Reply #11: It seems [View All]

[StellaBlue]

a lot of Americans think they are middle class but aren't. Rich white suburbanites think they are middle class, but they are really the white overclass. Poor working people think they are middle class because they share the cultural aspirations. Only the very poor and the very rich realize they aren't middle class.

Take me, right now. I have two degrees, but am currently unemployed (having just returned here from living abroad for four years). I am living with relatives and slowly spending the little savings I have managed to escape Europe with (mostly paying back federal student loans!!!!). I have been an office administrator, an academic, and a waitress. Among many other things. I have lots of clothes (none of them expensive), but no car. I like to watch football, but not NASCAR. I like classical music and honky tonk.

The relatives I am staying with are low income-earners, have no health insurance. I am writing this post from an apartment. None of my parents, grandparents, etc graduated from college. Most were sharecroppers. One ancestor further back did own a tobacco plantation in Tennessee, however. I have ancestors that fought in the American Revolution. I have more recent ancestors who were Cherokee and forced into Oklahoma.

My other relatives are still mostly farmers and factory workers, with a few who 'made it' and have government or high-paying private jobs. But mostly farmers and retail workers and the like. Not a single one of them has ever ventured outside the United States. Oh, except one who went to Eastern Europe to pick up his Internet bride (turned out to be a scam, surprise!).

I hate SUVs, malls, network TV, every movie on at the local theater looks like mindless crap. I am not a nationalist. I do not have a 'Support our Troops' sticker on my nonexistent car. I don't want an Escalade or Kate Spade purse or diamond engagement ring. Ever. I don't eat fast food.

Am I middle class?

What does that really mean anymore?