Why does it seem that so many people here are working class?

[JustAnotherHun]

I am business class ????

[swissie]

If things keep going the way they are, to end up in the "lower middle class" will be the best thing anyone can hope for as long as he is earning his living by "labor".
The middle class is shrinking in the "west". Even in Europe, the percentage of households classified as "poor" is increasing year by year. There is a giant vacuum cleaner at work, that sucks "the wealth of the people" upwards to the 5% of the populace that own half of the world already.

A comparison:
- A slave in the Roman Empire was an expensive investment for the slave owner. He made sure that the slave remained healthy and stayed producive as long as possible. This was the slaves "health-insurance" as well as his "retirement-fund". On top of that, the slave had free food&free lodging. (The tales, that slaves were routinely beaten half to death for minor offences, belongs into the realms of mythology).

- A modern day "wage-slave" (the lower middle class) has no free food nor free lodging. Has to pay for his health insurance and can not accumulate funds for his retirement. Going from paycheck to paycheck. When he loses his job, he is in "dire-straits". As opposed to the slave in old Rome, as he basically had a "job for life".

Sometimes I wonder who is/was better off: Slave a) or slave b)?

 

[animalmagic]

I self identify as a billionaire.

[malibukid]

never had to work class

[kiteman9]

Working class people being processed into the into the "machine” This was Lennons meaning  for the songs lyrics.    As soon as you're born, they make you feel small

By giving you no time instead of it all

'Til the pain is so big you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

They hurt you at home and they hit you at school

They hate you if you're clever and they despise a fool

'Til you're so <deleted> crazy you can't follow their rules

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

When they've tortured and scared you for 20 odd years

Then they expect you to pick a career

When you can't really function, you're so full of fear

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV

And you think you're so clever and classless and free

But you're still <deleted> peasants as far as I can see

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

There's room at the top they are telling you still

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill

If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

 

Songwriter John Lennon

https://youtu.be/iMewtlmkV6c

[Nip]

The first lesson I learnt in life was everybody who works for a living is working class. Your clearly classless. 

[klauskunkel]

I'm inbetween classes right now...

[lom]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:49 PM, transam said:

I remember when a plumber went round on a push-bike, now they drive around in a Merc van, so what is he in the class scale. 

Polish?

[jayboy]

Most respondents here make no distinction between wealth and class.However although they overlap, they are not the same thing at all.A wealthy plumber is not upper middle class.An impoverished clergyman might well be.In England (there are different rules for Scotland) social class can easily be determined from the way people speak and the vocabulary they use.Thus - to take a few wealthy people - David Beckham, Alan Sugar, Jonathan Ross fall into one category.James Blunt, Tom Hiddleston and Jack Whitehall fall into another.

 

In Thailand there are very few upper middle class expatriates and almost none would be members of this forum.I doubt there is one upper middle class expatriate resident in Pattaya among the plump tattooed retirees.

 

The rules are however being rewritten by the young and it's sometimes difficult now to tell the difference between the poshies and the proles. Good thing probably.

 

And me? Educated prole - working class for generations.

[JimHuaHin]

I am a retired Australia university lecturer, with a post-graduate degree, owned my own modest house in an Australian country-side city (valued under A$500,000) (and I certainly cannot afford most of the Thai houses advertised on this site), and own my own old Japanese car here => upper middle class.

[1FinickyOne]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:49 PM, transam said:

so what is he in the class scale. 

Some wear their pants w/shirts tucked in and belt on firm.. others don't. I would divide them out that way.

[Denim]

As an aristocrat I resent the uppity nature of the upper middle class, just one step removed from the riff raff.

 

This is what I mean :

 

 

 

[transam]

41 minutes ago, lom said:

Polish?

No, when I was a kid in London, a plumber had his tools in a bag on his handlebars, same for the bloke who sharpened knives, or the onion seller, coal was on a horse and cart, think he was middle class though......????

[transam]

The modern day 'upper class'.......????

 

 

[1FinickyOne]

wouldn't 95% or more of the world's population be working class?

[murraynz]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:16 PM, Tippaporn said:

Where's the option for "None."  I'm classless.

Yes, I agree.. Putting people in types of class is totally ignorant and pointless.. 

[overherebc]

Do you really want to know and judge yourself?

Answer one question.

Do you get out of the bath to go for a P?

[Purdey]

Not sure why the OP thinks a lot of people here are working class. Is the grammar and spelling revealing poor typing skills or level of education?

Can people who were born working class now have a few million quid in the bank but still think of themselves as working class, or middle class at best?

 

[sandyf]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:16 PM, HashBrownHarry said:

They have many more options of better countries for retirement than Thailand.

Quite.  I doubt if any of the wealthy are actually expats. Those that I know have second, or third, homes in another country.

[brianthainess]

The only 'classes' when i was a lad were Blue or White collar workers.

[weelegs]

An interesting question. I think the OP was using the terms working class, middle class etc. as they are used in sociology, defined primarily by educational level and job classification. There are plenty of retired diplomats, professors, ex-United Nations staff and others who were at high levels in their profession living in Thailand. And they love it. Many of them live in Chiang Mai, or in Bangkok if they are still semi-active in their field. They communicate among themselves, and in activities like a film appreciation course or book club. While many of them read, enjoy, and learn something from ThaiVisa (sorry, ASEAN Now), they will rarely (if ever) submit a post. I think this is because in their professional work they would give an opinion only sparingly, in their area of expert knowledge, and after careful review of the relevant facts, while the ThaiVisa (sorry, ASEAN Now) posts are more ... um ... free-wheeling.

 

But if I'm needing to know how to fix my leaking roof or how to keep my 12-year-old Toyota on the road three more years, I'll come to you guys! Seriously, you are great! And we "intellectuals" would be lost without you.

 

[thaibook]

On 12/19/2021 at 5:24 PM, connda said:

It's possibly the silver spoon embedded in your nether regions which impairs your ability to empathize.  Just a guess.

As Jingthing says, it is not only income or even accumulated riches.  Class used to be more to do with breeding and behaviour.  There were poor upper class and rich lower class.  Then came teh explosion in education and academics in the social sciences needed to justify research grants with surveys and statistical analyses.  Defining class is very difficult, too difficult for these academics so they defined the socio-economic class system instead where income and highest exam level (not education) are the main determinants.  

[ChrisKC]

How did the OP determine (what criteria) who was what from observations of expats on this forum, mostly I assume are more or less ones he has never met?

 

[Freddy42OZ]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:33 PM, Tippaporn said:

What's your definition of success?

Wealth.  

[n00dle]

On 12/19/2021 at 4:39 PM, Chris.B said:

"Where are all the middle class and upper middle class retirees?"

 

South of France, renovating chateau for UK TV shows!

I thought they were sailing the world and publishing content on youtube

[transam]

2 minutes ago, Freddy42OZ said:

Wealth.  

I would have thought, never been divorced....????

[Cake Monster]

I am a working class man, who was brought upon a Council Estate in the UK.

Went to School and got an Apprenticeship

Worked hard for other people and made good doing that and was a high earner.

Got bored with all the thankless hassle, and started a successful Business that allowed me to retire at 51 

I am still a working class man, and proud to be so.

OP

I hope we never meet, as I would undoubtedly not fall within your high expectations.

 

[Thingamabob]

I'm an old git who remembers that 50 years ago farang in Thailand were better-behaved, better- spoken and better- dressed than they are today. No idea if this is a reflection of class change or a general changing of standards.

[newnative]

      As an American, I'm having a bit of trouble with your poll.  You have two categories that I take to be income level, Upper and Middle class, and a third category that, to me, is more about type of job, not income.   'Working class' seems to be more of a British term.  In America, it was more 'blue collar' or 'white collar' as a way to determine the type of work one was doing--were you wearing a white dress shirt to go to your job at the bank or a blue work shirt to go to your job involving manual labor? 

    Upper, Middle, and Lower class in America usually refer to income levels, not the type of job one is doing.  A successful blue-collar plumber or electrician in America will likely be somewhere in the middle class these days.   A better poll might have been: Do you consider yourself to be financially in the:  1. Upper strata,  2. Middle strata, or 3. Lower strata.  

[Tropposurfer]

On 12/19/2021 at 8:12 PM, Meat Pie 47 said:

not every body is a millionaire frm OZ 

I am lol ????????????????