Does the class system still exist in the UK?

[Bald Rick]

I think the three class system is still very much alive and kicking. You need look no further than the present 'government'....J Rees-Mogg for example!

He’s in a Class of his own (and not a good one)

The threshold for students who have graduated recently is £27,295. Median graduate salary is apparently £25k according to https://www.hesa.ac.uk/news/16-06-2022/graduate-outcomes-data-statistics-201920
So half of graduates won’t be earning enough to start repaying immediately.

The next aspect is that repayments are means tested, you’re only paying 9% of salary above the threshold. So it’s not like paying off a normal loan where you have to find £X every month regardless of salary. It comes off automatically so you don’t have an issue where you‘ve already spent it before it’s due.

The student loan doesn’t appear on your credit file, so it’s not a debt like others. The only aspect that will matter if applying for a mortgage etc. is when they ask about monthly outgoings to check affordability it will be there.

also for any students with loans up to this year, they are written off after 30 years, regardless of how much has been paid back.

For students from this year, that becomes 40 years.

 

[D6130]

He’s in a Class of his own (and not a good one)

The question is....was his nanny middle class or working class?

 

[Bald Rick]

The question is....was his nanny middle class or working class?

I bet “she knew her place”

 

[ABB125]

I bet “she knew her place”

 

[westv]

If there are still classes, then there are four.
Middle class is split between upper and lower.

 

[zero]

If you are going to pay off your student loans before they get written off, you should pay them off as quickly as possible.
If not, you shouldn't.
The problem is knowing whether you are likely to pay them off.

 

[Wynd]

We have a monarchy, not only does it still exist, its perpetuated and ruthlessly reinforced by the prevailing narrative of what it means to be "British".

Adherence to this system however, is now more optional than it once was.
The age of deference is over.

The modern class system is now defined by wealth.

 

[bib]

There was the Great British Class Survey which I remember seeing in the news a while ago (ok a decade ago), they divided it up into 7 new classes.

Great British Class Survey finds seven social classes in UK

Old model of working, middle and upper classes makes way for tiers ranging from 'precariat' to 'elite' based on economic, social and cultural indicators

www.theguardian.com

 

[westv]

If you are going to pay off your student loans before they get written off, you should pay them off as quickly as possible.
If not, you shouldn't.
The problem is knowing whether you are likely to pay them off.

I would imagine that in a lot of instances you would be better off keeping the money.
If you lose your job you don't have to repay the "tax" but the bills still have to be or it might help to improve your deposit on a house.

 

[GS250]

There are still elements of the class system present in the UK. However I think these days, divides are rapidly becoming based on which side of the political spectrum your PUBLIC persona correlates with.

 

[Bald Rick]

I think the distinction between the classes could be simplified as:

Working class: you get your hands dirty at work
Middle class: you don’t get your hands dirty at work
Upper class: you don’t work

(obviously exceptions to this, and applying to people of working age only!)

 

[Yew]

If you are going to pay off your student loans before they get written off, you should pay them off as quickly as possible.
If not, you shouldn't.
The problem is knowing whether you are likely to pay them off.

Why so? I understand there is interest, but how is that valued against the opportunity cost, and the risk of a significant change of circumstances.

 

[birchesgreen]

I think the distinction between the classes could be simplified as:

Working class: you get your hands dirty at work
Middle class: you don’t get your hands dirty at work
Upper class: you don’t work

(obviously exceptions to this, and applying to people of working age only!)

So a civil engineer taking home 50K is working class and someone in an office job on 21k is middle class? I see.

 

[GS250]

So a civil engineer taking home 50K is working class and someone in an office job on 21k is middle class? I see.

I agree with this. Hence my example of Dave the Sun reading self employed plumber on 60k and Tabitha the degree educated School Librarian on less than half of that.

 

[westv]

So a civil engineer taking home 50K is working class and someone in an office job on 21k is middle class? I see.

I don't think income is a consideration anyway.

 

[507020]

I remember reading an article a few years ago which stated that while the traditional class system no longer exists, classes certainly still do and one of the new classes it proposed was the “New Affluent Workers” who have done well for themselves in the 21st century, but possess absolutely zero knowledge of Classics or Greco-Roman mythology having not received a traditional upper-middle class education.

I now suspect this may purely have been capitalist propaganda. Post-Covid, the way those such as Mick Lynch are able to evoke an owning class, which very much still exists, has very much opened my eyes to it.

The purpose of shareholding and then dividends were originally (e.g. at the time when the railways were built and the system was functioning healthily) that the upper and middle classes with the means to would provide the capital to make something happen to the benefit of all and then receive a return on their investment.

Today, shareholders are simply rentiers who contribute nothing, with investment either provided by the taxpayer, or no investment being made at all. While these people exist and hold a controlling stake in our society’s assets, a class system inherently exists within it. Margaret Thatcher’s vision of “popular capitalism” seems only to have perpetuated a variation of a class system in the most damaging way and we must urgently pursue again the common ownership of our industries.