By Miniver Cheevy
A friend of mine was just alluding to Paul Fussell’s book Class: A Guide Through the American Status Systems. I found a list of Fussell’s categories, and they’re interesting.
Top Out of Sight — Billionaires and multi-millionaires. The people so wealthy they can afford exclusive levels of privacy. We never hear about them because they don’t want us to.
Upper Class — Millionaires, inherited wealth. Those who don’t have to work. They refer to tuxes as “dinner jackets.”
Upper Middle — Wealthy surgeons and lawyers, etc. Professionals who couldn’t be described as middle class. I suspect this is the class to which I, an engineer, am supposed to aspire.
Middle Class — The great American majority, sort of.
High Proletarian (or “prole”) — Skilled workers but manual labor. Electricians, plumbers, etc. Probably not familiar with the term “proletarian.”
Middle Prole — Unskilled manual labor. Waitresses, painters. (In other words, my mom and dad!)
Low Prole — Non-skilled of a lower level than mid prole. I suspect these people ask “Would you like fries with that, sir?” as a career.
Destitute — Working and non-working poor.
Bottom Out of Sight — Street people, the most destitute in society. “Out of sight” because they have no voice, influence or voter impact. (They don’t vote.)
That’s more slices than in Ruby K. Payne’s terrific A Framework for Understanding Poverty, which is a chaotic but insightful book that does a a simple split into only upper, middle, and lower classes that is really illuminating about the cultural elements of class, especially around “common knowledge.”
I have seen a flyer circulated which summarizes Payne’s system:
