Middle Class, was: Weasley Economics: POOR BABY NAPTIME

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston) <catlady@wicca.net>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51946

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Steve <bboy_mn at y...>" 
<bboy_mn at y...> wrote:

> So, I agree the Weasley's aren't poor but they leagues away from
> being rich, and they are a long way short of middle class. At best,
> they are lower to middle lower/working class.

This is a digression from your point (with which I agree), but even 
in USA, social class is not SOLELY a matter of income and wealth, and 
everyone says that in Britain social class is even less based on 
income.

An example I commonly use for USA is suppose that a lower-class 
person suddenly gets many millions of dollars, maybe earned as an 
athlete or pop singer, or maybe won in a Lottery. The person remains 
uneducated, still speaks a lower-class dialect, still drinks cheap 
beer and smokes cheap cigarettes and hangs out with lower-class 
friends, spends a lot on money on clothes and cars but they are 
VULGAR, TACKY expensive clothes and cars, still doesn't make any 
plan to invest some of that money for the future ... just because 
the person is (temporarily) upper-income, does that make them 
upper-class?

The Weasleys are an example of the other case, people whose income is 
lower than their social class. I imagine they're exactly middle-
class, because they have the middle-class virtues: valuing education 
as a way of getting ahead in society, punctuality and keeping a 
schedule, ambition to work one's way up the career ladder, planning 
ahead especially financially --- look at Fred and George planning 
their joke shop! They're already planning how to get enough capital 
to start a small business, selling to their school friends and 
investing (gambling) on that bet with Bagman...  That is every bit as 
middle-class (petit bourgeois, as in "how bourgeois of you" or "pour 
epater le bourgeoisie") as Molly's efforts to plan her sons' careers.

I think Arthur grew up in better financial circumstances than he 
lives now. I think he had a lot of brothers and sisters, and 
dividing the family inheritance among them left none of them with 
enough independent income to supplement those puny Ministry salaries. 
In USA, that would be a good way for Arthur's children (and any of 
his nephews and neices whose parents had Ministry jobs) to grow up in 
the same social class as their neighbors in the low-income housing, 
i.e. lower-middle, working, or lower class, but it is said that 
things work differently in Britain. Anyway, the Weasleys show no 
signs of associating with their neighbors, regardless of social class.