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vijayjohn wrote:I'm actually not sure. I guess the reason why I chose middle class is because that's what I've always heard from my parents that we were.
vijayjohn wrote:Also, if I understand correctly how UniLang polls work, even if I was wrong, there's no way I can go back and change that in the poll now that I've already submitted a vote.
linguoboy wrote:I've often joked that everyone in the US considers themselves "middle class" to the point where the term almost has no meaning. The term doesn't have the same negative connotations as it does in British English. (We use other words to sneer at middle-class people like "bourgeois" or "bougie", "liberal", and even "White".) On the other hand, there doesn't seem to be a "working class" identity here--at least not like what you find in the UK and Ireland. Americans, as the saying goes, are divided into the "rich" and the "soon-to-be-rich".
Actually, that's not true: there's an option which allows you to change your vote, but it seems most poll-creators just let it default to "no". I chose to allow this in case people wanted to change their mind on account of the ensuing discussion.
mōdgethanc wrote:According to them, upper middle class means highly educated professionals like doctors, lawyers and architects.
linguoboy wrote:[Poll categories are based on the social structure of the United States and may be limited in their applicability elsewhere. As always, you may elaborate on your answer in comments.]
That may be so, but in general, doctors, lawyers and pharmacists are highly paid here, which makes sense given the education required for those professionals. Nurses are highly paid because they're in the healthcare field and Western countries are full of dying old people who need constant care. I've often wondered how it would affect their wages if they had to compete with men for their jobs instead of the profession being 90% women.linguoboy wrote:This equation of "highly education professional" with "wealthy" always amuses me, because my father never once earned more than my mother even though he practiced as an attorney and she was "only" a nurse. There's a huge difference between being the kind of legal professional my father was (a small town lawyer) and the kind my friend BigBones is (an international patent attorney).
I thought you were an engineer or something.loqu wrote:Working class here.
Lada wrote:linguoboy wrote:[Poll categories are based on the social structure of the United States and may be limited in their applicability elsewhere. As always, you may elaborate on your answer in comments.]
This is not applicable for Russia as workers may earn more than people with high education because all the country is highly educted and there's lack of those who can mend something or simply work at factories.
mōdgethanc wrote:Nurses are highly paid because they're in the healthcare field and Western countries are full of dying old people who need constant care. I've often wondered how it would affect their wages if they had to compete with men for their jobs instead of the profession being 90% women.
Saim wrote:"Upper-class" is a different thing to "rich"?
Here at least, engineering is probably the most highly paid profession where the only education needed is a bachelor's degree. Nevertheless, engineers love to brag about how incredibly difficult their program is and how important and well-paid their job is, which has earned them a reputation for arrogance that probably doesn't exist in other countries. You'd think the job was practically equivalent to a PhD from them.loqu wrote:I am an engineer indeed. But coming from a working class family, I don't own any property and I depend exclusively on my work. If I lost my job I'd be in serious trouble since I don't have any relatives to support me.
Based on my profession you could consider me 'upper working class' if such a thing could exist, but I don't qualify for middle class.
(Apart from that, engineers don't earn THAT much here)
mōdgethanc wrote:Nevertheless, engineers love to brag about how incredibly difficult their program is and how important and well-paid their job is, which has earned them a reputation for arrogance that probably doesn't exist in other countries. You'd think the job was practically equivalent to a PhD from them.
I'm talking about North America in general here. I don't know about other countries. Likewise, I don't know if other stereotypes like the greedy, unethical lawyer and the rude, arrogant doctor exist in other countries (though I wouldn't be surprised if they did).vijayjohn wrote:I thought that reputation existed here, too.
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