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Originally Posted by Ta'Samsca'Rial  Yes but education and personal wealth have nothing to do with class. Class is a social rank given by the rest of society based upon a persons aspirations and the resulting oppinions, choices and company they keep. |
Education and personal wealth have a -lot- to do with class. Class is a social rank given by society based on what a person does for a living, what type of house they live in, what type of car they drive, where their children go to school etc etc etc.
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Originally Posted by Ta'Samsca'Rial Someone who was going to be a doctor before having to put someone into full time care is not the same as someone who was going to be a factory worker despite going on to have superficially similar lives. They are different. They have different desires. They do different activities. They move in different circles with friends who have different beliefs and belong to differing classes. They make, due to their social enviroment, different choices in life. |
When someone is forced to become a full time carer for a relative, their desires, aspirations, chances in life, income, opportunities for socialisation with
anyone (let alone the circle of friends they've had for years) all change. They wind up moving in the same circle of people as every other carer of a person with the same infirmity/disability as the person they care for, and their old lives are largely swallowed up by the demands of the new. They become different people, and 99% of that old life, before they began caring, is no longer relevant. Not only do I speak from personal experience here, but many of the new friends I've made since my children were born and diagnosed have related similar experiences.
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Originally Posted by Ta'Samsca'Rial An aristocrat, for example, doesn't cease to be a member of the upper class if he has some bad luck that effects his personal fortune. He only ceases to be an upper class if he no longer concerns himself with matters associated with that class and likely ceases to interact with people of that class. |
An aristocrat generally never ceases to be an aristocrat, I'd agree with you there. But then the lifestyle comes down to your financial bracket in the first place, so I'm afraid that yet again, it comes down to money.
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Originally Posted by Ta'Samsca'Rial In the same way a proffesional top-flight footballer is hardly upper class despite earning more money than they could ever have imagined as a child. They don't suddenly take on the mindset and desires of the middle or upper class just because they have aquired money. |
Ok, example, David Beckham. From a small semi. Makes pots of money, now lives in a palatial home, drives big flash cars, has a trophy wife, wears designer labels and won't work for what would have passed for a wage if he'd kept to the aspirations and education his personal social circumstance of birth handed to him. I'd say that counts as the mindset and desires of an upper class person, personally.
As a final note to this, the word "Class" in this context derives from the sociological term "Socio-Economic Class", the dictionary definition of which is "People having the same social, economic, or educational status". Therefore education and personal wealth -do- have a lot to do with what class you are, or you're talking about a different type of class to me.
