XPost: phl.media, pa.politics   
   From: artclemons@aolSPAM.com   
      
   Karen Y Byrd wrote:   
      
   > It's fairer, to those academicians, to assign a plumber to the middle   
   > class based on income. But a plumber is and always will be   
   > blue collar and working class. There's more to what defines   
   > "class" than income. You know perfectly well, that practically   
   > speaking, that's true.   
      
   The problem though is that plumbers, electricians and the like not only live   
   in neighborhoods associated with being middle class but their offspring   
   likely also attend the same schools that the rest of the middle class   
   attend.  Their spending and behavioral patterns usually can't be   
   distinguished from the more traditional middle-class employment patterns.   
   In fact, I suggest that basing class on type of employment isn't a   
   particularly good idea.  Does that mean that a clerk at walmart is lower   
   class while one at Nordstrom's is middle class?  I suggest income and   
   behavior are the only two valid means of separating classes.   
      
   The US lacks a rigid lower and middle-class structure, we're in fact seeing   
   slippage by many of the offspring of the old middle class into jobs that   
   can't support a middle class lifestyle.   
      
   Finally may I suggest that those folks with McMansions and the like aren't   
   striving to be middle class either.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)