# Class indicators in USA society?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 17, 2014, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330 "2014-04-17T07:33:24Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/1 "2014-04-17T07:33:24Z")
Although class is a dirty concept overall in the USA, it definitely still exists, what are some class indicators and areas of separation you’ve noticed? Or if you know of a recent book or documentary let me know too!
Some examples I can think of:
I’ve seen it theorized that something driving the push to diagnose school children with stuff like ASD or ADHD or SID is that if you have that diagnosis your child receives concessions like extra time for testing or leniency that other children do not receive for disruptive behavior. It was noted that the richer you are the more likely your child has a diagnosis and is accommodated in the system, and if you are poor your child is a trouble maker who will get suspended or expelled.
A poster on this board who works in a doctors office noted that with poorer patients all their RXed medications are well known generics with no brand names, like atenolol or tramadol. But that in a doctors office catering to richer patients the prescriptions are all very new branded drugs with bizarre brand names, like Zunevio or Kryslyze(\<-made up lol) and they often have to look up what it even is because they are so new.
EDIT:I’ve seen articles claiming areas or clusters of unvaccinated children are among wealthy and educated areas, while poorer and less educated areas have higher vaccination rates!
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### Author:  [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/2 "2014-04-17T11:40:15Z")
I’ve noticed that the more overtly religious someone is, the more likely they are to be poor or working class.
Women who wear a lot of make up, in my experience, tend to be poor/working class as well. But it could be that more well-to-do women also wear a lot of make-up, and they just apply in a manner that isn’t so obvious.
Names are one of the most obvious markers. It’s not that poor people are more likely to have unusual names. See names like “Saxby” and “Newt”. But poor people are more likely to have certain kinds of unusual names. Often with complicated or nonintuitive spellings.
Smoking seems to be a class marker now. I don’t see too many middle-class people with the habit, while every working class stiff I see seems to be puffing away. But I admit this may be confirmation bias on my part.
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### Author:  [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/3 "2014-04-17T11:46:29Z")
Language marker: “Ax me a question” vs. “Ask me a question”. The former is considered “ghetto” in my experience and while it’s most strongly associated with black people lower class/poor whites and others use it, too. The latter is seen as more upscale, educated, and professional.
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### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/4 "2014-04-17T12:02:12Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> Names are one of the most obvious markers. It’s not that poor people are more likely to have unusual names. See names like “Saxby” and “Newt”. But poor people are more likely to have certain kinds of unusual names. Often with complicated or nonintuitive spellings.
If you’re talking about Chambliss and Gingrich, doesn’t look like either of them were born into upper class families. The point may still stand, though. Seems to me that poorer people tend to have names or spellings that appear to have been uniquely invented; richer people may have old-fashioned or archaic names, but usually existant ones.
This may fall into the category of “too obvious to state,” but going to private, “brand name” schools, at either the high school or college level, is a sign of class.
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### Author:  [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/5 "2014-04-17T12:26:24Z")
I used to teach in a school that was extraordinarily class-diverse, and the one marker that I found subtle but powerful was hair. Good haircuts/coloring/highlighting is really hard to fake and it stands out.
I think in a generation skin will be a huge marker of your class background. Upper-middle class people are very conscious about putting sunscreen on their children and otherwise protecting their skin. Middle and lower class parents, less so–they aren’t going to send their kids to the pool without sunscreen, but they will send them to the park. It doesn’t make much difference now, but when those kids are in their 40s, I think it will be very noticeable.
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### Author:  [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/6 "2014-04-17T12:35:45Z")
Property? Owning a house, reliable transportation, private education, salary.
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### Author:  [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/7 "2014-04-17T12:35:48Z")
> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> I think in a generation skin will be a huge marker of your class background. Upper-middle class people are very conscious about putting sunscreen on their children and otherwise protecting their skin. Middle and lower class parents, less so–they aren’t going to send their kids to the pool without sunscreen, but they will send them to the park. It doesn’t make much difference now, but when those kids are in their 40s, I think it will be very noticeable.
IMHO this isn’t new or by any means isolated to the US. Anecdotally I have heard that many cultures see relative skin color, within their own race, as denoting class: people who work out doors = darker skin tone = lower class level.
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### Author:  [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/8 "2014-04-17T12:41:19Z")
> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> I used to teach in a school that was extraordinarily class-diverse, and the one marker that I found subtle but powerful was hair. Good haircuts/coloring/highlighting is really hard to fake and it stands out.
>
> I think in a generation skin will be a huge marker of your class background. Upper-middle class people are very conscious about putting sunscreen on their children and otherwise protecting their skin. Middle and lower class parents, less so–they aren’t going to send their kids to the pool without sunscreen, but they will send them to the park. It doesn’t make much difference now, but when those kids are in their 40s, I think it will be very noticeable.
Yes on the hair - you don’t get good highlights without spending money - and quite a bit of it.
Also, branding and clothing quality. Poor people have almost no branding - or are carrying a purse that if it was real, they couldn’t possibly afford it (come on, a Louis Vitton purse and you send your kid to THIS school?) People who are wealthier - and comfortable with it - don’t need you to KNOW that their purse is Coach by carrying one with its branding all over it. Their clothing is designer, but the designers are not advertised - its recognizable by the cut, quality and collection.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/9 "2014-04-17T12:51:49Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#):
>
> Yes on the hair - you don’t get good highlights without spending money - and quite a bit of it.
Good fake highlights: my brother spent years answering “why do you get highlights?” with “I don’t” and has been spending even more years answering “where do you get your highlights?” with “sometimes, when a Mommy and a Daddy love each other very much…”
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### Author:  [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/10 "2014-04-17T13:46:08Z")
Most rich Americans have travelled overseas before they reach age 30. Many do so in their teens in sponsored groups or with their parents. Poor Americans travel overseas generally if they’re in the the armed forces.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/11 "2014-04-17T14:10:46Z")
> [@Broomstick](#):
>
> Language marker: “Ax me a question” vs. “Ask me a question”. The former is considered “ghetto” in my experience and while it’s most strongly associated with black people lower class/poor whites and others use it, too. The latter is seen as more upscale, educated, and professional.
IME, “axing” questions nowadays is a pretty sure sign of being black. The [history](http://staefcraeft.blogspot.com/2009/10/beowulf-axes-questions.html) of the usage is Anglo-Saxon, of a medieval mode, but today’s expression of it is that of The Hood, which I will not utter here.
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### Author:  [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/12 "2014-04-17T14:18:11Z")
No, where I live plenty of white people “axe” questions. They also laugh at rich people drinking “expresso”.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/13 "2014-04-17T14:19:07Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> …
> Smoking seems to be a class marker now. I don’t see too many middle-class people with the habit, while every working class stiff I see seems to be puffing away. But I admit this may be confirmation bias on my part.
Good point. In the DC area, smoking seems to indicate that you are likely to be either 1) ghetto, 2) rural, or 3) an immigrant. We have a _lot_ of immigrants from Korea who seem to behave as if tobacco is the fabled fifth food group.
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### Author:  [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/14 "2014-04-17T14:21:49Z")
> [@Icarus](#):
>
> IMHO this isn’t new or by any means isolated to the US. Anecdotally I have heard that many cultures see relative skin color, within their own race, as denoting class: people who work out doors = darker skin tone = lower class level.
I’ve heard that this is the origin of the term “redneck”. Rednecks were white people who were poor enough that they had to spend all day working in the fields, which, in many parts of The South, will give a white person a lot of sun.
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### Author:  [@phouka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phouka)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/15 "2014-04-17T14:24:55Z")
> [@monstro](#):
>
> Names are one of the most obvious markers. It’s not that poor people are more likely to have unusual names. See names like “Saxby” and “Newt”. But poor people are more likely to have certain kinds of unusual names. Often with complicated or nonintuitive spellings.
One of the Freakonomics writers pointed out that poor people tend to follow the naming trends of rich people, so naming your baby girl Brittany in the mid-80s was the trendsetting of the rich and fashionable. By 1990, lower socio-economic groups had taken over the name, and its popularity plummeted.
There’s also a cultural phenomenon where parents want unique and perhaps exotic names for their daughters but standard, well known names for their sons. I suspect this also plays a hand in the “interesting” and “unique” spelling variations, as I’ve noticed them more in girls’ names than boys’.
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### Author:  [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/16 "2014-04-17T14:59:38Z")
Gluten allergies.
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### Author:  [@you\_with\_the\_face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/you_with_the_face)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/17 "2014-04-17T15:14:40Z")
> [@MandaJo](#):
>
> I used to teach in a school that was extraordinarily class-diverse, and the one marker that I found subtle but powerful was hair. Good haircuts/coloring/highlighting is really hard to fake and it stands out.
This was gonna be my answer. Hair is a good signifier of class irrespective of race, and not just styling preferences. People from higher socioeconomic brackets seem more likely to have hair that looks healthy and well-cared for.
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### Author:  [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/18 "2014-04-17T15:16:00Z")
> [@grude](#):
>
> A poster on this board who works in a doctors office noted that with poorer patients all their RXed medications are well known generics with no brand names, like atenolol or tramadol. But that in a doctors office catering to richer patients the prescriptions are all very new branded drugs with bizarre brand names, like Zunevio or Kryslyze(\<-made up lol) and they often have to look up what it even is because they are so new.
That may be correct about medicines going on the assumption that the richer patients would be able to afford newer and therefore still under patent medicines for which a generic equivalency is not available, but it’s not true of many other products. Most of the really rich people I know use lots of generic products. It’s the one’s struggling with money that HAVE to have the name brand.
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### Author:  [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/19 "2014-04-17T15:43:26Z")
Grammar.
Here in the middle of the US, hearing “We was so glad to see that” answered with “Was ya?”. “Oh yah. I seen him. We all seen him.”
Also “We have went there.”
All accepted as correct in the lower classes.
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### Author:  [@JKilez](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKilez)
#### Post date: [April 17, 2014, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/class-indicators-in-usa-society/686330/20 "2014-04-17T15:57:56Z")
> [@Dangerosa](#):
>
> Yes on the hair - you don’t get good highlights without spending money - and quite a bit of it.
Ironically, I would say that people who spend a lot of money on their hair (and/or nails) are more likely to be part of a lower class.
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