Working class towns/cities are awful, anyone agree?
I'm probably going over something you know, but, 'working class' is used because the people in that group must work (as in go to the factory/mine/plant etc) as against the person who owns the workplace and draws an income that far outways the value of the work they do. After that you've got a couple of gradations of income, property, types of work available (some lecturers, higher management, some executives, higher ranks of police and military etc)
It's strange that I always find those who aren't working class disavow any possibility of a class society prefering the terms 'the poor' and 'everyone else' or some such like, whereas those who are working class either state it openly or are trying their best to get out of it
(this often includes scrambling over one another).
Some of the nicest areas I have seen were upper middle or lower upper class.
Who's going to put money into a working class area when you can make more somewhere else? People in working class areas rarely have enough spare money to justify gentrification, no one can make profit from cafés and bars, museums etc if at all. My city has just tried this and with the recession already about 10% of the new shops, bars and coffee bars etc have closed down (after maybe 8-12 months at most) - there's no-one to patronise them!
You've been taught or you've known? I'd love to see this one argued. I can be rich and lower class? Sure I can be rich and a rude obnoxious charv (type of town centre hick or white trash), or poor and massively pretentious. Possibly we are dealing with two different definitions of class?
YEP, THAT was my point, TWO DIFFERENT definitions of class.
And I HAVE to work ALSO! HECK, I haven't had a vacation, or ERALLY even been home, for TWO YEARS! My LONGEST vacation, outside of one in 1989 was 2 weeks. In 1989 it was 3 weeks.
If I were at a minimum wage job, at least I would feel more free about losing it.
My last vacation was in August, 2001. It lasted four days and I spent my time helping someone move from one house to another.
My best vacation lasted about a week. I spent the week hanging around the old Math Department where I went to college. Talked to a lot of my profs and all the remaining grad students I still knew and attended some department seminars. It was a great vacation.
auntblabby
Veteran
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,700
Location: the island of defective toy santas
social intelligence [rather like a savant-like social shtick with generous helpings of ruthless bullyboy temperament] helps to put one atop one's local heap o'humanity. in my experience, raw general intelligence comes in a distant second 99% of the time. I discovered this in the army.
Sweetleaf
Veteran
Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 34,461
Location: Somewhere in Colorado
Their faces all went stone cold and one of them said "He looks like a f***ing Jew." Does that kind of thing happen everywhere?
I actually do not think that would happen here...
_________________
We won't go back.
Sweetleaf
Veteran
Joined: 6 Jan 2011
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 34,461
Location: Somewhere in Colorado
I tend to agree, though in my case I discovered that via general observation of humans and interactions with them...as well as some things I learned in college.
_________________
We won't go back.
Evil_Chuck
Velociraptor
Joined: 24 Aug 2014
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 494
Location: Lost in my thoughts.
The grass is always greener on the other side. A big city or a "charming" small town isn't necessarily any better for us than a working-class neighborhood. Class does make some kind of difference in that I feel more comfortable around people who resemble my low-key middle-class family. I don't like rich snobs, but I'm okay with poor people if they have some common sense and regard for other human beings. I've always been poor myself, after all.
_________________
RAADS-R SCORE: 163.0
FUNNY DEATH METAL LYRICS OF THE WEEK: 'DEMON'S WIND' BY VADER
Clammy frog descends
Demon's wind, the stars answer your desire
Join the undead, that's the place you'll never leave
You wanna die... but death cannot do us apart...
Just personal preference, but my experience and preference is opposite the OP's. I grew up in a working class agricultural town, and in my post-high school years spent time living in a little college town in the mountains of Idaho, in an area dotted by little working class logging towns. The kind of towns where the phrase "They're shutting down the mill" strikes utter dread into the hearts of everyone in the town, and in some cases causes the town to dry up altogether.
Today I live in the middle of the largest, most affluent, and most densely populated and most culturally and economically diverse area in the nation - Southern California. Home is a nice little family town on the edge of Orange County, work is in the belly of the beast in Los Angeles. There are things I do like about it, but for the purposes of topics being discussed here, I hate it. It is absolute hell on my ASD. The constant stimulation, crowds, and complete inability to be alone anywhere puts me on sensory overload 100% of the time. Having to constantly manage interfacing with multiple diverse ethnicities and cultures does as well, possibly even moreso. I'm constantly stimmed out here, even in the relatively quiet areas.
In the working class towns back home, there is 1) a lot less to manage socially, as you typically do have one "type" to interact with so the social rules are easier, and 2) wayyy more opportunity to get out alone and away from the sensory overload. I was much much more at peace in those areas than I ever am here.
_________________
AQ Score 42
RAADS-R Score 158.0
Bergen Burnout Inventory Score 24
Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 112 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 129 of 200
You seem to have both neurodiverse and neurotypical traits
Bushmaster
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 6 Jun 2016
Gender: Male
Posts: 53
Location: Middle of Nowhere
it depends on the location of the town and the people who inhabit it.
_________________
Jacoby
Veteran
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Age: 32
Gender: Male
Posts: 14,284
Location: Permanently banned by power tripping mods lol this forum is trash
Yes, the rust belt and anywhere that has been left to decline for 40+ years are almost all universally pretty awful places. Is anywhere good? I dunno, probably if you have money but being poor in these cities is worst than anything. Gotta go where the growth and the money is while still being somewhat affordable.
Biscuitman
Veteran
Joined: 11 Mar 2013
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,665
Location: Dunking jammy dodgers
I am also quite fascinated by class. I think it is putting people into boxes that interests me.
I am from Reading which I see as historically very working class but now benefits from being in the centre of the UK's 'silicon valley'. I.T companies everywhere and a 30 minutes train ride from London so working class no more. My dad was a factory worker from the age of 14 with a very rough and dubious past and my mum a local supermarket worker so my upbringing was very much in line with working class but as a grown up myself and my siblings are very much living the middle class life as the location and employment opportunities offer that. Feels weird 'betraying' your class.
auntblabby
Veteran
Joined: 12 Feb 2010
Gender: Male
Posts: 113,700
Location: the island of defective toy santas
most of my life I've lived in working class circumstances in working class places. I am what the middle-class snobs refer to as "from the wrong side of the tracks." and the upper class looks down on us all, especially the middle-class brown-nosers who naively want to join the upper class. the working class town I live in, has the basics and no more. no real culture unless you can call rustic nature culture. one [much smaller] side of town [on a plateau near a lake] is populated mainly by rich fundies, and on the other side [the valley next to the freeway] are working poor or underclass. there are artsy-fartsy stores downtown, many shuttered due to the main employer going titty-up- and a safeway store that the rich ones shop at [their prices are too GD high but they sell fancier food], a wally world for everybody else. I've lived here since 2008, I moved here when I determined I couldn't afford to live anywhere else that didn't require driving forever to get anyplace. it's home, for better or worse.
Similar Topics | |
---|---|
Anybody working from home in tech field |
28 Feb 2024, 9:59 am |
People working out inspire me but doesn't get me into a gym |
08 Mar 2024, 5:13 pm |
Feel bad that I didn't start working at 16, 17 or 18 |
27 Mar 2024, 4:20 pm |
Google Chrome No Longer Working |
15 Apr 2024, 9:00 am |