Middle Class, was: Weasley Economics: POOR BABY NAPTIME

[bluesqueak <pipdowns@etchells0.demon.co.uk>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51959


> --- 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.

> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince 
Winston) <catlady at w...>" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> 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.

Agreed. The Weasley's do NOT 'read' working class to me. I dunno if 
there is such a thing in the US, but in Britain, there is such a 
thing as 'genteel poverty'. This is where a person's income is lower 
than that expected for their social class. 
> 
<Snip>
> Catlady:
> 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! <Snip>

Another argument for 'middle class' is that Draco Malfoy refers to 
the Weasley's as 'riff raff'. He knows the Weasley family, that they 
tend to have too many kids, that they don't have a great deal of 
spare cash. *But* he doesn't seem to see them as the same social 
class as he is.

However, he's not as downright dismissive of the Weasley's as he is 
of Hagrid. Hagrid is a 'servant'. Draco doesn't even want to bother 
talking about him in PS/SS. The Weasley's rate higher than that. The 
Malfoys can 'notice' them.

> Catlady:
> 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.

Also possible, in the UK propertied classes, is that Arthur is 
a 'younger son'. It's an accepted custom *not* to divide the family 
inheritance equally, but to make sure the bulk of the land and 
property goes to the eldest boy (if you have enough land and 
property to bother about).

Younger sons grow up expecting to have to find a job and fend for 
themselves. The posher sections of the Civil Service would certainly 
be an acceptable job (ie Foreign Office rather than Vehicle 
Licencing).

Plus, the way it used to be, was that a 'good' name meant better 
promotion prospects. Molly comments in GoF that Arthur is 
being 'held back'. This may suggest that someone with the Weasley 
name should, in the WW, still expect better things.

Continuing with 'Arthur as a younger son':he could have inherited 
The Burrow. That's a small property which a landed family would be 
willing enough to pass on to a less-important son.

Catlady:
> 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. 

They do.'Middle class' is more a state of mind than an income level. 
Even living in social housing isn't necessarily any kind of pointer. 
The extremely high property prices in the UK means quite a lot of  
people in the 'freelance' sort of professions may be in social 
housing. Or find themselves there due to changes in circumstances.

The children would be brought up with middle class attitudes, aspire 
to higher education and middle class jobs, and would probably see 
themselves as middle class.

Working class friends? Yup. But they wouldn't see themselves as 
being of the same class, and neither would their friends.

Pip!Squeak