I'm an emergent service worker? Balls to that. You can tell this test is stupid because it has a L thing instead of a $ and it says "lorry" on more than one occasion.

The test is ridiculous. Having said that, how is it a 'slur' to be established middle class?

"The test is ridiculous. Having said that, how is it a 'slur' to be established middle class?"
.... because I come from proud working class roots.

Indeed, Nigs, and in the days when the working class was proper working class there is little they would have wanted more than the idea that their children and children's children would be lifted out of the God awful life they had to endure. Don't be too quick to chuck that back in the faces.

You're middle class, and you're there in no small part because of the hard work of your ancesters. Never be ashamed of who you are.

(well... unless you're a complete tit... then you can be a bit ashamed ;) )

I am emergent service class. If I purchase a house, I will become middle class. This is because I know a solicitor and a scientist socially, and enjoy rap music and visiting museums. Seems legit

Don't know about you guys but I got Technical middle class and that seems highly accurate to me. I have no complaints.
Thing is it's pointless as in this day and age who is going to bother learning a 7 class system?

I agree with Hereward, the test is just stupid. It asks far too few questions to actually build up a proper profile of you, and the questions it does ask seem to contain a great deal of bias. Poor show.

@ Jamie

How many questions do you need? It basically asks how much money you have and what social circles you move in, which is all that class is. The whole 7 divisions lark is a tad silly, but they have to do stuff like that to get headlines.

I took it to see where I would fall in Brit society. I guess your established middle (where I fell) is what we Amurcans call upper middle. I have the income but the home value and the savings amount are not enough to be your Elite. (125K US home value and less than 15K in savings not counting retirement accounts). I guess my diverse range of interests, including classical, jazz, and rock music and the theater and concert going plus having a group of social friends that vary from teachers to a CEO of an SMB contributed to keeping out of the Elite class. Just as well. I wouldn't give up my friends for *any* social standing in the world. They are all great.

And yes, I converted all my US dollar to British pound equivalents by cutting them to two thirds (15K became 10K so the 0K-10K savings for instance).

@ Draug

It doesn't work like that. The Elites/Toffs/Upper classes can be friends with anyone. Having a drink with the local mechanic at the pub doesn't rule you out :p

So mine is purely because of savings and house value and maybe interests?

I filled the thing in with a huge income/savings and the rest as though I was walmart white trash and I still got "elite."

Clearly elite means money and money only in this survey.

They really need a more comprehensive interests and friends occupations. I have a cop friend (actually an air marshall), an umpire brother who used to be a cop, a fireman friend, a Marine Staff Seageant who is a friend, my choir director is a reitred opera singer who toured throughout Europe and did a lot of opera in germany as he loves Mozart almost as much as me, a psychologist and a physician and several other highly educated individuals (a couple of biological and chemical scientists with PhDs) and more.

Yep. It may also be because of UK/US cultural differences, to some extent. A 125 thousand dollars would just about buy you the cheapest and most humble home on the market in most of the UK. You're talking an old one bedroom mid-terrace house in a shitty part of town. The sort of home you could get for that in the US, on the other hand, is rather pleasent.

Well, if you flip burgers at McDonald's and have no money in the bank, you sure as hell aren't going to be considered "elite" no matter what music you listen to and who you claim to pal around with. Not sure why "elite" being tied to income is such a stretch of the imagination.

@OCT - 125K will buy you anywhere from a large house with acreage to a tiny apartment you share with someone, depending on where you live. Rural - nice house and land. New York, LA, etc you'll get shit for that.

@Oct - 53 year old brick three bedroom two bath "ranch" (which means single main living floor) with finished basement and add on family room on 2/3rds of an acre in greater Cincinnati. So yeah, a decent home for $125k and you can get just as nice on a smaller lot for under $100k (about 65k pounds).

@Krellin - Don't think the issue was that having money put you into the elite, but that other things didn't also play into it. You could win the lottery and be a multi millionare but still be a beer swilling NASCAR watching former blue collar worker with no education (maybe having not even graduated high school) and you would rank as Elite on that poll.

Yeah... In the UK if you live where I used to in a small mining town in the middle of nowhere, $125k will buy you a ground floor flat. You'd struggle to get a house... even in really grotty areas

@Octavious: Yorkshire, perhaps? You and your coal mining friends?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPSzPGrazPo

According to the survey I'm a member of the established middle class. Seems they let anyone in now.

@Draug - "You could win the lottery and be a multi millionare but still be a beer swilling NASCAR watching former blue collar worker with no education"

I guess it all depends on your definition of "elite". If I had millions, and in my day-to-day life was still a beer-swilling, Nascar watching hill-billy....but I *could* at a moment's notice decide to jet off on vacation, and I *could* grease the palm of my local official to get the road repaved in front of my trailer and I *could* drop a dime on the high school to get the dance named after my daughter and I *could*...etc...then I am elite.

I don't think elite necessary says what you are doing - it is more about what you *could* do if you had the ambition to do so.

Otherwise, there are plenty of people that used to be elite through the connections and activities that are no longer elite, because they have fallen into a life of inclusiveness...but they could emerge on a moments notice if they wanted, and thus I think they are still elite.

Elite, to me therefore, means that being a beer-swilling Nascar watching hillbilly is now a choice, instead of an in-bred fate...

told me i'm an emergent service worker, based apparently on the fact that i like all types of music and have a variety of friends, and no money.

i suppose it's accurate, though i don't if i'm "emerging" from anything or will be doing so.

on that note i am actually a little confused by the "who are your friends" one...

Are social relationships really that class-segregated? The set of my friends ranges from a guy making $100k out of undergrad and a single mom with two kids working at Taco Cabana. They know each other. The class difference is obviously palpable but never stopped us from all being friends with each other.

I mean I guess it does matter. Most of my friends are obviously university students, which is a kind of class for sure.

"So yeah, a decent home for $125k and you can get just as nice on a smaller lot for under $100k (about 65k pounds)."

Wow. Real estate where you are is much better vale than Melbourne. You cannot buy a house anywhere in any condition for that money. The suburb I live in St Kilda (not upmarket), 200K might buy you a studio apartment. 300-400k a small one bedroom apartment.
Australian houses are so over-priced.

I nearly bought a building plot on re-claimed land in Mandurah for about £130k when the exchange rate was A$3.13 = £1, how much would that be worth now?

I don't know Mandurah. It's in Western Australia. House prices over there are particularly high because of the mining boom. How many years ago? If it was 2005 or earlier you would have more than doubled your money by now.

2003 - Mandurah was lovely then, I think it might be a bit more crowded by now since the train link from Perth. Every back garden has a jetty

@ people throwing the word "elite" around:

Being "elite" isn't just about money, you also need to know all the secret hand-shakes and have a key to the secret back door of the great pyramid where the illuminati and Ron Paul meet to discuss the gold standard. Hasn't blankflag taught you anything.

... actually it looks like Mandurah has slumped recently. This time last year the median unit price was 600K now it is more like 275K. Although that drop seems rather extreme. I haven't heard of anywhere else going down by that much. It is now the second most affordable suburb in WA.

ANNUIT COEPTIS!

We're you living in Western Australia Nigee? You you live in England now is that right. You're a Brit?

Stupid iPad autocorrect...

Yes but me and the Mrs seriously considered emigrating in 2003.
We both visited Western Australia in the mid-90's and loved it, 8 years later it was a building site down the West Coast, that dual carriageway from Fremantle down to Albany was wholly inadequate. I'd hate to think how they are coping now unless they widened it to 3 lanes.

You should have seen how it used to be getting in and out of the Florida Keys or getting across Tampa Bay. One lane bridges each way at one time that, if there was an accident, the tow vehicles had to come in the wrong way to get them out and traffic would get backed up all the way back to the previous island in the Keys or back to Tampa or StPete over Tampa Bay. But that was >25years ago when I was consulting in Florida right out of college. I don't know what they are like today.