A guide to the white upper middle class (cure obsession #32)

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I'd like to find such a book, if it exists. Even better would be a book that talks in detail about all the classes and major groups in America and discusses their thought process, values, and what they consider important. Also, what they are interested in.

I think if I had an inside scoop on how white middle class people think and took some acting classes, I could probably pass as total NT and have a great career.

Would you like to know the top 10 distinctions between millionaires and the middle class? There's a book for that. Click on the link.

Millionaire's Book

Would this hypothetical guidebook include people who are multiracial (presuming they have some white)? If not, I could purchase a guide to compare my "white side" with my "Asian side" and determine where my "Ashkenazi side" fits in. This would be fun...

all my life I've stumbled from one situation to another with no real clue or insight into anything, rather like a deer in the headlights more often than not. so I suspect the people who are successful in life [IOW upper classes] are the exact opposite of that, they have practically perfect presence of mind at all times and religiously follow a playbook of success, not a destination but a journey.

This book may be THE guide you are looking for: http://www.amazon.com/Field-Guide-Earth ... 0615426190

I just tend to see each person as an individual, I avoid homogenous groups, I think they're in decline anyway. They've always given me more trouble than multicultural groups, and even when I manage understand their hive-mindedness, it usually just makes me dislike them. The best I could hope for is to be able to manipulate them, or wear some mask or other to seem to fit in, and I'm sure that would fill me with self-loathing and pain, because it wouldn't be me.

I am congenitally incapable of blending in.

A working definition of "Upper Middle Class" might be mostly white-collar professionals who not only have above-average personal incomes and advanced educational degrees, but also a higher degree of autonomy in their work. Typical professions for this class include lawyers, physicians, psychologists, certified public accountants, pharmacists, optometrists, stockbrokers, dentists, engineers, professors, architects, school principals, urban planners, civil service executives and civilian contractors.

In other words, the kind of people that you have to make an appointment to see.

DELINEATION OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC CLASS

*underclass= people under the socio-economic radar, IOW folk who are homeless/living with friends, living in some kind of shelter for people down on their luck, in DSHS-subsidized housing, on welfare or disability pension or with sporadic unskilled employment- generally struggling on the margins, with pervasive poverty of income as well as in ready access to cultural amenities.

*working class= lower middle class- semi-skilled worker bees in general- tradesman, janitors, mechanics, repairmen, sanitation workers, enlisted military members, aides of various stripes [home health/nursing/teachers' aides], LPNs, assembly-line workers, phone bank workers, sub-GS-09 civil servants, most salespeople- you get the picture. usually below 6-figure income. some of these folk have college degrees but they are not profiting from having them. most are "getting by" and some are fairly comfortable [with quasi-middle-class lifestyles such as the house and 2 cars], albeit with many dual-income families.

*the middle-middle class= working class folk [some with college degrees applicable to their field of work] who did exceptionally well [like successful commissioned salespeople], bachelors-level teachers and professors, social workers, RNs, supervisors of various stripes, semi-professionals such as specialist hospital technicians and journeyman tradesmen, military officers, post-GS-09 civil servants, small business people [mom and pop operation, for example], most professional musicians, and the like. the luckier/exceptionally talented among these folk may have incomes somewhat above $100k.

*upper-middle-class= professional class- people with professional/advanced university degrees/fellowships- doctors, lawyers, engineers of various stripes, especially those with a few decades in [with their student loans all paid off], administrators of various stripes, established [large-firm] business people, midlevel government officials, masters/doctoral-level educators. mostly 6-figure income.

*upperclass/overclass [leisure class]= show business/entertainment, artists with wealthy patrons, trust fund swells, rich families [old money], people who hit the jackpot in general [new money], government and corporate bigwigs - know what i mean? mostly well-educated, with university degrees the social rule rather than the exception. usually 6-figure [and above] income.