Was checking out the BBC news website a couple of days ago and saw an item about a survey which had been carried out:
Conducted by the Future Foundation, the survey found that 36% of builders questioned regarded themselves as being middle-class, while 29% of bank managers said they were working-class.
I found some of the comments in the article pretty patronising and fatous, not least the bit where "Economist Bruce Anderson" says
In all societies the middle-classes provide the bedrock of stability.
Hmmmmm. If you want to see for yourself, the article's here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4974460.stm
But just when I thought I couldn't see a more ridiculous "is it income or education that makes a person working class?" argument, I read Rod Liddle's column in the Times online today:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,24393-2168392,00.html
God, I thought his hackneyed "freedom of speech" argument in defense of Nick Griffin was bad, but this plumbs new depths:
Then there is deferred gratification: the thing that the working classes never much cared for. The middle classes, historically, put off pleasure for the sake of later reward. They saved money, they invested in their children’s education and, when exhausted by years of mind-numbing office work, they left their children a decent inheritance, having lived lives of polite denial.
Those greedy working classes! They just haven't got the restraint of the noble middlies!
http://www.libcom.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10001