I’ve generally dispised the term ‘working class’ because it implies that the only people who work for a living are blue color/assembly line employees. It’s been my experience that most of the executives that I’ve known put in far longer hours working than the people on the line. The CEO of the company I used to work for normally is in the office 60hrs a week working, and I know my mother puts in a good 60-70hrs a week doing her job managing the projects she is in charge of. And that is work damn it!
Guess I would be from working class parents. My dad is a butcher, my mom was a homemaker, then moved into data entry when I got old enough for school (I’m the baby).
I have a graduate college degree, but am currently unemployed. Guess that makes me “no-work” class.
regurgit8
And yet the opposite occurs as well. I have several friends/relatives and aquaintances living a standard of living they can’t afford and trying to pass themselves off as “rich” when they are middle class.
US Dopers:
If someone is extremely wealthy / good family / highly educated etc… do Americans consider them to be of the upper class?
I ask because in the UK, certainly in my mind, (upper) middle class is the best you can hope for, until / unless knighted.
The upper class was always defined, IIRC, as being the sole domain of the aristocracy or titled gentry.
Personally, as I enjoy early morning fry-ups, chip butties, brown sauce and occasionally dip buscuits in my tea, I can never hope to obtain the ellusive middle class status. Mrs Bucket be damned. 
I do. Our executives at our company, for example, would be upper class. Not elite rich like the old money people, but definitely upper class.
I grew up working class. Now I’m either middle class or upper middle class (not sure where the dividing line is). I live middle class, definitely.
Americans, in my view as a good ole Texan, do not identify with class as a birthright or titled aristocracy. Our founding fathers specifically disavowed the granting of titles, and when I was in school, we never identified people by who their parents were or by the roots of their family tree. Some might argue that there are political and industrial dynasties in America that have created a de facto aristocracy, like the Kennedys, but for the most part Americans don’t identify themselves that way.
In my view, we are the epitome of a consumer nation, and for better or worse, define ourselves by what we achieve or obtain. It isn’t always about cars and homes. Sometimes it is about education or social contribuition.
On a semi-related note … what about the rhetoric I hear lately about “working families”, as if my neighbor’s family doesn’t work since they are in the highest tax bracket?
When I saw the title question, my answer was “Yes” - to distinguish myself from the idle rich, whoever they may be. I work in an office and get paid biweekly. I suppose there are people who think we must be wealthy because my husband and I are professionals with only one child and we have a boat and fairly new cars. Actually, we’re far from wealthy because we have a boat and fairly new cars. But we work to support the lifestyle we’ve chosen.
My definition of wealthy or upper class would be people who don’t have to fret about money, who don’t have to plan for any but the most outrageous purchases (like maybe an island?) or who inherited megabucks and are unlikely to ever need a job.
We’re middle class, I guess. I make a pretty penny as does my husband. We’re both college educated.
My mother graduated from Cornell, has an MBA and is a marketing VP at a national health insurance company. I don’t know my father but from what I can gather he was a professor.
My maternal grandmother is a retired nurse and I don’t know my grandfather (my grandfather’s first hubby).
Heh. I hear ya. When a dear friend of mine was having “money problems,” it meant that when she took me to Big Sur, CA, to show me the 40 acres (no mule) she and her husband (neither of whom works for a living) just purchased to build a vacation home, we had to sacrifice the $1,000-a-night hotel room and stay in a $600-a-night hotel room.
When I mentioned to HER that SkipMagic and I were engaged, she wanted to know if I’d set a date (she wants to give me a shower). I said that because we’re paying for it ourselves, it’ll be awhile, since we’re pretty poor right now (though we expect our finances to improve once we start shacking up) and will have to save up for it, which could take awhile. I also mentioned that my mother (bless her) has offered us $2,000 towards the cause.
“So,” she said matter-of-factly, “you’ll use that money for the dress.”
:dubious: (Can I just emphasize here that I billed this as a BUDGET wedding?)
“Um, I’m not spending $2,000 on a dress,” I said.
"OK, so $1500 for the dress . . . " she continued.
“I’m not spending $1,500 on a dress,” I interrupted.
"Fine–a thousand for the dress . . . " she insisted.
Basically I talked her down to $500, but didn’t mention that I’ve already found one that I like (it’s not a wedding dress, but I don’t want a wedding dress) for $140.
She has made me PROMISE not to shop for a dress without her, though. THIS should be interesting.
Truthfully, though, she has a wonderful, kind, generous, and loving heart, and means no offense–she’s just got a different set of glasses on. And really, poverty is sort of relative. I mean, sure, if you just lost your apartment/car/electricity, or didn’t have any of those things to begin with, nobody’s going to roll their eyes at you for crying poor.
But I have to admit that sometimes I myself am guilty of the offense mentioned by regurgut8. I sometimes complain about being poor, when in reality I’m fine; I own a house, my bills are paid, I eat every day (sometimes in restaurants), and can afford to keep a couple of dogs alive and rabies-free. However, I don’t have any savings to speak of, could never afford the kind of car I’d like, and have to pass up a good deal of (reasonably-priced) articles of clothing that I’d really like to buy, or trips I’d like to take, because I’m out of money by the end of the week. And that makes me feel poor.
So really I think it’s just a matter of what you’re used to; if you’re used to a certain lifestyle level, and can no longer afford that, it could, conceivably, make you feel poor. Hence the whole issue with “Maintaining the lifestyle to which one is accustomed” that occurs in some divorces. If you’re used to $1000 hotel rooms, and have to settle for a $600 one, times feel kinda rough. Perceived “money problems” occur at every income rung between here and Bill Gates.
Damn, this was one helluva hijack. I’m sorry.
Well, gee, I don’t really know where I fit in. My upbringing was solidly middle class as my father was a pilot in the Air Force and my mom was stay-at-home (which was normal in the 60’s & 70’s). However, since I managed to get myself in the unfortunate circumstances of being an unwed mother, who in fact never did wed, and who has a variety of chronic diseases, my adult lifestyle has definitely not been solidly middle-class. At best it has been lower-middle class, and at times when I was really ill it has been solidly poverty - the real poverty, you know, meeting governemnt guidelines of poverty and all that.
I think the term “upper class” is rarely used in the US. If somebody makes a lot of money they are usually described as “rich,” not upper class.
Sometimes those families that have consistently been rich and well educated would be called “old money” or “the aristocracy.” And it seems to me that the usage of “aristocracy” seems to indicate that Americans look at a permanent upper class as something vaguely European.
Of course, that’s simply my observation. It’s tough to do a very accurate generalization for an entire nation.
By the way, congratulations Em
Thanks! Hey, got any money?
Rich is a completely relative term…
Everyone in America, except the dirt poor and the fabulously wealthy, is middle class.
When I was growing up I thought we were upper-middle class. I’m the second of four kids and the only one it seems who thought this. I was wrong as it turned out.
My mom’s parents were first cousins (no serious side-effects noticed). Grandma’s family was fairly well off, Grandpa’s was not. I remember stories of his family moving back and forth between the mid-west and North Carolina working on farms and occasionally their own farms. Grandpa had a third grade education (he hated school so stayed home and did chores while the other 9 or 10 kids went to school) but he had a grasp of math that many an accountant or builder would envy.
He worked all manner of jobs from farmer to truck driver to builder. He worked in the ship yards in Norfolk, actually that is the only job he held for any length of time that I know of. By the time I was born he was 60 yrs old and had been retired for many years.
When he died at 78 he left my grandmother quite a bit of land and money, stocks and bonds.
Dad’s family? Nobody in that family has any money.
Dad has worked in the construction business all my life. Mom was a housewife who went back to school as her last kids were moving out. After 15 or 20 years with Wachovia she’s retired, she had some of her daddy’s knack for handling money and is comfortable. Dad on the other hand is still working, though like his former father-in-law if he didn’t have something to do I think he’d go crazy.
Growing up our house was paid for. We always had enough to eat. We always had clothes on our backs, admittedly half were usually hand-me-downs and thrift store purchases (I thought everyone wore hand-me downs). We went to the beach almost every Easter and at least once in the summer. When I was 10 we started taking 2 or 3 week trips across the country in the stationwagon every 3 or 4 years. The trick is staying in campgrounds. We stayed in hotels every 4th or 5th night.
I was talking to my mother recently about this (my family gets a kick out of my misconceptions and mis-rememberings), she said we were probably lower-middle class.
I don’t know what I am now. My husband is military, I don’t work, and we have no kids, we have yet to settle anywhere long enough to buy a house. We’re just now managing to put a dent in our credit card debt and save money in a REAL savings account.
Maybe someone can tell me where I fit in the ‘class’ now.
You are completely welcome to the 43 cents I have on my person. Just tell me where to send it. 
Hey em! Can I borrow your dress when you’re thru with it ???
Oh ~ the OP:
Grew up middle class; Dad was a professor and Mom a newspaper reporter. I’ve got a BS and MS in civil engineering, but as a single mom I’m bumping along on the bottom of middle class, economic-wise.
Sweety is what comes to my mind when folks say “working class” ~ he’s a mechanic; his mom & dad were dairy farmers.
There are only a few areas in the country (think the Brahmins in Boston, some of the Manhattan elite) where the term “upper class” could be applied without it being taken as an insult. The US is generally all middle class, with a small goup of poor. Lower middle class might be hourly workers in retail or manufacturing (as an example), middle (no qualifier) class could be skilled tradesmen or professionals (pharmacists, engineers) and upper middle are generally the executive level or highly paid professionals like doctors or lawyers.
I think we have a class called “wealthy” that comes next that would encompass CEO’s, partners in law or accounting firms, etc.
The term upper class applies only to a very few and implies old money and social standing, the same as it does in the UK. Many Americans aspire to be wealthy, I have met few who want to be “upper class”.
Quite frankly, I’m startled to hear about everyone’s upbringing. Both of my grandfathers obtained a bachelor’s degree. My maternal grandfather obtained his PhD in biology and went on to become a Colonel for the United States Army. My paternal grandfather was the head of the J & L Steel, which was rumored to be over 7 miles long and employed thousands of people. My maternal grandmother also obtained a Bachelor’s Degree, but chose to be a housewife. My paternal grandmother went to Finishing school, a commonplace for that time. My mother and father both obtained their bachelor’s degree, and my father obtained the status of CFO/VP for a fortune 500 company. I have obtained my Bachelor’s Degree and find myself living the way I want to live, have a modest 401k and Roth IRA savings, and some cash in the bank should something happen (wreck new car, emergency plane flight for a death in the family, etc)
I grew up in two nieghborhoods. One neighborhood was all of the same socio-economic status, and was fairly harmonious. The other neighborhood had extreme opposites. Some kids’ allowances were greater than others kids’ family income. It was not harmonious and you were immediately labelled by which part of the neighborhood you grew up in.
It’s fairly annoying to return to the city I grew up in and have people ask where you’re from. I’m from here (name of city), never cuts it. Where? I name the municipality that I grew up in and people IMMEDIATELY have this perception of you. It’s really annoying. I don’t feel as if I fall in the pigeon hole, and am usually insulted by resulting facial expressions, body language, and ensuing comments.
I personally believe that my family would be considered upper - “middle class”. I’m not living paycheck to paycheck (although I could if I wanted to “up” some elements of my lifestyle), but I choose to live within the means that I do have. I will, and my father has, worked his entire life (He was forcibly retired at 59).
I’m always interested to hear what other people think what “class” system I, or my parents, would fall into.
Interesting thread so far…
Six-O
PS Some new post since it has taken me 30 minutes to post this one. I agree with Lamar, the upper class is, in my opinion, restricted to maybe .1% of the US population.
It’s pretty rare in America to hear “upper class” used to describe people (as opposed to eating establishments, luxury cruise ships, etc). As others have said, there is no class structure in the old sense, so your origins don’t matter much (you’ll occasionally hear of old-money families speaking of the “nouvelle riche” but most of us don’t know the old-money families, don’t know who they are, and don’t know which wealthy folks aren’t them, and don’t care).
To make distinctions at the high end, we use terms like “income in six figures”, “millionaire”, “multi-millionaire”, and “billionaire”.
In some areas (Manhattan, Vegas, and Boston for example), it is socially permissible (if contempt-worthy in many circles) to be ostentatious about having wealth and weilding the privileges that come with it. People with money and connections will dress up and arrive late and enter in front of crowds trying to get into nightclubs and other hot spots and it is (marginally) accepted that they do that kind of thing.
In other areas of the country, this is less true. Any multi-millionaire who acted as if he had any inherent right to services and treatments not equally available to someone with a $21,000 income would be derided and shunned (apparently even by others in their net-worth bracket). I’ve seen towns in the oil country of Colorado and Wyoming and throughout the non-metropolitan south where everyone acts as if they don’t know that Charles over there is the heir to vast lands and owns a few dozen corporations, while Sue is a departmental supervisor and Mark works in a concession booth at the local $1.75 movie theatre. Everyone waits on the same lines at the bank or the dentist and they even dress pretty much the same way. The rich enjoy the conveniences of wealth quietly and inconspicuously as a general rule.