The Nearly Haves

KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES

We all want to fit in. That's why we mostly say, wear and are keen to be seen mixing in the right circles. 

The clothes we wear, the places we frequent and even the beverages we drink, are all measures of who we are and our actions often subconsciously taken to help secure our desired places within society. 

The class system is one way that society measures our status. If conveniently tries to form us into a demographic that we can be identified being in. It's not an accurate or even humane way to classify groups of people - and that's the way it's been for years. That model is essentially the model for deciding 'the have's and the have not's'.

In the UK, we have come to resent the working class and demonising them to the lowest ranks of citizen. They are often now referred to as chavs. 

This kicking of the working classes has come about due to a change in the types of jobs available in the UK. As manufacturing has taken a move to countries with abundant cheap labour, the remaining manual jobs are mostly unskilled and therefore low paid. 

In the scramble away from lower income or no jobs, we all try and move 'up' into a more prosperous demographic called 'middle class'. This class grade is essentially the new working class and those aiming to be seen as true 'middle-class' fervently try and ascribe themselves as the 'upper-middle class' or as close to the privilged 'upper-classes' as they can.

Working class status merely appears to be given to any of those in a paid manual job. And, as I've seen from doing manual work recently, it tends to be a lot lower paid than the computer-driven sedentary office type jobs - likely because it's seen as less cerebral. This shouldn't really be the case because work is work right? An hour of emails in an office should be no more valuable than one hour of painting a wall or fixing a car. In fact the reverse appears to be true. So there needs to be much more balance in the pay packets. Because, there's one clear distinction in our aspirational class system between the upper and the so-called working classes - and it boils down to money. 

We are all trying to move away from the lower paid jobs (or benefits support) that our working classes are lumbered with and this is because we want the trappings that money brings. We want to be seen to have enough money for the holidays, cars and house extensions as a status symbol for demonstrating to other's that we're further away from the bottom rungs of society. 

Therefore, we continually compete with our friends and neighbours to stay ahead of the curve. This creates a cold elitist type of mindset which alienates not only those people that are seen as 'lower' classes but also pits us against everyone seen to be in the 'competition' for these privileged places. The phenomenon is witnessed in any establishment that we visit where the prices are way above what we are normally paying for. There's a reason why we are here instead of the sumptuous, friendly BYO, family run Italian/Greek/Lebanese/etc place down the road. We're keeping up appearances. I particularly dislike eating in any restaurant where the food fails to resemble food anymore, doesn't fill you up and costs more for one course than I'm used to paying for a week's shop for two in the supermarket. But we tend to hang out in these establishments with our set of friends that talk too much about increased house prices in their street. It's probable that they don't want to eat in the cheaper eateries for fear of being seen as poor. If you find yourself in one of these 'premier' haunts, look around and you'll see lot's of 'wannabe's' sneering back at you. There appears to be some kind of illusion, where we kid ourselves and anyone else who cares to look on - that we have somehow 'made it'. 

How much money we earn will determine what car we drive - in itself, a massive statement for displaying financial wealth. Also what postcode, street or size of house (we pay massive mortgages on) will determine where we are placed amongst our contemporaries. 

In today's UK market place, the differences between someone living in a small-medium sized house in the more central parts of London and someone with a similar sized property in the suburbs, is often substantial in terms of money - usually a few hundred thousand pounds separates the haves and have nots. However, the larger and more desirable parts of London have now been taken over by those few who are in the upper echelons - who have made house prices so ridiculously high, we consequently have a knock-on effect that ripples all the way down to the regular folk, who now can't even afford the suburban properties any more. 

This bun-fight to keep ourselves in the middle classes set, is making everyone work harder, longer hours under increasingly stressful conditions - and for what gain? A new SUV that blocks the roads on a school run? A messy extension project that pushes up house prices while we live miserably in a bomb site for 6+ months - or a much needed holiday that we only start to really enjoy in the days before returning home to our over-priced bomb site and 50+ hour a week jobs.

There Is Another Way
If we can take a more sharing community approach, to better connect with our Joneses - maybe we can share rather than buy new cars, swap gardening tools, kids toys, clothes and help each other with the DIY etc. - creating a collaboration rather than competition. Then surely we'll all be much more free to enjoy sharing the fruits of our labour together.