I grew up lower middle class and then my dad got a new job and we moved to a far lower CoL area and we ended up in upper middle class of thereabouts. My friend group now is mostly people who grew up upper middle class. Some markers are like whether you went skiing as a child (if you didn’t grow up in CO/UT/etc.), whether you did travel sports in middle/high school, whether you went on vacations to places like Cancun as opposed to camping in the woods, whether you went to sleep-away summer camp as a kid. Cruises are a quintessential lower-class vacation. Another one seems to be money, whether you always pay attention to how much things cost. I don’t think frugality means lower class, but more like obsessing about prices and couponing etc. Whether you have a monetary safety net from your parents or just a place to stay type of safety net. Lower class people seem to be more into lottery and gambling too.
This isn’t politically correct, but weight and eating habits/comfort foods is also a class marker. Whether you like eating very fatty, processed foods. I suspect whether someone likes seafood if they didn’t grow up near a body of saltwater is a class marker too, but it’s very low n and confounded with being a picky eater.
Class by Paul Fussell is somewhat outdated but a good read, Scott Alexander has a good book review.
It seems like skiing is a “hereditary” class marker because it’s hard to learn how to do it as an adult, and you’re probably not going to take your kids skiing unless you yourself were taught as a kid, etc.
Skiing is an interesting one. I never thought about it in those terms since I grew up in Alaska where downhill skiing was relatively accessible (like CO/UT). I also wouldn’t be surprised if outdoor activities in general are correlated with class, even when they’re not necessarily expensive (e.g. hiking).
I also wouldn’t be surprised if outdoor activities in general are correlated with class, even when they’re not necessarily expensive (e.g. hiking).
Maybe it’s more how much leisure time it takes or usefulness they confer; for example hiking feels slightly more upper middle class, but camping feels ambiguous. Fishing is lower (middle) class. Golf is upper class, swimming in a lake/body of water near your house is ambiguous (maybe depends on if it’s a pool or just a river?)
I grew up lower middle class and then my dad got a new job and we moved to a far lower CoL area and we ended up in upper middle class of thereabouts. My friend group now is mostly people who grew up upper middle class. Some markers are like whether you went skiing as a child (if you didn’t grow up in CO/UT/etc.), whether you did travel sports in middle/high school, whether you went on vacations to places like Cancun as opposed to camping in the woods, whether you went to sleep-away summer camp as a kid. Cruises are a quintessential lower-class vacation. Another one seems to be money, whether you always pay attention to how much things cost. I don’t think frugality means lower class, but more like obsessing about prices and couponing etc. Whether you have a monetary safety net from your parents or just a place to stay type of safety net. Lower class people seem to be more into lottery and gambling too.
This isn’t politically correct, but weight and eating habits/comfort foods is also a class marker. Whether you like eating very fatty, processed foods. I suspect whether someone likes seafood if they didn’t grow up near a body of saltwater is a class marker too, but it’s very low n and confounded with being a picky eater.
Class by Paul Fussell is somewhat outdated but a good read, Scott Alexander has a good book review.
It seems like skiing is a “hereditary” class marker because it’s hard to learn how to do it as an adult, and you’re probably not going to take your kids skiing unless you yourself were taught as a kid, etc.
Skiing is an interesting one. I never thought about it in those terms since I grew up in Alaska where downhill skiing was relatively accessible (like CO/UT). I also wouldn’t be surprised if outdoor activities in general are correlated with class, even when they’re not necessarily expensive (e.g. hiking).
Maybe it’s more how much leisure time it takes or usefulness they confer; for example hiking feels slightly more upper middle class, but camping feels ambiguous. Fishing is lower (middle) class. Golf is upper class, swimming in a lake/body of water near your house is ambiguous (maybe depends on if it’s a pool or just a river?)