How do you define Middle class? My wife and I have been debating this one of late. What does it mean to be Middle class in America? Is it a financial designation, a social one or something else?

I submit that middle class is part income and part values. As noted in the linked entry, "bourgeois values" account for at least part of the definition. I would argue, that's a big part. Upward mobility or at least, the desire for upward mobility (usually through education or other self-betterment) is a key component.

In my admittedly limited experience, lower class parents want their kids to do as they did. They do not want them to exceed their own achievements as that would diminish them somehow. One guy I went to college with was no longer on speaking terms with his father. His father resented that his son wanted to be better than him. Working the docks in Baltimore was supposed to be good enough and it was a job for a "real man" not going to college. I think they ultimately reconciled but there was a rift there. My parents, on the other hand, wanted us to achieve more than they did and hoped the trend would continue with each generation. In no way, can I understand the former view. To me, it's the product of insecurity and small mindedness.

However, income certainly plays a role. It's hard to classify someone in Section 8 housing as middle class no matter what their values may be (bourgoise or otherwise). How you dress, what you drive and what you do drive how people treat you. That is not news. How much it affects us we probably don't know until we step outside the norm once in a while. Put on a suit when you go to buy a car and you'll see how differently things go.

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