The upper middle class is distinguished from uppers and “top out-of-sights” by the fact that it earns most of its money in law, medicine, real estate, oil, shipping, and sometimes trade. Fussell’s social classes are categorized by how much money they have, how they make their money, how they are educated, their values, tastes, and style.Īmong the upper orders, the very rich, being born into and accustomed to wealth, take it for granted their lives are spent in elegant but inconspicuous consumption, while the upper classes, part of whose money is earned, are ostentatiously wealthy and acquisitive.
Neither the rich nor the unemployed work for a living. According to Fussell, the really affluent learned to conceal themselves and their wealth during the Depression and have continued to do so since the destitute are hidden away in welfare or correctional institutions. Extremes meet, so that the classes at the top and bottom of the social ladder are alike in being virtually invisible. Fussell’s nine hierarchical classes are: top out-of-sight, upper, upper middle, middle, high-prole, mid-prole, low-prole, bottom out-of-sight, and Class X-this last being the classless class to which Fussell assigns himself. Sociologists often adopt a five-part schema: upper, upper middle class, middle, lower middle class and lower. Such a tripartite division has served the British well enough for centuries. Ingenious as Fussell’s classification of the American social system is, it appears to derive from the perspective of an intellectual ivory tower rather than to emerge empirically out of experience.Īs Fussell says, it is usual to think of only three classes- upper, middle, and lower. Class is a provocative, entertaining, and nasty book it is bound to annoy many Americans who will find themselves caricatured in its pages.
A social and intellectual historian, Fussell appears to be one of those who habitually view others as types before seeing them as individuals. Nevertheless, Paul Fussell, who glares like a pugnacious bulldog from the back jacket of his Class: A Guide through the American Status System, insists that equality is a fable and that social class is a fact of American life indeed, he distinguishes as many as nine different socioeconomic strata. Rank and status are antithetical to the very idea upon which this nation was founded: that all men are created equal and endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Social class is a touchy topic anywhere in America it is more ticklish, for the United States prides itself on being a classless society. Class: A Guide Through the American Status System.
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