Social class
· Social grouping: most people mix socially with the same kind of people as their work colleagues, and usually live in streets or neighbourhoods. · Movement between classes: many people move from one category to another during their working lives. · Class in Britain is not entirely dependent on money: people can be high class and poor, or low class and rich. · Marriage outside one’s class is much more common than it used to be, though, generally people seek marriage partners within their own social group.
· The élite of society: the ‘gentry’ class (landowners, and others who move in the most exclusive English social circles) - children educated privately; a better academic education than in state-funded schools; a sense of social superiority. · The ‘top’ 1 per cent: enormous influence and control; probably own about one-quarter of the nation’s wealth < inheritance spread around the family to minimise the effects of taxation. · Opinion polls since 1964: ‘There used to be a lot of talk in politics about the ‘class struggle’. Do you think there is a class struggle in this country?’ In 1964 48 per cent thought so, in 1995 the figure was 81 per cent >; the increasing disparity between rich and poor in Britain.
|
