Toadfish Monastery

Open Water => Miscellaneous Discussion => Topic started by: Griffin NoName on April 04, 2013, 06:29:54 AM

Title: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Griffin NoName on April 04, 2013, 06:29:54 AM
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22000973

If I put in my salary before I got ill, before I retired, I come out as "Elite" - which is pretty much what I expected

If I put in exactly the same details, but my pension income, I come out as "Traditional Working Class" which is defintely wrong.

Since many reasonable earners end up with pitiful pensions, this is quite irritating. I don't change class because I am a pensioner, or do I???

Why do I care? I am British !!
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Sibling DavidH on April 04, 2013, 09:54:55 AM
It makes me traditional working class.  This is bilge, though I'm in no way ashamed of my working-class roots.  This type of test is IMO generally rubbish dreamed up by some second-class writer desperate to fill their allotted slot.
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Opsa on April 04, 2013, 04:01:39 PM
I am an American- I have no class!  :mrgreen:
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Aggie on April 04, 2013, 05:59:20 PM
Technical working class, if I put in my old rate of pay, emergent service worker if I put in my current one.  Both fit as a job-based descriptors for those periods of my life.

Based on the graphical representations, I 'look' most like a precariat with a suspicious savings account. 

I got a laugh at the very small range of professions listed for people you know socially.  I lost class points for ticking 'farm worker', which I found funny because the farm worker friend I had in mind is an ex-chartered psychologist. ;)

Get your head out of your class, Britain! ;)
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on April 05, 2013, 02:42:42 PM
The fact of the concept of class still being peddled even by the Beeb is IMHO a very worrisome sign, a chaste system isn't desirable even if it is possible for individuals to move [up] during their lifetimes.

Established Middle Class...  ::)
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Aggie on April 05, 2013, 06:09:14 PM
Quote from: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on April 05, 2013, 02:42:42 PM
The fact of the concept of class still being peddled even by the Beeb is IMHO a very worrisome sign, a chaste system isn't desirable even if it is possible for individuals to move [up] during their lifetimes.

A chaste system would be OK; I presume that's a system where the lower classes aren't constantly getting f*cked by our overlords? ;)
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Bluenose on April 05, 2013, 10:43:27 PM
This country has probably as close to a classless society as you can get. No one here thinks that they are in any way inferior to any one else. Sure, there are a few exceptions but you would be hard pressed to find anyone that didn't think for example that their opinion want as good as that of, say, the prime minister. A sure fire way to be ridiculed here is to try to set yourself up as being better than any one else.  Attempts have been made a couple of times in our 200 odd years of history to establish an aristocracy here, but these have met with a spectacular lack of success.

Elite.   ;)
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Lindorm on April 07, 2013, 11:29:29 PM
While this latest test might be open to discussion when it comes to it's methods and conclusions, I would consider it naive to the extreme to completely disregard the existence of class and inequality.
Title: Re: Take the Great British class calculator check
Post by: Sibling Zono (anon1mat0) on April 07, 2013, 11:51:41 PM
One thing is to disregard class and the other is to peddle it as if it were something desirable.