I think it would also be good to have a parallel poll with annual income, in order to relate the actual numbers to what people perceive to be their class.
A recent NPR bit on exactly this question is, I will admit, part of the motivation for this poll. That and some crazy folks beating each other about the head over here
In sociology, educational attainment, occupational status, and income are the three big components of individual socioeconomic status. Since I’m a PhD researcher who’s employed by a major research university, I figured I ranked pretty high in terms of occupational status and educational attainment. So I picked upper middle class.
I’m in Australia, and my income is comparatively high here, and it’s higher than it would be for the equivalent position in the US. But Australia’s income distribution isn’t as distorted as that of the US (there’s just the one Rupert Murdoch). I’m also only a temporary Australian resident, but I am a Caucasian, native English speaker, and those things all contribute to class here. So I don’t know for sure I put myself in the right slot for Oz or for the US.
I had a middle-middle class upbringing, maybe upper middle if your standard includes “Alaskan Cruises” and “international vacations” and such. But my folks were themselves poor Southerners who happened to do well for themselves; as a grad student I frequently feel that I’m low on certain skills that’d really help me here, and that correlate with class.
Is there a category for that? I just picked “middle.”
I may earn a middle class salary and live in a middle class suburb but after growing up firmly entrenched in the working class I don’t think I’ll ever truly consider myself to be anything else. And that suits me fine.
As long as I continue to get a paycheck, I’m middle class. If they were to cease, I’d be poor within a month. IOW, I still continue to live paycheck to paycheck.
When the NYTimes did their big thing on class they had a interesting feature up that would break things down by education and income and occupational status. Most academics rate quite high on education and status.
I would love to see how this correlates with education level and income of your readers. I have a strong suspicion that I would be considered upper class based on my income (as a single, childless TT prof in Engineering), PhD and such, but chose upper middle in the poll. I think upbringing is definitely part of how I see myself. My parents somehow raised us to feel that money was only just sufficient for needs and we did not have a lot of luxuries (e.g. no cable in the family home until I was out of college). Once I found out what my dad really earned, my perception changed somewhat, but I still have a mindset that dictates the way I live. I don’t feel upper class.
I would consider us upper middle class income-wise, because we’re better off than my parents were, and I felt growing up we were middle class, at least by the time I was aware of such a thing. Public schools, two non-luxury cars, mortgage, my parents put themselves through college with no help from their parents and they worried about paying the bills when we were kids. I feel upper middle class means not having to worry about month-by-month bill paying, but having to worry about how to pay for college for our kids. On the other hand, part of the reason we don’t worry about paying the bills is because we were both raised middle class and spend and save mostly like we’re middle class (it helps to have paid off college loans, so no debt except mortgage, which we’re currently underwater on, but if we stay put that’ll rebound right?), but currently have an above-the-median income and some substantial savings. It took us >10 years post-PhD to get there though.
My parents made just about exactly the median US household income when I was growing up, so I answered middle class. My Mommy was a Teamster :), which is a pretty ‘working class’ kind of group.
We never had to worry about food or rent, but vacations involving plane trips were very rare and cruises and suchlike unheard of.
But we were vastly more education centric than probably 95% of the US population. i.e. my parents went to good colleges; their savings were for my college instead of their retirement (between social security and a pension they are doing fine though, so maybe it’s not fair to represent it as a dichotomy); there were more books in our house than in some of the local libraries; there are several generations of educated working women (nurses and teachers) on my Mom’s side; and, of course, my parents were up for forgoing a second income so my father could ferry me about to various lessons and support my homeschooling
So probably Brahmin, if we were to define it traditionally
Enjoying the show, especially how DM has become downright obsessed with class all of a sudden lately! What’s the deal there?? And how it’s obvious what unexplored territory class is, as I have long claimed, just based on peoples’ inability to agree on the most basic terms.
OK, I vote that anyone who selected Other should come clean with what they mean and why they couldn’t select one of the other choices. Does thinking you are lower-middle-working class really count?
Hey, does anyone know what the Scientopia logo image is on the main page? I left a question on the ‘about’ page but it disappeared so I’m still wondering. I find the image disturbing.
DrugMonkey 
October 13, 2010 at 12:30 pm
I think it would also be good to have a parallel poll with annual income, in order to relate the actual numbers to what people perceive to be their class.
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October 13, 2010 at 12:47 pm
A recent NPR bit on exactly this question is, I will admit, part of the motivation for this poll. That and some crazy folks beating each other about the head over here
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October 13, 2010 at 3:17 pm
In sociology, educational attainment, occupational status, and income are the three big components of individual socioeconomic status. Since I’m a PhD researcher who’s employed by a major research university, I figured I ranked pretty high in terms of occupational status and educational attainment. So I picked upper middle class.
I’m in Australia, and my income is comparatively high here, and it’s higher than it would be for the equivalent position in the US. But Australia’s income distribution isn’t as distorted as that of the US (there’s just the one Rupert Murdoch). I’m also only a temporary Australian resident, but I am a Caucasian, native English speaker, and those things all contribute to class here. So I don’t know for sure I put myself in the right slot for Oz or for the US.
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October 13, 2010 at 5:38 pm
Where’s the Isabel class?
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October 13, 2010 at 6:10 pm
I had a middle-middle class upbringing, maybe upper middle if your standard includes “Alaskan Cruises” and “international vacations” and such. But my folks were themselves poor Southerners who happened to do well for themselves; as a grad student I frequently feel that I’m low on certain skills that’d really help me here, and that correlate with class.
Is there a category for that? I just picked “middle.”
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October 13, 2010 at 7:28 pm
I may earn a middle class salary and live in a middle class suburb but after growing up firmly entrenched in the working class I don’t think I’ll ever truly consider myself to be anything else. And that suits me fine.
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October 14, 2010 at 1:40 am
As long as I continue to get a paycheck, I’m middle class. If they were to cease, I’d be poor within a month. IOW, I still continue to live paycheck to paycheck.
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October 14, 2010 at 4:18 am
When the NYTimes did their big thing on class they had a interesting feature up that would break things down by education and income and occupational status. Most academics rate quite high on education and status.
LikeLike
October 14, 2010 at 5:39 am
I would love to see how this correlates with education level and income of your readers. I have a strong suspicion that I would be considered upper class based on my income (as a single, childless TT prof in Engineering), PhD and such, but chose upper middle in the poll. I think upbringing is definitely part of how I see myself. My parents somehow raised us to feel that money was only just sufficient for needs and we did not have a lot of luxuries (e.g. no cable in the family home until I was out of college). Once I found out what my dad really earned, my perception changed somewhat, but I still have a mindset that dictates the way I live. I don’t feel upper class.
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October 14, 2010 at 5:46 am
At the moment, our household income is upper middle; I checked “middle” based in part on background and habits, and in part on my extended family.
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October 14, 2010 at 6:00 am
Where the fucken fucke is Loonabel?
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October 14, 2010 at 6:01 am
I would consider us upper middle class income-wise, because we’re better off than my parents were, and I felt growing up we were middle class, at least by the time I was aware of such a thing. Public schools, two non-luxury cars, mortgage, my parents put themselves through college with no help from their parents and they worried about paying the bills when we were kids. I feel upper middle class means not having to worry about month-by-month bill paying, but having to worry about how to pay for college for our kids. On the other hand, part of the reason we don’t worry about paying the bills is because we were both raised middle class and spend and save mostly like we’re middle class (it helps to have paid off college loans, so no debt except mortgage, which we’re currently underwater on, but if we stay put that’ll rebound right?), but currently have an above-the-median income and some substantial savings. It took us >10 years post-PhD to get there though.
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October 14, 2010 at 10:01 am
My parents made just about exactly the median US household income when I was growing up, so I answered middle class. My Mommy was a Teamster :), which is a pretty ‘working class’ kind of group.
We never had to worry about food or rent, but vacations involving plane trips were very rare and cruises and suchlike unheard of.
But we were vastly more education centric than probably 95% of the US population. i.e. my parents went to good colleges; their savings were for my college instead of their retirement (between social security and a pension they are doing fine though, so maybe it’s not fair to represent it as a dichotomy); there were more books in our house than in some of the local libraries; there are several generations of educated working women (nurses and teachers) on my Mom’s side; and, of course, my parents were up for forgoing a second income so my father could ferry me about to various lessons and support my homeschooling
So probably Brahmin, if we were to define it traditionally
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October 14, 2010 at 1:43 pm
“Where the fucken fucke is Loonabel?”
Enjoying the show, especially how DM has become downright obsessed with class all of a sudden lately! What’s the deal there?? And how it’s obvious what unexplored territory class is, as I have long claimed, just based on peoples’ inability to agree on the most basic terms.
What is rich? What is middle class? Etc.
Well, carry on:)
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October 15, 2010 at 11:42 am
OK, I vote that anyone who selected Other should come clean with what they mean and why they couldn’t select one of the other choices. Does thinking you are lower-middle-working class really count?
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October 15, 2010 at 11:51 am
For some reason the freebie polldaddy does not make the “other” responses visible. The current entries include:
“lower middle class”
“slave”
“poor postdoc”
“Begger (scientist local ”
“Post-doc Class”
“scientist”
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October 15, 2010 at 11:51 am
DM has become downright obsessed with class all of a sudden lately! What’s the deal there?
All for you, Isabel, all for you.
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October 15, 2010 at 3:14 pm
I appreciate it DM.
Hey, does anyone know what the Scientopia logo image is on the main page? I left a question on the ‘about’ page but it disappeared so I’m still wondering. I find the image disturbing.
Thanks.
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