It is also irksome to me that the NY Times would even try and parse us out into classes rather than trying to bring people together. They obviously haven’t taken home the lesson of increased popularity in Twitter and other social media. People want to be brought together as a community, not divided up into classes.

For example, in some classes it’s acceptable for people to shout at each other or to use certain kinds of unprintable language. In others, it’s not that shouting or bad language doesn’t exist, but it’s the exception to the rule and if it happens, something bad is going on. Also, given an unlimited supply of money, people from different classes make different choices about what to wear, how to decorate the home, whether they will work, etc.

Simply making a person wealthy (or taking all his or hear wealth away) does not give the person courtesy or consideration if they lack it. Nor will it take away the ingrained habits of a lifetime.

What amazed me is that while my job and education put me in upper middle, my income (by my choice I earn very little) puts me in lower middle. And then – it amazed me that ANYONE WITH OVER $100,000 in Net worth is in the TOP FIFTH!!!??? Doesn’t take much these days to be in the top 5th then! So guess it doesn’t matter that my income is in the lower bracket as long as my net worth is in the Top Fifth…. I have always felt that net worth was a better indicator than income. Of course, I feel that way due to my frugal nature

Seems like there are too many factors that are not taken into account – and it doesn’t really matter to me anyway what others think It was interesting and thought provoking to look at tho – thanks for the link!

Well said. I never thought about this concept of “class fate” but it makes sense.

As we focus on putting on label on ourselves, we kind of reinforce it….don’t we?

I imagine the the aristocracy of old are the people who invented these concepts to keep themselves above us all…

However, my family is well-clothed, well-fed and well-sheltered so I think we are well-classed.

@Neal: I actually agree with you, and was hoping readers would sort of come to that conclusion without me going into a rant (you probably saw rant warning signs throughout!). Thanks for doing some of it for me.

After looking at the tool more I really think its design is to support a theory that mobility up and down is somewhat out of our hands. Which is to say we don’t control at least some of our own destiny. I don’t subscribe to that line of thinking.

Sure, we can all be dealt bad luck, but the fact we are free to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and become a success in spite of our circumstances is what makes us great.

It’s interesting to note which class we are in on one hand, yet it could be harmful to focus on. (I know you aren’t focusing on it of course…)

I see the problem even thinking about it is that it puts (at least me) in a competitive state. “He’s upper upper middle and I’m only middle class” or whatever.

Other than letting us see how we fare against others, what’s the use of it? And if we spend any energy comparing ourselves to others, it’s gong to be a losing game.

FWIW