Is the SDMB Predominantly Middle-Class?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve noticed that middle-class attitudes prevail almost exclusively, particularly when opinions are sought. This is most noticeable in threads about child-rearing, attitudes to the workplace, attitudes to romance/sex/dating, schooling/education, friendship and the like. There appears to be more variety in political discussions but still, middle-of-the-road attitudes dominate there as well.

There have been a few threads where the middle-class view offers up an almost bullying insistance on conformity to middle-class values. I’m thinking of one thread wherein a single mother sought advice about schooling for her son, and another where (tongue-in-cheek, for certain) a hand of friendship was extended but spurned because the hand was attached to ‘trailer park trash’ with an abusive partner.

I’m not taking the moral high ground here, it just seems to me that exclusion of sets of values that cannot be grouped into that amorphous category known as middle-class is either embracing ignorance, or, worse yet, posturing that only middle-class knowledge is valid knowledge - all other knowledge and experience is logically inconsequently dismissed as ignorant.

2

From what I’ve seen, the board appears to consist largely of middle-class to upper-middle-class attitudes on certain subjects. I agree that there is a wider array of attitudes when it comes to politics.

Some things virtually scream “middle-class suburbia”. I recall a thread about lawn-care that had me wondering whether my neighbors might think of me as white trash because I don’t mow my lawn every other day and pamper it with chemicals.

There are also plenty of threads regarding college life. College isn’t the domain of only middle-class and upper-middle-class folks, of course, but I think college concerns are much more prevalent in that segment of the population.

Of course, just having a computer with an internet connection and enough spare time to spend participating in an online messageboard probably means you’re either middle-class or pretty darned near.

Obviously this isn’t a scientific analysis or anything, just my opinion based on what I’ve seen.

3

Middle class? Hahahaha! The majority of the posters seem to be pretty solidly left wing / socialist, which one would normally associate with the Working Class. But then there are really only two classes - the Working Class and the Non-Working Class.

We have military here, both officers and rankers, both serving and ex; prison staff and pilots; at least one fast food manager; mothers and fathers. We have workers and retired. I haven’t seen anyone admit to being either rich or a politician (but then, who would?), nor a reporter, though.

4

qts, until three months ago I was a journalist in the US Army. Now I’m unemployed and spend my whole day taking care of my kid in a rotten old house we’re renting and can’t stand, but can’t afford to give up. We are currently living on a disability severence check I got for a severe back injury.

That seems to cover a lot of what you just said, but I’ve always been pretty blind to class distictions unless it was painfully obvious. So what am I, smarties?

5

Middle class? What is that?

6

In the U.S., “middle class” is what you’re “supposed” to be – most people so identify themselves, including those who, objectively, are half a step up or down from that. So that’s one element.

Another element is one that BlackKnight touched on – people with internet access at home and/or at work who have the time at home and/or at work to hang out on a message board are more apt to be middle-class or above. Also, the level of literacy involved in enjoying this message board particularly is going to skew to the middle class and educated – I describe it to potential recruits as being filled with “very smart, very verbal, very funny people.” Smart and funny aren’t class-linked – verbal, I think, is. The level of discourse around here is pretty high, and since it’s based on the written word, it’s going to appeal to those who value facility with the written word, and those who have developed it in themselves.

twicks, probably upper-middle class in background and upbringing, but solidly middle class in current income and lifestyle

7

Well, I’ve been over the spectrum, income-wise, in my life. Growing up, money was real tight, and my parents had to borrow from my mother’s family quite often. Then, after my dad stopped drinking (I was 14) and all the kids but me were gone from home, we took a great leap to darned close to upper-middle-class. During my married years, our income has ranged from 85K (his and mine combined) to, in the past couple of years since the IT bubble burst, about 24K. (Fortunately, it looks like this is about to turn around real soon; I know some people live their whole lives like this, but I’m gettin’ pretty sick of it). We probably still have pretty solid middle-class attitudes, though. And the only form of government assistance we’ve had to accept is state-sponsored health insurance for the kids (and boy am I grateful for that!). The rest is compensated by low mortgage payments, low debt, and cutting all kinds of corners and shopping at thrift stores. So, while our income level may not be middle class right now, our attitudes haven’t changed much.

Twickster made some good observations, there.

8

Our household income is about 20% below the median household income for Sangamon County, Illinois. I guess that makes us lower middle class. shrug

Of course, there are very few Beacon Hill-type mansions here in Sangamon County, and conversely there is very little of the crushing poverty one might find in, say, rural Arkansas. So I guess it’s all relative. I have enough money to pay my bills, keep Mrs. HeyHomie in scrapbooking supplies, and go to Disneyworld once a year.

9

And BTW, there are at least a couple of Dopers here who are probably quite wealthy. They just won’t admit it (presumably out of a sense of humility). I’ve gathered that they’re rather wealthy based on subtle things I’ve picked up on in comments they’ve made.

10

Wow. I just came out of the the highpoint of my life thus far and I’ve never made $24k a year.

11

Yes, but do you have three kids to support? There’s the key.

12

I had to ask Dave if we’re middle class, because I have no idea what constitutes middle class here. His response? “Right down the middle, baby. Expect to take up bowling.”

13

Working class, but out of work. In my adult life, I’ve never had an income above the official poverty line.

But I was raised in a middle class family, so maybe that doesn’t count…?

14

Middle class all the way. Two incomes, lot of debt, doing okay but not great. Hell, we even play slo-pitch and watch reality television.

15

Well, by definition, the “middle class” comprises the bulk of the bell curve, regardless of whether we’re talking a bell curve of political leanings, income, religion, or shoe size. So it’s hardly surprising that they predominate; that’s the very definition of a majority.

I do notice a big difference in the audiences of the various forums. I’m mostly a GQ guy, and the average is more educated, more curious, more mathematically capable, and more polite than typical Middle America. It also seems to be more international than the other forums.

Here in IMHO, it seems more typically middle class, but we get a lot of college kids and a few HS kids with their age-unique problems and issues and attitudes.

MPSIMS seems to me to be even more so, very white-bread typical.

Why? Remember each of us chooses which threads to post to, and so if SDMB has any quantitiy of conformist folks, they’ll pile into threads where they can conform. If there are threads that encourage fringe positions, they’ll attract folks with fringe positions. So you get a self-fulfilling prophesy.

As to myself, I think I’m a long way from typical middle class, but I’m not going to trumpet the details here; it hardly seems friendly to the community. And I imagine many other folks feel the same way.

A raging neo-Nazi (not me BTW) might not bother to bring it up here, likewise a parolled child killer might not mention his (her?) interesting past and the amazing experience of prison.

So we’re likely a lot less bland overall than we appear.

Finally, what the heck do you mean by “middle class”? That term covers a lot of ground and can mean vastly different things to different people. Without some more definition, we’re probably all talking past each other, me included.

16

Yes. What do you mean with ‘middle class’?

And why is it important?

17

norinew, only one kid and a dog. And my wife only just started working after more than two years.

18

It would stand to reason that the majority of the SDMB community would be middle-class by virtue of what constitutes the majority of society as a whole.

19

Culturally you are upper middle class/lower upper class. Economically, you are lower class. Which means you are …

lower class.

Try paying the rent with culture sometimes.

20

I’ve encountered several Dopers who have mentioned that they are wealthy, which surprised me, because wealthy people generally avoid mentioning their wealth as it tends to make them targets for various kinds of people.

There are also a few who’ve admitted to being, by American standards, desperately poor. But no one has admitted to being poor by Third World standards – not that they’d be ABLE to since poor Third Worlders consider things like having prospects of not starving soon to be a real leg up in the world. If you live in the Thrid World and you have a computer and an use it, you’re not poor.

I am sure there are a LOT of wealthy dopers who never reveal their wealth, which is OK by me, it’s the contribution you make on the boards, not how much bucks ya got, that counts. At least as far as SDMB is concerned. In almost all other aspects of life, bucks rule.