Dutch 'middle class spectrum'.
@@JJMcCullough sorry, are the richest people in the UK more wealthy than the wealthiest Americans?
I think not.
The US and Canada absolutely have an "Aristocracy", you just choose to call them by a different name.
@@derhenri2002 I mean compared to the US its less a question of wealth and alot down to parents family upbringing and social background, the types of friends and family you have. Just because you're from the upper class dosent mean you're wealthy, we have alot of penniless aristocrats and just as many nouveau riche social climbers come up from the lower classes. I think alot of our understanding of class goes back to the fact that unlike Germany we didn't have the big revolutions of 1848, our ruling classes were never toppled. I think alot of our class divisions also go back to the English Civil War, much of the identity of the middle class is tied up with the Puritans and roundheads and Cromwell, compared to the upper class the British middle classes are alot more restrained than the upper classes. Alot more buttoned up and I guess you could say repressed especially in matters concerning bedroom behaviour, there's a perception that the upper classes are always having affairs and taking mistresses wheras its the middle class that really buys into the ideas of the Protestant work ethic and modesty. I think one of the major differences between the north America and the UK is the middle class has at least since the war occupied a much large percentage of the population like in America the middle class is alot more attainable where a large plurality of the population was able to achieve some middle class way of life wheras in the UK a much large portion of the population would consider themselves working class. But we all come from a simaler tradition in terms of being protestant we have alot more in common than we do with how class is perceived in say Latin America for example even though Latin America has its own significant diaspora of Brits and Germans ☺
The last year has been really eye opening for me as a person who considers myself upper middle class. I know an older guy, an author worth upwards of $80m who has kinda become my mentor as I want to be an author too. He lives on a 14 acre forest in the centre of a hilly middle class area. You’d never know if you didn’t know to look for the H imprinted on his iron gate. It makes me wonder if more people like this are just living in plain sight. Keep in mind that this is in Australia and not the US
I worked for very rich people, a lot of them want to live in a very "middle class way of life".
I appreciate the fact you identify class as being more social then economic as I think this aspect of it is usually missed. In the U.K. for example, being ‘Working Class’ is now much more of a cultural thing than actually being at the bottom of the economic pecking order. Most of those who most proudly wear the tag ‘working class’ tend to be tradesman or skilled industrial workers who on average, often make a similar if not greater salary than their white collar office working counter parts, many of whom tend to be university educated etc.
That's a good point. I think the names for these classes were born out of the 50s and 60s, when service work and university education almost always meant significantly higher income and different lifestyle than the trades. Flash-forward to the 2000s, and the income divide is pretty much nil, we all watch the same TV shows and live in the same neighbourhoods. Being 'working-class' now seems more like a lifestyle statement than a socio-economic difference.
@@Steadyaim101 I don't know where you live that that's the case, but it's not so where I'm from. People from my home parish legitimately turned to fishing, hunting, and even poaching to survive.
Interesting thought that also really muddles the divides. Where does a conservative, moderately educated IT worker with a pension and a full time job who enjoys expensive hobbies like astro photography but still goes camping and fishing, owns just under 100 acres, built his own (but largish home) fit into this??? My income and land says upper middle but we still buy most of my kid's clothes second hand from value village and shop our groceries at discount stores. We drive a mini van and a base model pickup, not a Tesla or luxury brand even though I could afford it. Maybe it's all left over anxiety or practicality from our past. I want my kids to earn upper class money but but not be urban elitist snobs with no clue how the world actually works. One of my biggest fears is that I will fail at this goal. Such a complex topic really.
It’s totally missed. Plus, you can be a waspy teacher in New England who doesn’t make much but still dresses in old but still fashionable LL Bean or Vineyard Vines outfits, while you can do very well financially as a plumber, but still wear clothes from wal-mart and eat Big Macs a lot.
I have a lot of problems with this video, but it is interesting to think of it from UK point of view. I completely agree that economic markers are a lot less important, and I think very few people in the UK really want to be seen as Middle Class, they'd rather been seen as outright rich or down-to-earth and normal, irrespective of earnings. But I think the social implications of this are really interesting, especially amongst young people. We have bred a generation with the highest number of students going to universities ever, we have the highest ever engagement in politics among young people (after the near complete apathy of the 00s and 10s), yet still a pop culture that values honesty, authenticity, and diversity above all, all commonly seen as working class values. Immigrant culture, "charity shop" culture and "street" culture have never been so universally respected. You only have to look at the rise of Grime music to the mainstream, 20 years ago Stormzy and Santan Dave would be (wrongly) labelled as criminals rather than absolutely killing Glasto.
When I was young, we were lower middle. When I was a teen, my dad got a promotion and we moved and became middle middle. Then I grew up and became the first in my family to get an advanced degree and become upper middle (ish). It's hard to shed those feelings about where you grew up though. My parents still find spending to be a thing that makes them feel good. And I still have all the anxieties of spending my formative years in middle middle.
Also I still think upper middles are weird and don't feel like I entirely fit in here. They do things that don't make sense to me, like claim that they want to help the poor and then use every loophole to get out of paying taxes. I don't really understand yet, and I'm not sure I will.
I think everyone understands donating directly to the poor far exceeds in support than taxes, lol. People dont start gofundme's because they're covered by the public sector 😂😂
I think everyone understands donating directly to the poor far exceeds in support than taxes, lol. People dont start gofundme's because they're covered by the public sector 😂😂
Class structures are part of capitalist system. It is a way of keeping wealth in hand of capitalist ruling elites and keeping citizens vying against each other. The old divide and conquer. For instance, building on the idea of ' deserving ' according to class designation.
In others words, the upper classes position enables them to gain all the perks of society. However, at the core of their position is the lower classes who work to make the profits that make it all possible. They keep about 60% of all profits, rewarding along the way those who take the profits and help make more profit with it.
Wall St and Banks, Investment firms like BlackRock and govts.all contribute to the enhancement of profit over the initial creater of profit - the worker. Consequently, we can trace our social and economic problems back to profit.
Which means if profit was not the prime motive and if ownership was structured differently we would still have very rich people but not all powerful individuals controlling the fate of the worker.
Much has been written about it.
I think what you said about the Upper Middle Class having a fascination with the lower to be spot on, especially in a political sense. Like, I'm involved in the College Republicans and most of them I would describe as being upper-middle in their values. A lot of them will call themselves populists "fighting for the working class" or whatever yet they'll have these really extreme and esoteric opinions that most people would not even really understand. It just feels weird to hear all these well off educated people speaking for a demographic they clearly hardly interact with.
Same story with a whole lot of Democrats/progressives and frankly alot politicians generally.
That's interesting. I hear a lot of that coming from the progressive side, but didn't know there was a group like it among young rightwingers. I grew up lower-middle to comfortable-middle class, went to community college because that's all I could afford, and work an entry-level job that pays slightly too little to afford a house. My political opinion is that the world would be a better and more efficient place if the government and corporate cabals would, in most cases, f off.
@@MidwestArtMan I have friends that are Monarchists 😐, Needless to say I think that's as far away from populism as you can get lol
Republican policies are primarily about redistributing money, power, and influence from the bottom to the top.
Any attempt to halt or reverse this pattern gets branded socialism.
That's what being a Republican is actually all about at a policy level, and believe me there are receipts from at least the Reagan era to prove it.
I think you are mistaking extreme centrists as republicans, then again if their values don't shift left nowadays they might as well be conservative, weird world we live in.
I grew up lower class. Myself, my dad, and three siblings living in a one bedroom concrete apartment. I had school friends' parents who didn't want their kid to play with me. I remember the first time I felt like I had made it when I realized I could buy whatever I wanted (within reason) and not have to worry about it. I even stopped balancing my checkbook or checking my bank account because I instinctively realized it wouldn't empty out. It still amazes me.
I get this..One day I looked to make sure I could afford an expensive item to find $10,000 in my account. I thought I was living a dream. What a weird realization that was. I thought I was living like a King and yet my income was much more than I needed. Of course, then I got a wife and had kid's. I check a little more often now and the news isn't so uplifting.
I still find it amazing that i can afford three full meals everyday and not just one 🤗
I feel that: dad passed away when i was 6 leaving my poor mom to raise 4 burdens on her own. Mom had several mental breakdowns because of the stress, we're on welfare so we barely could afford to even eat. Christmas were completely funded/provided for by local charities and churchs. Getting the sh*t kicked out of me at school for wearing old, ripped clothes. Yeah, being poor f*cking sucks.
As someone who has moved from lower middle to comfortable middle... It's definitely about money. My behaviour has changed a lot now that I don't have to live paycheque to paycheque.
For example - I used to take my pop bottles to the deolpot regularly so I can buy food and more pop... Now I just call a company to pick them up and donate the proceeds.
I have a similar story. Grew up lower, middle and have moved too comfortable middle. I remember the moment exactly when I realized that I had levelled up it was when I was able to go to the grocery store and buy whatever I wanted for my pantry in the amounts that I wanted without worrying about when my next paycheque was the money was just there I wasn’t shoe stringing my budget the week before payday because there was always some money in the bank to buy what I needed. That said, I would not go to a place like Whole Foods or other fancy grocery store because I think it’s just a waste of money. I will, however, pay top dollar to local farmers at a farmers market.🤷🏻♀️. I think people are often a combination of the three depending on the background and location.
I agree
what is "pop bottles" and "deolpot"?
Whoa. This was an aggressively Canadian comment. The words "behaviour," "paycheque," "pop bottles" and "deolpot" clued me in. LOL.
If you are collecting bottles, you are not middle class. I knew warehouse workers who didn't speak any English, who collected cans and bottles.
Grew up lower-middle class and that part was just spot on. Still feel like I fit in better in that type of environment than comfortable middle where I am now. To me, "rich" people were people like my cousins, who had a house that didn't need all this work done and they had a garage that both their cars (they had two cars! and they both WORKED!) could fit in, and a pool and all this nice stuff. I always felt like I was breaking some unwritten social rule all the time around "rich" people. Appreciated the hand-me-down clothes, though.
I grew up in a small town in eastern West Virginia where each day you would see the differences in wealth, because there were lots of people living in trailers and mobile homes but there was also a man from England who lived in a early 19th century castle on a mountain.
Lmao I know what you're talking about
My dad's told me stories from his childhood in SWVA (this was about 10 mins from the KY Border.) about a guy who IIRC owned a coal mine around where he grew up, and was rich enough to have a helicopter that the school would sometimes borrow to dry off the football field. Meanwhile if you were to go down there, you'd see many people living in trailers or smaller houses
Berkeley Springs?
This doesn’t happen to be in Mingo County, does it?
@@Cody35695 No, it's in Morgan County.
I grew up in a lower-middle class household and always had more contempt towards the upper-middle class than the comfortable middle. However, a large part of this came from having an aunt and uncle who were much better off than I was; thus, I could easily observe both sides of the spectrum and saw how comfortable the other class was. Meanwhile, I was too poor to shop at Walmart most months. 😪
Your cartoons are hilarious, the picture of the upper middle being frightened by a cheeseburger made me laugh out loud
I was born in 1982, the 5th of 6 children, and I find the difference between my memory or childhood and my adult knowledge of what my family went through at the time endlessly fascinating. It was certainly worse for my older siblings, but I am now distinctly aware that, as I was growing up, we were moving from the lower middle to the "comfortable" middle. My dad worked 3 jobs, my mom 2, and this was necessary for them in the 80s to provide for the household, but as my elder siblings moved out and my parents maintained their work ethic, things became notably more comfortable for myself and my younger sister.
If you are interested, here is a specific example: In 1985, Christmas was tight. We each only received a couple of gifts, mostly through donations at the church that my parents were part of, not that any of us knew the difference. A single toy (Teddy Ruxbin) was my most exciting gift, along with a lot of clothing. Our Christmas dinner was also provided through the church. 10 years later in 1995, My parents took themselves and the 3 remaining kids in the house to Hawaii for Christmas, along with giving us "only a couple" of gifts, which we about equivalent to what we'd been given 10 years earlier.
Having dealt with hardship for some time though, my parents had the firm belief of not providing for or giving much help to any of us once we aged beyond high school (kind of funny in retrospect considering the heavy assistance from the church they'd received years before.) College and beyond had to be provided for solely by us. As a result, I was the only one of my siblings to graduate with a bachelors following high school (two other siblings eventually got a degree once they were in their 30s.)
I think I've lost the plot on this one... At any rate, much of my memory is while we were "comfortably" middle class, so not what you wanted to hear about, but my parents' experiences as part of the lower middle class shaped their views and how they ran their house for the rest of their lives, even once they financially grew beyond.
What I found most interesting about this, was that this system of dividing people was very middle class heavy in naming conventions. I assume this is because most people like to think of themselves as middle class rather than something else. The working class want to think they aren't as bad off as they actually are and the upper middle class like to think they are just like the lower middle class, rather than admitting that they are more similar to the upper class then they would care to admit. Personally I'm more used to the following system:
- Extreme Poverty
- Lower Working Class
- Upper Working Class (Lower Middle)
- Lower Middle Class (Comfortable Middle)
- Upper Middle Class (Upper Middle)
- Upper Class (the Super Rich)
I grew up lower working class but now that I'm grown up, I fit more into the lower middle class bracket.
I think there is one step above Upper Class,
The Oligarch class. The owners of corporations, think tanks, people who have personal funds comparable to small countries. People who by word of mouth can change the direction of the economy, who can make or break entire industries with how much control over certain economic institutions they have. They are not more than a few hundred of thousands globally, and a few tens of thousands in the US, but they are VERY important and VERY powerful.
I'd love to see a video that dives deeper into the phenomenon where someone's cultural habits & identity don't match their economic situation. The Beverly Hillbillies obviously comes to mind as a caricature of this, and it seems like it is something that has hugely defined my own life.
My paternal grandparents were definitely lower-middle class and were fairly poor most of their lives, but they got hit by a semi truck later in life and won millions of dollars in the law suit, and suddenly had more money than they'd ever had in their whole lives.
My maternal grandfather grew up VERY lower-middle class as well, his family always teetering on serious poverty when he was a kid, but he worked extremely hard all his life and became very successful in business. When he died, I believe he was worth at least a few million.
Both families have been fairly wealthy as long as I've been alive but they both have always had cultural habits that, as I look back on them, strike me as definitively lower-middle class.
Funny enough my parents are very, very "comfortable middle class". Neither has a college degree, but they both make 60-100 thousand per year and they are very smart with their money, conservative, and value security and comfort.
And as I consider my own political/social tendencies (especially when I was younger), I realize that I have always been drawn to the upper-middle class snobbery (I love books & art, used to loath mcdonalds and judge people for eating there, etc.) and rebellious spirit (many a tense political or religious argument with family members). I even have the amusement with and romanticization of lower class culture that was talked about towards the end of the video. The movie American Honey is such a perfect example. It's one of my favorite movies, but after watching this video, I realize it is a perfect example of upper-middle class people romanticizing lower-middle class culture, which kind of makes me second guess what's going on there.
Also! The Podcast "Are You Trash" is fascinating to view through this lense
I am totally that way. I came from the trailer parks and make lots of cash now. I have yet to ever see another dude pull up to a fishing spot and pull his gear out of one of his mercedes. I usually wear band shirts and dickies jeans. My neighbors all look like they are on the way to the country club.
The topic of classes was a huge deal for me. My extended family is mostly upper middle, with historians/philosophy majors/lawyers/architecturer/doctors, mostly. On the other hand, I was only raised by my single mom who is paid well, but a lot of those money were spend on my (and my brother's) education (we went to our grandma's private school) and loans. So I was in an interesting position here, as I did not have fancy every day life, but I would travel a lot with school, and all of my classmates were way richer with new phones, cool clothes and stuff. I did feel quite insecure about it for a while, then as a "I'm not like other girls" teen I sort of drew my identity out of this factor. Like, yeah, gonna surprise everyone by being cheap!! No one gave a shit except for maybe one girl.
The story I think about sometimes, is how one particular classmate of mine was different than all of us. I don't know if she was the super rich, but she was... something else. Our teachers and schoolmates went on the protests, and I was sharing with her how I was scared for my brother, who was arrested on one of those protests, while she only said something between the lines of "yeah I hope they would stop protesting, it really messes up our private driver's work so I am constantly late to the nail salon". That was the moment I realised she wasn't even in the upper middle class.
I do need to point out that middle class looks differently in Russia, and a lot of what was in the video may simply not apply to my experience and we used same words for different things. Yet, here is what I remembered while watching. Sorry for a messed up structure, it's quite late here, but I really needed to watch the vid before sleep.
updated: I also remembered a time when a girl from my class came to visit me while I was sick and was shocked to find out nothing was marble in our flat, lmao.
Thank you for sharing! A lot of these views are American-centric, so I appreciate the opportunity to see how others around the world experience the same kind of problems Americans do.
Yeah, in Russia even the fact, that you have that english level, that allows you to write comments like this, already tells a lot about your class, cause it‘s nearly impossible to get this level in school
@@user-rk3cd2qd9w great point, thanks for reminding! I guess my case sort of supports the point about upper middle class being more educated, huh.
I’m curious as a Canadian upper middle class kid myself. Here in Canada the upper middle class signs in high school are things like owning the newest apple laptops and iPhones, your parents buying you a car, going on trips to Europe during the summer.
Is it similar in Russia? Is there more subtle things that a Canadian couldn’t tell was a upper middle class Russian?
For example I could tell by seeing a Canada goose brand winter coat or being a member of a expensive hockey travel team that person was upper middle class, is there a Russia version of that?
i grew up lower-middle class. my mom was lower-middle class with middle-middle class sensibilities, and my father was middle-middle class with lower-middle class sensibilities. while we were making lower-middle class income, my mom was aggressively instilling the middle-middle class values into us as she tried so hard to push us into the upper-middle class. this backfired though, because she put more time, money and effort into trying to become upper-middle class than she did actually trying to raise her children after a familial split. this really opened a new vector for understanding my childhood, thanks for your insight!
The family I grew up in I think would be most accurately described as "comfortable middle class," but this, I think, was a result of averaging out my parent's own background. My mother came from an upper middle class background, while my father came from a lower middle class background, and this is observable in their tastes and mannerisms. This difference became even more noticeable after their divorce, in which they both now lack this moderating force.
that's kinda similar to my parents, just reverse the genders lol
I think it would be an interesting question to explore whether people can change from class to class. Obviously people can suddenly earn more money, or earn less. But does that change their class? Someone who earns more money doesn't suddenly get a post-secondary degree or acquire a newfound appreciation for art. Someone who loses money doesn't suddenly lose their value in art.
One category I often hear about is the "working class," which some people think of as lower, but financially it isn't necessarily. "I'm a welder." "Ah, you're lower class." "Sure, if you want to think of it that way. Anyway, that'll be $25,000 for the staircase and railings I made for your cottage. I've got a bunch of other jobs like this one lined up, so let's close this deal off quick please."
I lived in a trailer as a little boy and now make lots of cash. I usually wear heavy metal t-shirts and dickies jeans. People are surprised when they see me walking through a parking lot only to jump into one of my nice cars . I think they were anticipating being witness to a car break-in lol.
On the other side of the coin, I have an extensive knowledge of French Cuisine and appreciate classical guitar. I don't think of it as upper class stuff at all. I learned lots of fine dining stuff as a broke line-cook. I stumbled into classical guitar after getting really into bossa nova music.
I feel comfortable hanging out with either class, but most of my friends don't earn a lot.
There is the idea that those blue collar workers are still lower-middle or middle-middle because they are bad at money management and live in a feast or famine type way. The kind of blue collar worker who makes six figures one year and goes out and buys a boat and a big new truck, only to have trouble making payments on those things a few years later when the economy cools down because they never squirrelled away any savings.
The values and morals (overall upbringing) may not change much. My mother-in-law married a wealthy man from the upper middle class, but she was raised working class and working poor due to a pastor father wanting to evangelize in Mexico. Her own mother was extremely dysfunctional coming from a working poor white Hispanic background full of abuse.
My mother-in-law is unable to befriend anyone in the upper middle class because she sticks out. Her behavior is still lower class. She's too vulgar, but she doesn't realize it.
This is also seen with black rappers in the 2000s who became famous. I think the term used was ghetto fab.
People get stuck in their upbringing and take that everywhere as adults. Becoming wealthier later in age, as was the case for my mother-in-law, especially results in this problem. Changing overall values and behaviors can take much longer to achieve.
Dunno man, my journeymen plumber friends consistently make between $90,000-105,000/year *take home* (net pay). They're also doing side jobs that could earn them a few thousand in a weekend. Companies are so desperate for tradesmen that they're offering $5, 000 signing bonuses. Those days of the poor, destitute tradesmen yearning for more are over.
“Working Class” has nothing to do with income and everything to do with capital. If you own a company, if you’re a landlord then you’re not working class. If you have to live off of an income that someone else pays you, then you’re working class. Most people are working class, they just sub-divide it into smaller categories that have little meaning because working class people with more money want to pretend they’re closer to capitalists than they really are. But the truth is that as long as you don’t own any means of production, you will always be closer to being homeless than a millionaire, because you can be fired in the turn of a dime, and you have no control over that. Even upper middle class workers actually have very little control over their lives, they just don’t want to admit it.
I'm from the upper middle class, but I went to a public school and mingled with people throughout the middle class. There was some difference in taste. I got read to more at home by my parents and we travelled more. My music tastes were a bit more esoteric than some of my friends in high school. I think I felt that some people I knew weren't thinking big or adventurous enough, but as a teenager I didn't see this as a class thing. As I got older, I think I started to understand better, and I also stopped becoming as judgmental about it.
As someone from a similar background (upper middle class, public schooling) I noticed similar things. Well, I didn't actually as I was surprisingly class-blind as a teen (to the puzzlement of a couple of teachers of mine as I was also quite right wing), but they're quite clear in retrospect. In particular the difference in access to books, musical tastes, and political beliefs.
@@pascalausensi9592 also, upper class ppl will be far more confident indulging an unusual taste or expressing a contrary opinion on art or whatnot. Mid-middle would far too scared of saying the ‘wrong’ thing and so stick with something everything agrees is good (eg Monet prints on the wall). Lower mid either don’t care or will call out the uppers as being pretentious.
I got to read a lot as the library was free and we couldn't afford cable 🤣
@@slymarbo4046 I read a lot because i was home schooled and we were too poor for a game system
This is an upper middle class trait, being very concerned with people's musical tastes and judging them for that. It's because most people don't have time to listen to music.
I also struggle to understand people that have really never listened to any music besides top 40 and truly think it is good.
Many people have at least one interest or topic they know a lot about.
I grew up somewhere between lower middle class and comfortable middle. While my dad made a decent middle class salary, finances were always unstable because of mental health issues in my family and because my dad made the only income. Some things stood out to me as being different experiences from my more comfortable middle/upper middle friends. We didn’t have a dishwasher. Lot’s of brown fake wood panel walls (iykyk). We usually bought store brand products when we could. The values thing was a big part of it too. We rarely ate dinner together at a table, and meals were often frozen, canned, or easy stovetop foods. My parents would express guilt about smoking cigarettes indoors but still did it anyways. Money was often spent in excess by one parent and nasty fights would ensue. The house was always cluttered, disorganized, and dusty. And because it was all normal and “comfortable” to me, I didn’t get embarrassed when I invited my wealthier friends over. Now I would because even though I’m still lower/comfortable class living in my own (teachers salaries are sad), I’m more aware of how important it is to pretend your shit is neat and together even if it isn’t. Otherwise you’ll be misunderstood, pitied, or looked down on.
My parents grew up lower middle class and became middle middle class through hard work and social change (overall expansion of the US white collar economy, growing tolerance for white Catholics in that economy). I grew up middle middle class and became upper middle class, in part through post-graduate education. Your cultural analysis of each group is spot on.
As a lower middle class individual, I gotta say: the thing people don't understand about the lower middle class is that untreated mental illness is endemic.
OK, and?
Yes, those in the middle- and upper-middle class never experience mental illness. /s
This whole thing is weird to me because while I come from a family that straddles the line between Comfortable Middle Class and Lower Middle Class (with some members of my extended family definitely being more directly part of the latter) I can strangely relate to the Upper Middle Class in terms of education and values.
Like I don't have a college degree and work a fairly middle class job but I totally follow that non conformist attitude of "Preaching what I don't practice" in regards to drug legalisation or non conformist relationships.
So yeah it's truly a spectrum it seems
Exactly the same as my situation. Both my parents are university educated and when I was a child we were definitely upper middle. My sister and I attended private school, we got new toys very often, our mum took us clothes shopping every season and we could buy whatever we wanted without having to be cautious about the cost. Then my parents divorced and we've been straddling the line between comfortable middle class and lower middle class, yet we hold those upper-class values and education, like my parents pretty much gave me no choice about going to uni, I had to go because for them that's what everyone we are around does.
Class is definitely never stagnant, you're so right about it being a spectrum. You could be lower-middle, upper-class, comfortable middle all in the same lifetime, its so dependent on your situation and values too.
Lmao no it’s not and you aren’t upper middle class and it’s all about money and money obviously drives these values not the other way around this is some weird ass shit in this video
There's also I think a distrust of rigid institutions that plays into this regardless of wealth or class.
For instance, anti-drug or pro-legalization are opposite sides of the same coin. I'd want the option available for either depending (let's not forget the whole class of "legal" drugs that are available to you if you are wealthy enough), which puts me in the legalization camp even if I think drug use can have serious problems.
You do you.
Social classes aren't completely stagnant there's off course Social mobility in Canada I think compared to other countries the gap is not a big but it still present off course
not so much, this applies perfectly to the middle class of the late 80s 90s and early 00s if your 60+ this would be far more accurate of your time as a middle aged middle class person. The middle class of the 2010s and 2020s are not the same because education is far less institutionalized as it was in the 80s and 90s in all forms. We are in the self taught Era where entire fields that would have once required institutionalized formal training are now accepting of self taught expertise if it can be proven, Coding for example is one of those fields.
Intellectualism is no longer reserved for only those with a post graduate degree, and there is a trickle down effect of that. Even if the knowledge behind that self taught expertise is shallow, This is an Era of Pseudo intellectualism and while that sounds bad there is a lot of good that comes with it.
My family was comfortable middle class trying VERY hard to be upper middle class, because that’s what we were surrounded by in my suburban Massachusetts hometown. It was definitely a high-anxiety way to grow up.
Why set that benchmark at two bucks a day? If someone is living off of three dollars in America, I doubt anyones labeling them as “middle class.” I’m also kinda surprised that really anyone here can’t scrape together two dollars a day. I keep a roll of five spots in my glovebox to give to panhandlers and I’m not rich by any stretch of the imagination. I’m also not the only person who gives money to people who are begging. I’d expect that you could find someone to just hand you two dollars cash fairly quickly if you just started asking people. Not to mention, most American retail workers don’t care about shoplifting enough to confront someone who isn’t just being ridiculously brazen about it. Someone’s circumstances would have to be almost cartoonishly bleak to be in a position where all they can get their hands on is two dollars a day.
because in this context, two dollars a day does not seperate "middle class" from "lower class". Rather, it is meant to compare the extremely narrow amount of Americans (relative to the general US population) who are in "extreme poverty" to the extremely narrow amount of Americans who are multimillionaires and billionares. Hope this helped!
@@bradyh1782 the problem is that those are the only people J.J. considers "genuinely poor". I would argue that the category of "genuinely poor" goes faaaar beyond $2/day. The US guideline for poverty, for even a one person household, Is $13,590/yr. THAT'S $37 PER DAY! So to set the bar at $2/day is incredibly disingenuous.
@@bradyh1782 not to mention early in the video where he groups "multi-millionares and billionaires" into a single group, when the difference between those two groups is ENORMOUS, and it's clearly muddying the waters to combine them at all. Go watch the Tom Scott video about "driving to 1 billion" if you doubt that.
Because that part of the video is incorrect. Extreme poverty and top 1% are worldwide terms whereas classes are local, those don't go together the way he presented them. Middle class depends on the country and refers to being in a specific income bracket for a household based on the number of people in it. For an household of two people in the United States, it's 42,430 - $127,300. They would be poor if they made below $42,430, not below $4 (two times 2$).
Exactly. He quotes that there are about 330,000 people at that range, but there's over 500,000 homeless people in the US. I would say all of them are living in extreme poverty and "genuinely poor". And I'd say that many people who have inadequate shelter and not enough food but not quite homeless are also "genuinely poor". I did not like that part of the video at all.
This made me aware that I have anxiety around my station in the middle-class. Some one asked me at work why I always dress so professionally (button-up, slacks, leather loafers) when everyone else dresses casually-- I didn't have an answer then, but I realize now that I'm trying to pretend to be more upper class. Although it's nothing to be ashamed about, I've always felt really on edge about shopping at Walmart and not having a university education. I don't have shame around where I come from, but I guess I do have some shame about never having been able to climb up to a better position. I guess we're all a lot harsher on ourselves than we are on others.
Hey, I grew up and remain upper-middle class and do the same thing. For me, it comes a bit from my "old soul" or, as my dad puts it, "traditionalist" personality but also from my reaction to what JJ so articulately said about the way upper-middles view lower-middles; the way low-class culture has become a style for the upper-middles is disgusting for myriad of reasons.
Sorry if this gets a bit off topic. Whenever I can, I try to maintain a somewhat adult professional look when I go out after work(if I'm not in a more casual, grab an old t-shirt kind of mindset), mostly because I loathe the third-rate hospital staff/patient style of clothes I see people wear or the whole pajama thing right down to the shoes. It wasn't cool in the one fall of the mid-90's, it will never be anything but unsightly and quite frankly, disgusting. There's an effective reason great TV shows mock this.
What class you are is much more a mindset generated by your economic situation, than the situation itself. Some of our family friends were literally on the dole, but they still lived an upper middle class life. I first realised I was upper middle class when I entered college. You had these ladies cleaning the toilets, and when you walked in they shuffled out of the way as if you were a king or something.
Also, since my country is quite small it was very common for all my professors to be real national bigshots. They'd say things like: "You know when *I* was writhing the constitution..." or "As I advised president so and so..." one was even a former prime minister.
I had a friend who was on the upper end of the lower middle class, who was just perplexed by the idea to going to high school: "if you go to a trade school" he'd say "after 4 years you have a profession. You go to high school all you have is a diploma saying you're a graduated nerd, and have to do 4 more years of college to get anywhere."
Another interesting thing to see was what kind of summer jobs we'd get. While the upper class kids were earning minimum wage in their fancy office apprenticeship, the lower class would be delivering food or collecting garbage for twice the money.
Yeah. I keep hearing how "blue collar" work is becoming more valuable. Funny how the tables have turned.
Growing up, I split my time between households of my comfortably-middle class mom/step-dad and my lower-middle class dad. Then in college, I spent a lot of time with and eventually lived with my fiancé’s upper-middle class family. Having experienced all three, I have a very keen awareness of differences in the tiers of middle class. This has made the economic rollercoaster of the last few years all the more stressful to me as I attempted (and ultimately failed) to secure an upper-middle home before being priced out due to the real estate market and inflation. After doing nothing but work and save for a decade in hopes of moving up a social peg, only for my purchasing power to completely dissipate in a matter of months, I have now resigned myself and my children to be comfortably-middle class in a lower-to-comfortably middle class neighborhood for the rest of my working life, if I am lucky. I tell this story to illustrate why comfortably-middle class people like myself are anxious. From my experience, lower-middle class people are comfortable with where they are, even if they don’t have much and sometimes suffer (poor diet and clothes, rationing heat/water/electricity, no unnecessary purchases). And upper-middle class people only get anxious when their investments are tanking, but they still have enough money to keep up their lifestyle, so it doesn’t really matter. The comfortably-middle class, on the other hand, have reason to believe that things could drastically trend upwards or downwards at any given moment, hence the anxiety.
One scenario I use to define where a person sits on the middle class scale - is a restaurant menu scenario. 3 people from 3 different families/lives walk into a standard restaurant, and look at the menu - first person looks straight for the cheaper options and orders the cheapest, second person looks around the menu both at the prices and what they feel like and orders what is both appetising to them but still reasonably priced. Third person doesn't look at the prices at all, they read all the items and pick based on what they feel like, whether it's cheap or expensive is less important. The owner of the restaurant can be seen as the upper class person & the homeless guy sitting out the front is the lower class person - the 3 people who entered are the 3 categories of middle class people - where do you sit?
After I first heard this, I started seeing how my friends pick their meal when we go out somewhere, and if I notice a friend won't look at anything other than the cheapest option I either suggest a more affordable food place or offer to pay & tell them to pick what they feel like (avoiding to mention price as I don't want to embarrass them) so they can be more relaxed about money, and more focused on enjoying our shared time.
Doesn't work for Dutch people, here in the Netherlands everyone looks at the prices just out of principle lol
This assumes that everyone handles their money similarly. And odds are they don't. There are many examples where income does not equate to spending habits. This explains how there are people out there who can be comfortable if they tracked and managed spending. Or how there are people out there just accumulating a ton of money because they pinch pennies. The ultimate end is what derives happiness through financing. Not which part of middle class they belong. But perhaps this behaviour is how people "grew up" on and doesn't always change regardless of what income brackets they end up in when they grow up.
I get a burger (with the same ingredients: meat, bread, and cheese only) almost everywhere I go, simply out of habit: where am I on that spectrum?
@darkhumor3309 doesn't work on everyone haha, on the spectrum i'd think u were autistic (am autistic myself) 😅
@lordpuppyrd7989 It's true, is a very broad/unreliable analogy & probably shows past background more than current financial situation - idk where I heard it but its stuck with me 🤷♀️
I'm not surviving on 2 dollars a day, but my teeth are falling out, I haven't been to the doctor in 12 years, and my depression and anxiety are ruining what's left of my existence. I wouldn't call myself middle class. More like subsistence class, always one paycheck away from homelessness.
Good luck out there.
Yeah this video disregarded a large portion of people who are living near, at, or below the poverty line. And with wealth inequality growing, that group will also grow....
you're not living under a bridge so you're middle class apparently 🙄
Yeah, I like most of this video, but the idea that the middle class is everything between the "1%" and literally starving is just wrong. There's definitely a tier of upper class below the ultra-rich and a tier of lower class above impoverished.
This may just be semantics buttt where I come from I feel there is more of a description of 'lower middle class' as 'working class' and this mostly covered people who really lived paycheck to pay check as in they worked to live. Mostly people in blue collar jobs, trades or in insecure labour work. Working class gave a real sense of the pressure and money uncertainty rather than this idea that you're 'just' lower middle class.
Then 'comfortable' middle class was just called middle class (although I do like the term) as it does denote that you know this group can afford to live off savings if things go awry and go holidaying multiple times a year.
Anyone above this was just wealthy... growing up poor you don't really understand just how much more wealthy people are than you. Like for me there was no difference between 'upper' middle class and 1% well because i didn't know anyone like that.
It boggled me that people could have a big enough yard for a pool or that they could travel overseas. So yeah I think all this terminology around 3 middle classes distorts the rhetoric a bit and what it's actually like living in these structures. I cannot ever imagine comparing my childhood and that of someone with a 2 million dollar house as being comparative in any sense.
If you've ever seen the IQ bell curve meme, I think that's a good example of the lower/upper middle class alliance, e.g. a stupid person (lower) and a smart person (upper) will both take some extreme take, like that 9/11 was an inside job or racism is valid, while the average person (comfortable) will disagree and take the more mainstream opinion.
Growing up in the lower middle class and entering the sincere middle class at a relatively young age has left me to feel a certain level of resentment to the upper middle class. It's as if watching someone try and kick the ladder out from under them. I think the biggest issue I have with those I stereotype is their certainty and at the same time their complete isolation from the lower middle class.
I remember as a young adult hearing people joke about how broke they were 'in college' and how they had to eat ramen for a week one time, while I was working with immigrants who lived with ten people and sent money back(!) to their home country.
Like I was poor personally as an adult, but my parents were gainfully employed growing up. I met people that were so poor I couldn't imagine working in Los Angeles in restaurants.
Even my ex's family that was lower middle class went through stuff I couldn't imagine like bathing in their pool or not being able to afford heating oil for months in the winter.
It makes me really grateful if I have basic things.
I feel ya, i come from a low middle class family where sometimes the heat was turned off, we had no internet for homework sometimes etc. My current boyfriend and ex are high middle class or almost “rich” my current boyfriend doesn’t have to pay for housing or his car because his dad pays for everything. It can be frustrating seeing grown adults floating through life because of generational wealth, when theres a lot of people who struggle to secure shelter or feed their family while working their ass off.
I grew up in england and I'd say I have always been in between lower-middle and actual lower class and I was always taught that the line between lower-middle and middle was living in so-called "private housing" (basically non-government social housing) its interesting to see an informed opinion on the whole class structure!
Growing up, my family was upper-comfortable middle class. We weren’t insecure about going to lower middle class but we also weren’t super rich. We always went on cool vacations when I was growing up and I could tell my comfortable middle class friends couldn’t relate. We have since dipped down to comfortable middle so we can’t afford the luxuries we once had.
I also grew up in one of the poorest school districts, so I got a feel of what other people went through and developed more empathy. A lot of kids were on the free lunch program at school because they couldn’t afford to buy lunch every day, and some had little to no food at home. Even if the school food was subpar they would still eat every bite. There were also quite a few upper middle class kids too, wearing name brand clothing and buying from the a la carte lunch line every day. They were of course the popular crowd.
Since then, like I said my family has been moved down to comfortable middle class, and it has made me appreciate what we have more. We have food on the table, our lights are on, we have running water, we have internet, and we have each other.
I grew up in a working class family. I have had to work and contribute to my family since I was 11. This is when babysitting, mowing lawns and paper routes were a thing for kids. We also helped my dad with his business. Marrying my husband, seeing how different his family lived was kind of a culture shock to me.
I grew up upper middle and now live in a sort of awkward lower middle position where I have a much more affluent safety net than most people in my income group. It’s been a pretty odd experience to see and experience so much more poverty and poor living conditions than before, while knowing that I’ll never actually have to grapple with myself falling into homelessness or hunger. At the same time, I’ve developed some contempt in this position for people like those in my old communities, and their seeming disinterest in engaging with/working on the issues of these ignored communities. NIMBYism is something I’ve only really come to understand as I’ve had to observe the consequences of it firsthand.
New JJ hell ya
I love these middle class videos. I grew up comfortable middle, but my wife and i have quickly become upper middle through our business. Its an odd place to be. We spend much more than my parents, but we don't really identify with the career students of the upper middle and their wine toddling ways.
I don't think it tells us much trying to set the lower class as 2$ or less per day since especially today, people who earn minimum wage can't afford basic amenities and the poverty rate is set below 1200$/month.
I find myself torn, as I have an education, but work a job that doesn't require it. I definitely self-identify with many comfortable middle things here, but I also tend to hold many positions that border on those you flag as "upper." However, I am also only 1-2 major life events away from abject poverty. I feel as significant portion of the middle class of America has been squeezed into a very narrow margin. How can I describe such precarity as comfortable?
Almost all comfortable middle class are a slip and a fall away from lower. That's why "comfortable" middle anxious and contemptuous about the lower middle
As someone from a family probably on the farther side of the upper middle class this was a really interesting video. I recently had conversation with my sister where I asked “I wonder what normal people do?” It then dawned on her that all of us are so wrapped up in our eccentricities that we don’t really understand the thought process, and I think that most of my family does have a fair bit of contempt for the conformist nature of the comfortable middle in one way or another.
I came from pretty severe rural poverty, about as bad as you can get in North America. My parents subsistence farmed, poached, scrapped, and stole from the woodlots to heat the house and build the barn. Now I'm a Ph.D., an officer in the army and make in a month what my parents did in a year. From my perspective, upper-middle-class eccentrics often find my hobbies, mannerisms, ideology, and way of speaking to be brutal. That is, straightforward, and non-conformist in my own, horrifying way.
@@Steadyaim101 Wouldn't your "mannerisms, ideology, and way of speaking to be brutal" be influenced by army life as well? Isn't officer life different from enlisted?
@@Steadyaim101 I can relate. Although I was enlisted, I am a retired technician (NCO) with certain benefits and pension (not US military) and a very good after service govn't job that elevates my income clearly into the upper class while my life perspective is still very coloured by my past. Speaking 3 languages and having a moderate education (2 technical diplomas) I can blend when I must but it is not my natural habitat and I can make many of my co-workers blush with brutal honesty and a directness they are not accustomed to. But sometimes they desperately need.
@@sammiller6631 I went through grad school first before enlisting. I haven't been a non-commisioned soldier, so I can't speak from experience about the difference. Generally though, there are some differences that are mainly remnants ftom the past when officers were British aristocrats. For example, at the college I went through a whole course on mess ettiquette that I don't think NCMs do. But for the most part the experiences are pretty similsr.
I'm about to turn 30 and I have lived all over the spectrum. I grew up upper middle class aside from 2 years when we fell to lower (long story). When I moved out of my parents house I had no support and had no life skills, I lived impoverished for the first two years and man was that a rude awakening. This made me start to have resentment toward the rich and some anger at myself for having grown up upper middle class. I lived the next 5 years as lower middle class. These days brought me safer housing and more stability so I was usually just happy to have the simple things but I admit going a little crazy every now and then was fun. After that I have been comfortable middle class and have been anxious about money and spending for a few years, especially because of the pandemic/economy. I am about to break back into upper middle class as I launch into my new career and this is interesting for me. I am excited but honestly don't think I want to change my lifestyle to be much different from what I have now. I am thankful for what I have and want to do what I can to help those who are less fortunate.
I grew up mostly middle/lower middle until I was about 10 years old, we were all able to eat at every meal with the occasional takeout but we always bought the cheaper options & my parents spent a lot of time budgeting, and worked long hours, etc. At 10, my parents bought their own business and started making a much more comfortable amount, giving us a lot more freedom to spend while they still saved a lot of money. I was allowed to buy my own things rather than just hand downs from siblings, and got given lunch money most days as it was much easier now they could afford it, rather than a cold meat sandwich mum used to make most days since they probably cost $0.50AUD each. We started buying the branded stuff instead of homebrand, my parents constantly reassured me to pick items based on what I wanted instead of what was cheapest because I was so used to that as a child. It was a change I'm grateful I had while going into my teens as it taught me to really appreciate small changes like that and understand that a lot of families didn't get those small luxuries. I realised I was upper middle class pretty quickly, as my parents gave me the option of private high school or public, I chose public & public school kids always spoke about how only 'rich' kids could go to private school - I was a 'rich' kid because I had that option. My parents only see it as been able to give their children as many opportunities as possible, but I'm incredibly proud of them for the work they put into their business to achieve a financial freedom they never had in the past & that most people don't/won't ever have.
The only marriage advice my dad ever gave me was, "Don't marry outside your social class," and my immediate thought was, "What the F*** social class are we in???
I grew up in a comfortable middle-class community full of people who drove themselves into crazy debt trying to pretend they were upper-middle class. My family was the complete opposite, though. My dad sold a family business for millions of dollars at age 26, yet growing up, we wore hand-me-downs until I was taller than my aunts who gave me their clothes, my shoes were the "free gift" that came with the yearly order my dad would put in for construction materials at work, if we went out to eat, we got one, maybe two, meals and my mom, dad, brother, sister, and I had to share, with mom and dad getting the first pickings and we got our hair cut at the beauty school on the day the Juniors were allowed to work with real customers. We looked so poor that people would actually give us food and clothes thinking we were poorer than them whereas we had orders of magnitude more money than them. I entered adulthood with no idea where I fit in the gradation of social classes.
The social class question became even more complicated when I met my husband. He was a college graduate with a good white-collar job, a relatively new car, and extra money to spend. He seemed to be comfortably middle class at just 23 years old. I found out later, though, that he had grown up in rural Appalachia and when we married, we moved into his childhood home and later bought a 15-acre property another 10 miles further into the rural abyss.
I'm from Cincinnati, Ohio. The west side of Cincinnati has a very strong German culture---hard work, education, innovation, and efficiency are valued. My husband is from 30 miles east of Cincinnati, of which the very eastern part of Cincinnati suburbia has been classified as Appalachia by the federal government (Appalachia starts there and continues through West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, Tennessee, and small parts of adjoining states. Appalachian values are family, church, and how much physical work someone can do. Because of this stark difference in values, I've never been accepted in the area. My extended family doesn't live here, I have a college degree in a stem field and am fairly intelligent, I'm all about efficiency, and I've traveled to areas with different cultures than mine (like New Jersey...lol). I've actually been told that people don't trust me because they think I believe I'm above them or better than them. What gets me is that because of my parents' spending habits, I grew up in very similar circumstances to the people who live out here and would never view myself above anyone!
My kids are high schoolers in this rural Appalachian area. It is always awkward for them the first time they have a friend over because, very often, we are "the richest people" they've ever known. We definitely would be put in the upper-middle-class group here. I have to remind my kids, though, that we would just be comfortably middle class if we lived 35 miles west of here. My kids wore clothes from Walmart or even the thrift store, until they were in their teens, yet they would get made fun of at school for being rich kids. Now that my kids and their friends are in high school, their friends talk to me about what it's like to go off to college, what it's like to work at a white-collar job, and how to invest money and what it means. I used to be a youth minister and I had teenagers who were extremely bright, but whose parents were constantly trying to talk them out of going to college, especially the girls. Many of these kids, who are now in their late 20's still contact me for advice on these non-Appalachian life experiences, and I'm proud and humbled that I got to support and encourage the most gifted of these kids who now work in New York City, Chicago, or remotely but doing really cool things for huge corporations.
To end this novella, I'll risk being completely honest; I've lived out here in rural Appalachia for 20 years and have grown to detest Appalachian culture. I love my little fifteen acres, but once I cross my property line, I feel like an unwelcome foreigner. On the one hand, that's okay with me because I've tried out the local values for years, and not only can I not adapt those values, but they are values that are almost opposite to what I actually value. On the other hand, I know if I join a church or volunteer at the kids' school, there is a high chance that I'll be flatly rejected by others. We didn't get a reliable internet connection here until five years ago, and it was only because we paid several thousand dollars to get the lines extended to our house so my husband could work from home. Internet access has been huge for my self-esteem and self-worth because it has connected me to people who appreciate my values and skills. I can have intellectual discourse with someone other than my husband. I go back to where I grew up to see my parents occasionally and I feel like I can take a deep breath and fill my lungs with the fresh air of a culture more familiar to me. I'm a little claustrophobic over there, but it is amazing how a difference of just 40-50 miles can make.
thank you so much for sharing your experience, it has been really interesting to read!
Wow. How interesting! I'm from the west coast so hearing what the Appalachian values/culture is is very interesting. You can only trust things like the mini-series "Hatfield & McCoy" so much since it's for entertainment. As much of what your experiencing is class I also think it's a geographical thing of Rural vs Urban divide. I used to live in the California central valley. In a smallish town (porterville) that was surrounded by farms. I was in a class that helped poor kids go to college and it was really sad to see how many bright Mexican first generations NOT go off to college (More often girls) even though they were accepted because of their parents (mainly their dads) either didn't want them to go far from the family or wanted them to go work for them after high school.
I also relate with your dad having money but still being frugal. I'm the same way now that I've grown up. I grew up lower middle class with hand me downs, cloth/shoe shopping once a year (they better last you) which were either no name bands or knock off brands. Basic pencils when mechanical were the new hotness. I never got one of those pink erasers since my pencil already had one! Having free lunch when all my friends had lunch money for the fancy lunches or sodas. Going to the dollar store/99 cent store all the time. Getting Shasta/Dr.Thunder/Mr.Pibs because Pepsi/Coke or D.P was too expense. Paper towels? That's for rich people. Box cereal lucky charms or cocoa puffs? Nope, go get the giant bags of dino bites or whatever the cocoa puff generic is. I grew up in LA and my parents moved to a middle/upper middle class area at the time called los alamitos. It was really hard to fit it, all my friends had cool pencils, name brand clothes like fox or DC and would talk about their skateboards or dirt bikes while I had none of that.
However, I graduated college and now I work from home for a decent salary. I think I'm middle of the middle. Some things have changed like buying paper towels and box cereals, but STILL if I go to some event that has expensive food/drinks - me and my fiance share because those are the price of a full meal anywhere else! When we go to a sit down restaurant and the sodas are 2.80$ when a 2 litter is 1.5$ at walmart/target? What a rip off, we're sharing a soda! Same at movie theaters. Only thing I get is a large soda to share (also because it usually has a free refill. Get my moneys worth! haha).
One last thing about your struggle to fit in/accept the culture. I moved from that small farming town to the tip top of California. Eureka, CA. For school. The culture was way different and I've been here for 6 or 7 years and it's still difficult for me. Went from super red conservative to super blue democratic. This place is very isolated geographically so a lot of it is being self sufficient, running a small business and person to person sales/work. Whenever I go to my fiancé's work events all the guys work in some area of manual labor and I'm over here doing a desk job. My fiancé's coworkers offered me a job planting weed when I was laid off from a job. I declined since I didn't want to get in trouble if they were raided or anything. I've met plenty of mom and pop farmers while working at a local sporting store. They told me they grow it because it makes the most money. Marijuana used to be a big deal before the 2018 legalization and it's even bigger now in a different way. Less under the table work but the main street is filled with marijuana bars. As I said I'm the middle of the middle because I grew up lower middle and now finally am middle of the middle. I don't like drugs, cigarettes or alcohol. So while I don't care what others do, it does bother me because I know some people won't be satisfied with just one of those 3 drugs and will move on to other things (my parents). I'd prefer if it was not all up and down the main street like it is. However, since the pandemic I spend most of my time in my apartment anyways so me not fitting in hasn't bothered me too much as of late. But at volunteer events or work events I always feel too nerd/smart to talk to for a lot of people and they slowly move/leave me alone.... That's when I bust out my phone and read the news on reddit lol.
Great story and it's fun to step back and critically think about class, culture and how everyone comes together, separates or conforms to one another. Accent is a perfect example of this too!
Thank you for sharing.
Why would you shop at Walmart if you have the money not to?
They are a horrible corporation that ruin communities.
I am Italian American we put emphasis on buying from artisans. You pay a few hundred and maintain that item for years, and honestly that’s what the world needs. I still have a wool and silk blouse I used in high school.
It's interesting that classes still police themselves to reinforce values. The disbelief that upper middle could comfortably shop at wildly convenient retailers = the absurdity that lower middle could buy a luxury item in good conscious. I am in NO way professing love for Walmart, but they are insidiously good at reaching a wide market between their LM employee and consumer base, CM corporate shareholders, and UM corporate employees.
I think recently there has been a specific term to describe the upper class's virtue signalling ideas they do not practice as "Luxury Beliefs" as coined by Rob Henderson. And he pointed out exactly what was outlined in the video, the support of legalization of drugs and single parent households, despite themselves being to personally anxious to go out and buy drugs from a drug dealer or themselves coming from two parent households. They do have the luxury to intellectually explore ideas without the firsthand knowledge or experience of what they are like in practice, with only ideological speculation as to the "true" source of the negative outcomes. "Single parent hood is hard because we slut shame women!" ... or maybe that it is sincerely difficult to raise a human being by one's self and it is easier with more than one person.
I'll stick with "Champagne Socialists"
Not quite, the legalization of drugs is an issue of individual choice, what the upper middle class is saying is that drugs can be good, I wont take the risk but it is your choice
@@Redrally they go hand in hand. Political ideology is one of the core luxury beliefs of the upper middle class. They like to talk a lot about revolutionary ideas, because they have the luxury to hold those beliefs without experiencing the consequences of, say, building methadone clinics because it will only affect people in lower class neighbourhoods. Building on that, they crap on lower middle class ideas like 'methadone clinics destroy neighbourhoods and encourage more drug use' because it forms an us/them in-group to signal their high status by holding their champagne socialist ideas.
Single motherhood often isn’t a choice. Men walk out on their families. Or relationships become abusive. Of course it’s harder to raise a child on a single person’s income… which is exactly why most people don’t decide to do so on a whim. Ironically, the person who sounds privileged and disconnected from reality is OP. No one is endorsing single motherhood. Some just believe that men AND women deserve to direct their own lives without being financially dependent upon someone else for existence
@@jabrokneetoeknee6448 When did the OP ever imply that single motherhood was a choice?
the Idea of the difference between "cultural class" and "monetary class" has always fascinated me because in a lot of ways I am in two different ones, from a pure monetary standpoint I am upper middle class, however from a cultural standpoint I often relate more to the lower middle class in many ways, such as by enjoying action movies, eating a lot at fast food places and chain restaurants and my natural instinct is to think that those who don't enjoy these things are lying and just say they don't like it because they think it makes them seem more intelligent (which to be fair is probably not entirely untrue), however there are exceptions to this rule particularly when it comes to education both of my parents basically forced me to go to collage.
I grew up lower middle, though my family eventually moved up the ladder and I would've considered us upper middle. We stayed an unhappy family throughout.
The biggest change I saw was with my father. When we went from depending on my grandparents and him needing to raid my piggy bank to pay for electricity, to living in a snazzy city apartment, I noticed he stopped feeling humbled and humiliated by his circumstances and changed his demeanour to one of almost fanatic bravado. This is, in my opinion, one of the biggest changes in perception that my family suffered as we moved up and down the ladder. I feel the upper middle class needs to psychologically explain its success and it often ends with feelings of superiority, the idea that they "made it" through their own "hard work, uniqueness or genius". They seem desperate to "deserve" that very success they've managed to garner and alienate themselves from their roots in order to make sense of it.
This video has been food for thought, JJ. I was in a it of a weird position growing up. Both my parents have advanced degrees, and my dad worked as a foreign service officer for the US State Department, which is a fairly elite job, so I grew up comfortable and financially well-off, and as a result of my father's job I traveled extensively around the world, in a way that is far more consistent with the upbringing of someone from the upper middle class than the true middle. However, I never really felt like a member of the upper middle, because whenever I was overseas, I was in private international schools, so most of my classmates were actually upper middle class, or even outright rich. So here I was, a member of arguably the upper middle class, but I was always one of the poorer students at any school I attended. As a result of this, I still don't really know what upper middle class means to me. I'll probably be thinking about this for a while now. Good job!
My favorite part was when he was talking about the struggles of the lower middle class with a background of grey scaled lucky charms
Whats up with the backgrounds of this video anyways
Another great analysis!
I grew up lower-middle class-still am-but I’m in my senior year of university and see some of these upper-middle values in myself. I always find it funny how my dad and I are different based upon these listed traits.
College has been amazing in making me more intellectually and culturally curious, so it’s always a treat showing my dad new things. This man loves a good hot dog and Budweiser, but recently fell in love with Vietnamese food.
Highly increased leisure and the ability to consume was bound to give more and more people the ability to be increasingly extreme. Another great video, J.J.!
I grew up along the line of lower/comfortable middle class. I'm now lower. I have a lot of experience with homeless people. There was a point where my family lived with my grandma because we couldn't find a place to live, and I later moved in with 3 strangers because a mutual friend hooked me up with a spot with them because they can't afford a place on their own, and I can't afford one either. I don't think upper middles know how bad it is. I watched a man bathe himself with a McDonald's cup. My job is essentially a restaurant homeless people camp at. I think people are blind to how much others really suffer. It's made me very cynical and jaded. Things got bad in '08, and I don't think they ever recovered. Wallstreet got better, but it's not the economy. It's not the homeless or the jobless. I've become somewhat radicalized as a socialist and really don't think anything done through the government will fix America. I hope I'm proven wrong, but I think we need a revolution.
I am in the upper middle class.
That thing you said about the educated upper middle class getting frustrated with the rest of the middle class who enable political failure and devolution really rang true for me.
Throughout my childhood, my parents ascended from probably lower middle class to somewhere between comfortable and upper middle class. I usually think of them as in the comfortable range, although they've probably ascended to upper middle in the last ten years or so.
Having a disability, I almost immediately descended into lower middle upon reaching the age of majority.
The most interesting thing I noticed in my reflections is just how precisely the comfortable middle descriptions you gave matched my parents' culture and my own culture up to adulthood. As I age, I seem to take on more of the lower middle traits you described, particularly in how much I enjoy spending money on pleasures when I'm able, but I also have the comfortable range anxieties which seems to change my choices on how I indulge this way.
always click when JJ posts! Love your videos! Keep up the great work!
Thinking of consumerism in the upper middle class (my class), I once heard it described as Bourgeois Bohemian (BoBo for short). The idea, for example of, wanting a "simple" kitchen without all the appliances, but the counter is probably an exotic stone. As someone who began life in the lower middle class and worked up to upper middle through education, I am sensitive to appearing to rich, but also don't want to buy stuff that I associate with my poorer upbringing. It even stretches into non-financial matters like baby names, as BoBo's like Latin and Greek "clean" names like "Sophia" as they are neither "excessive" nor "low brow".
All that to say, I agree with you.
I grew up lower middle class and was always into fine art, music, healthy eating, etc. The class you're born into is based on assets and money, it does not determine who you are and what you like.
My family lower/comfortable class in grade school but was probably closer to upper middle class in high school. Around when I was in middle school, we moved to a rather wealthy city, and I remember my parents always complaining or being anxious about how much everything there costs, occasionally discouraging me from doing certain school activities on the basis of cost. However, as I got older I feel like all this anxiety about money kind of just went away. It just stopped really being a discussion point, as my parents got better job positions and raises.
An interesting thing is that a lot of people say that our family "feels homeschooled" deposited the fact the I've only gone to public school. I feel like that is a polite way to say I act like an upper middle class citizen?
I grew up lower middle class and one of the signifiers to this as a child to me was the fact that my parents had name tags and uniforms for their work. I remember thinking “why doesn’t my dad wear a suit and tie to work like dads do on TV?”
Also regardless of the amount of money one makes or position , I think that having a blue collar profession still can give a lot of the anxieties and tendencies of the Lower Middle Class.
Seen plenty of people (my cousins and neighbors) who are have a trashy culture and lifestyle but always seem to unashamedly have plenty of money
I grew up in the upper middle class. I have BA in Psychology. Abuse and undiagnosed autism limited my abilities to "keep up" in this world. Now I earn $100/month on Patreon making music. I definitely value my individualism, definitely mistrust the authority figures who have demonstrably prevented me from bettering myself, and consider myself to be much smarter than my peers.
I grew up lower-middle class and, thanks to being born with a disability, am still lower-middle class at 33. I am not by any means destitute but I often don't know where I'm going to get money for things like bills or food. There is an extreme gap between my situation and the next rung up on the ladder.
I have had a somewhat strange life and think my family has gone from lower middle to upper middle class, back again and now are in the comfortable middle firmly. My parents are both college educated but are very religious and were missionaries for most of my childhood in India and Thailand, where I lived off and on for 10 years. While in these places I was definitely far more educated and had a lot more resources and when I got to around 12 and I went around having very extreme political opinions across the spectrum. When we moved back, however, my parents struggled too find work in a rural, small and very poor and crime ridden town in Eastern Oklahoma. We lived on a property with two old houses, one of which took years of repairs to make livable. This all put us in a poor financial situation and drained our savings and has lead to me not having any money other than what I have personally saved from working for college. I have done excellent in school, however, all the schools I went too were small and had little to offer and were frankly hit or miss year to year administration wise. I got good but not great 28 ACT score and a bunch of extra-curriculars and college classes on my resume, but again have little cash saved up so loans are inevitable if I go to a middle tier or above school and I am no longer eligible for many of those helpful programs like Pell Grant's as my parents moved and got jobs as a manager for a printer (Father) and Teacher at my High school (Mother). So all in all my journey to get into a good school I can afford has been difficult and lead me to have to water down my aspirations, and all these experiences have pushed me firmly into the center, with onservative financial and social liberal tinges due to not likely grand solutions and radical change and viewing them as understandable desirable to the downtrodden but also seeing them as rarely effective and usually make worse the problems they seek to fix. I have been at the low end and high end and can safely say that I would like to be in the high end again but have no idea to get their without becoming miserable.
I love watching your videos, and aspesically comparing things that differ between North America and Norway, my homecountry.
Now ofc, norway is a very rich country, but our wealth is relativly resent. I often feel like a lot of Norwegians have lower-middle class values and such, but have the income of upper class, atleast from a North-American perspective. Maybe this is a normal phenomena in countries with large natural resourese and relativly few people, like Australia. You used to be simple, relativly poor people, and then suddently you have Oil or minnerals in your backyard and every body gets wellpaid Jobs.
I loved your comments on lower-class being the biggest spenders. I always noticed that myself, even though my family, being lower middle class, didn't seem to participate. My mom and grandma's would complain a lot about how people they knew didn't have two dimes to rub together, but always had a pack of beers in the fridge
My parents were both teachers, so financially my family straddled the line between comfortable middle class and lower middle class. But given that they were both teachers, their worldviews and consumerist habits way more closely matched those of the upper middle class. I also grew up Jewish, and the synagogue community I participated in was also very much an upper middle class environment (especially in terms of the "preaching what you don't practice" phenomenon). So, given the fact that our actual financial situation conflicted with the lifestyle my parents tried to create, that put a lot of stress on my siblings and I as we always had this idea that we were struggling to get by, when in reality, we were struggling to keep up with a culture we didn't belong to.
I grew up with a bizarre view of my class. We bought off-brand bulk. No vacations ever. Couldn't go on fieldtrips that required extra funds. But it wasn't until I was suddenly homeless at 16 that I understood how precipitously we were balanced on the poverty line. Looking back I realize that friends that I assumed were rich because they lived in houses and had name-brand sodas and their own bedrooms were probably just upper middle. If even.
The thing is, while we lived on $800/month, the rest of my family had lots of money and connections. I sat in box seats at the symphony wearing clothes I got from the tuesday discount bins at the thrift store. I never had to get a job in high school, so I could focus on academic excellence, so I got into the top public school in the world with a needs-based full ride scholarship that even paid for dorm and food.
But quality education isn't a guarantee of rising through the ranks. I'm still on food stamps and medicaid a decade later. I did try for graduate education. I applied to 12 stipended doctoral programs, rejected from all, with one offer of entry into a masters program that cost $50k a year in tuition alone, in arguably the most expensive city in the country. So that was a no. It's a real struggle to move upward.
Values-wise, I'm a leftist who distrusts most authority, but not because I don't know any better. The internet exists. We should all know better. Probably doesn't hurt being queer, mentally ill, and working with disabled children and adults.
These analysis videos on American Middle class culture are my absolute favourites of yours. If you were interested in a more political video, I would love to see your analysis on the quirks of Australia's "WashMinster" style of government, that supposedly mixes the best bits of the English Westminster system (elected mp's, constitutional monarchy etc) and the American system (fully elected upper house, senators for each state, etc), and whether this system actually succeeds in blending the best of both worlds.
Hello from Britain! This was interesting, especially as it seems class is more linked to wealth in North America than here. We traditionally divide ourselves into three classes: upper, middle and working (which is certainly over simplistic). But someone from what is considered a working class profession, like builder or plumber, can often be wealthier than many people in so-called middle class professions like teacher or nurse. Here class is more associated with things like attitudes towards institutions or education, or manners and the people with whom you associate. You certainly said that one's class in America affects one's attitudes, but it seemed more a consequence of relative wealth than I think it is here.
It's great to see the blobs return! I like this iteration of them more than the organ blobs or the characteristics blobs.
As a person of color whose family over the period of both my brother and myself ‘s life has traversed lower middle, middle, and upper middle class I find it super hard to identify wholly in either of the portions of the classes. An artist peer of mine introduced me to the term ‘ creative ‘ class which was interesting to ponder about
Same, as an immigrant and woman of colour I feel exposed to a variety of backgrounds I don’t nearly fit into any category.
JJ's discussion question really got me thinking. Both my parents were from a comfortable middle class background, perhaps even lower middle; but have climbed to upper middle by the time I was aware of anything, so most of the people around me, my family, schoolmates etc. were comfortable middle class (some maybe lower middle). Perhaps the best way to describe the difference between those is by a quote by Kästner:" "Do you have enough money in your family?" "I don't know, we never talk about money in my family." "Then you have enough money." '' My family had an awful sense for prices. People would say: "... and the ice cream was 1.80€" and none of us would know if that was cheap or expensive. But simultaneously it seemed to me that comfortable middle class was far more consumeristic than upper. They'd go to the cinema a lot, and complain about the price of the ticket. I think I've only ever bought one movie ticket... They'd travel loads more than I, and would complain about the price of McDonalds abroad. I traveled less frequently, but when I did, I'd go to a proper restaurant.
Another thing was that some, not all, but some, were very hostile to capitalism. They seemed fixated on the idea that the world was out to get them, just because they don't have a lot of money. And the funny thing was that such people were usually the one's employed by the state. But those were really the only times I ever detected a difference between classes in my day to day life. Maybe it's being in an ex-communist country, but making a point of being in a different class, just wasn't a part of the culture. It was far more common to differentiate people on the basis of origin (city-countryside, native-immigrant, and by region)
Growing up, I was in the mixed pot between comfortable middle class and upper-middle. However, a lot of my friends were lower-middle or comfortable middle (even my girlfriend is lower-middle), so I never had the mindset that I was particularly upstanding or preachey. I wouldn't say I felt like I was lower-mid/comfortable class, but I also never felt like I was in the upper-mid ever. As well, in my late teenage years, as I begin to identify as an anarchist, I never really saw or understood the ideas of the middle classes (especially since I don't think middle class is a poltical class but a societal class).
Dr Mr J.J.
I always love your hair and I also would recommend the theory of “luxury beliefs”
This is the idea that upper middle class people promote ideas that are actually destructive to stable wealth accumulation as a way communicating just how wealthy they are. But in reality upper middle class people are the most conformist group of people if judged by what they do and not what they say.
Unfortunately some lower middle class people then take the upper’s advice and do the very things that destroy wealth creation.
I grew up in a Boston suburb and assumed my family was right in the middle - we were about average for our town, and some towns nearby were a bit richer while other towns nearby were a bit poorer.
Now as an adult, I see just how many places in the US are struggling, and how fortunate the Boston suburbs are as a whole. I now revise my upbringing to "upper middle class", for sure.
I don’t think anyone inhabiting any of these middle class segments is truly aware about the size of the other classes. I also think these definitions change based on location (urban, suburban, or rural).
One slight additional nuance that is important to consider is that these socioeconomic strata are not rigid, especially when it comes to the distinctions within the so-called middle class. Many people transition throughout their life into different strata. For example, when I was born my parents were straddling the line between lower and comfortable middle class, but by the time I was in school they were comfortably comfortable middle class, and now that I'm graduated from college they're decidedly upper middle class. Consequently, my parents maintain their comfortable middle class outlook but also occasionally veer into the pretentious world of the upper middle class elitism. It's interesting to watch.
JJ’s videos never disappoint ❤
I grew up pretty far down into the lower middle class and it was a great childhood. You learn a lot more useful things in the lower middle class than weather folks do.
I'm struggling now with the idea of how to teach these skills to my future children with my now-upper middle class salary
An aspect of the lower and lower-middle class that CANNOT be ignored is our association with things like ADHD, autism, schizophrenia, etc.
Intergenerational poverty and trauma, along with the knock-on effects like drug use, incarceration, poor school performance are very common among families with largely genetic/heritable neurodivergences. This is the case with my own family.
We mostly all know on some level that the homeless and very poor often have quite extreme "mental illness", but the same is true of people with less apparent and somewhat more functional genetic/heritable conditions like ADHD, ("high functioning" autism, OCD, and schizophrenia. Around 10%~ of the population has one (or often two) of those neurodivergences and largely end up marrying other people like themselves regardless of whether or not they are aware of their condition.
As controversial and jaring as it sounds, recent research and in-group awareness of this area is making it look more and more like many of the supposed "moral failings" or "bad culture" of less well-off groups is due to schools, employers, the state, and society as a whole being unaware of multigenerational neurodivergent families like my own and the struggles we face when attempting to live in a society that isn't built for us.
Yes I will answer questions and defend this take to my dying breath. Many societal issues stem in large part from this, but particularly economic class.
I think my family shifted from comfortable to upper when I was a teen, and I feel like a hallmark of straddling that line is wanting fancy/expensive things but also being ashamed to admit how much you spent on it/proud that you got a good deal on it/feeling like you need to justify why you chose an expensive version of the item.
As a what i would like to think as upper middleclass i do feel like what you've explained pretty much exactly aligns with my life especially the part about educated upper middle class though with the access of technology and the ability for more classes to access information i think this barrier of lack of information starting to break down
The secret force that’s been controlling my every thought and action for the past… 15 YEARS 😅. Wild to see it laid out so plainly in a UA-cam video.
The beginning of your video is incorrect. Extreme poverty is a term relative to income worldwide whereas middle class is a term relative to income locally. Being between extreme poverty and the 1% (which, as you said, is moreso the 0.01%) does not make you ''middle class'', rather it's being in a specific household income bracket relative to your country. For a family of two in the United States, the middle class is $42,430 - $127,300. Your conclusion at 1:25 that the vast majority of Americans are middle class is false. In the 1970s, 60% of Americans were in the middle class and in the 2020s, it's 50%. Currently, it's barely the majority.
If you want a class analysis that actually makes any coherent sense, instead of dividing people by the amount of money they have, we divide them by they’re relationship of the means of production, ie, the owning class and working class
I grew up in what I would consider to be a firmly “comfortable middle class” way, but many of my friends were upper. One of the most common differences between them and myself was how much older their parents were than mine (my parents had kids when they were in their mid-20s while my friends’ parents had kids at least 5 years later). This obviously allowed the parents to further establish their lives/careers/relationship before having a family. Also, most of my friends’ parents were still married whereas mine were divorced.
This is probably the most important video you’ve ever put out. I wish I could subscribe twice.
I grew up upper-middle, with one parent from the upper-middle and the other from the comfortable-middle. And, my comfy-middle parent was much more anxious and conservative about appearances, and much more aware of other peoples' perceptions (real or hypothetical). With this balance of parenting, I'd say that, compared to my other upper middle class friends, my household leaned on the stricter and more conformist side. "Set a good example" and "Think about the consequences" always loomed much larger in my house than in others, from what I can tell.
How much this had to do strictly with class background, or also with ethnic and geographic background...interesting question.
Spoiled rich kids acting out because their lawyer-parents were too busy working to raise them properly is hardly a phenomenon you should describe as "un-anxious". Limits are good to set; look what happened to the individual formerly known as Prince Harry when he had his limits removed... nobody likes these people, except for equally unlikeable people.
Excellent video. Perfect balance of enjoyable presentation and information
The best mustached Canadian on the Tube!
I think as you divided the middle class into three parts, there are at least the same for upper and lower classes in countries with developed economies, especially in the USA. I definitely consider my upbringing to be from a lower class rung. Something that I am just now seeing how much it affects my life.