I'm from a self made Dutch upper class we are even above the King Willem Alexander look up the Domeinen 2005 Act we are mainly interested in scientific or government jobs. Since the Netherlands loves auctions if you do that well the King will respect you. And we speak proper Dutch and RP English. We can buy clothes from the Bijenkorf and premier stores. Could you make a video about the Dutch aristocracy please? Lots of people don't understand our political system at all.
As always cool video🤗beside one little mistake: When related to aristocracy "blood-lines" or NOT a "Hitlery" thing,....fact is it´s more an "inbreed" thing!🤔
@@ronanbakker Bijenkorf💩is poop! You can buy ALL products there for a cheaper price elsewhere,...even on the original stores of the brands🤔....and i´m NOT talking about "outlets or 2nd-hand stores"!🙄This place is for dumb folks who like to burn money....😏
@@ronanbakker Ugh..c´mon.."de´Bijenkorf"💩is poop! You can literally buy ALL the products there cheaper elswhere...even at the original brands own stores/websites!🤔And i´m NOT talking about "second-hand & outlet stores"!🙄This is just a place for dumb folks who like to burn their money, nothing more...😏
I’m from a working class family and went to Oxford Uni and it was truly eye opening 😅 I didn’t know that a whole group of society didn’t have to work until I met people who thought I was joking when I said my dad delivered pizza.
@@eggbert504yeah a little! you’ll still encounter very posh people but some colleges you’ll feel more at home at. I went to St Catherine’s College, St.Catz, and made a lot of friends- it’s a lot more casual (you don’t have formal dinner every night) and you can choose to go to less formal events and eat at the Buttery instead. If you do go to formals they still expect you to stand up as the master comes in and speak some latin before you can eat though haha. Pals at St.Hughs also said it was way more relaxed.
Wow 🤩 Congratulations, truly! The fact that you could come from a background like you did and go to an Oxford university is amazing 🥰 I hope that you realize what a gift you have been given and make the most of your life☺️
Similar experience for me. I am from a working class family (e.g., clothes washed at a laundromat, no telephone until I went out to work, dad worked in a factory), but went to Cambridge as the first in my family to get to any university. What struck me was how much of the life of Cambridge was dependent on money that I never had. So despite making it to an elite university, I still felt excluded.
I like how in The Gentlemen Guy Ritchy states that "English nobility are the original gangsters." They grabbed power & money via violence, then solidified their position by pretending they were 'noble'.
Of course they did. There's a wonderful segment on the back of the book "the poor had no lawyers" A land owner comes across a guy walking through a forest he owns. The land owner says WTF? Get off my land. The guy says why is this your land? The land owner says "My ancestors fought to make this land ours." OK says the guy. I'll fight you for it now. The rich oppressed us because they were hard back then now they are weak and they expect the government to protect their position but we vote in the government and we can take back our lands. We could have with Corbyn but Starmer might be set in that direction with enough Campaigning. This is our time. Luv and Peace.
Yup. Tupac unironically contributed to sociology by pointing out the fundamentally gang-like nature of not just modern power structures like the police, but power itself.
I'm Kenyan and my country's colonial history was literally built on the British class system where the British aristocracy sent their scions to start a feudal state in Africa complete with castles, manors and landed gentry with white aristocratic Brits as the ruling class, Indians/Pakistanis taking up the merchant class and Africans acting as the serfs....it lasted for 60 years with an African revolt on the unjust system leading to independence. Now the curious part is Kenya still retained the class system. Only now in 2024 we have African political leaders as the landed gentry with a few remnants of the old British aristocracy. Both black and white still aspire to send their children to the elite UK schools, speak with the same posh accents and come back home to take key positions in Kenya's economic and social spaces. The Indians also rose up the economic ladder to form the upper middle class and wealthy merchants (part of Rishi Sunak's background is from this part of Kenyan society). The black Africans span the entire spectrum of the classes with almost the same attitudes and dynamics as described in the video. At least now I understand the origins of my country's class structure better after watching this.
@@jasonedwardblood don’t worry mate, they colonised you too. They just make you think you’re part of them as well haha. Freedom is an illusion and people feed into this delusion. Divide and rule my friend.
When you understand that Britain is an unreformed feudal society, a lot makes sense. Where I live in West Berkshire 40% of the district is still owned by three families.
nevermind the royal head of state, what I find really crazy is that the upper house of parliament is literally a house of lords, with most seats being inherited. [edit:not true anymore, but they all are lifetime-appointees, which provides just about 100% as much corruption opportunity]
I’ve lived in council flats my entire life. Went to one of the worst schools in the country, but still entered Uni I am now just finishing up my degree in Psychology, working 50+ hours a week in a mental health ward. I’ll work hard enough to make a comfortable living in future. But that’s not to say it was easy, Uni exposed me to people who weren’t always struggling and it took a while to come to terms with the fact that I will have to work harder than some to achieve the same. The working class are looked down upon as lazy when it’s frankly untrue, I know some many people from within my town that were smarter than I, could’ve done incredible things if their families didn’t experience these struggles or if the schools were better. I got lucky in so many different ways to be in the position to finish university but others aren’t and it hurts because they shouldn’t be. The country needs to do better.
I’m one of nine and my mum didn’t work.She encouraged us to ditch school and to go straight into work so we could help her financially and to take care of our younger siblings.My dad was a drug addict that abandoned me when I was 7.As a drop out myself who has struggled with suicide for many years it doesn’t matter how hard I work I will never go to a elite university with all the rich kids.I went to a catholic secondary school with a bunch of stuck up kids though,I could of probably been something but my mental health took over. It is the sad reality for many of us.
That is life. Story of Cain and Abel is a lesson in how the resentment you develop against those who sacrifice less but attain more will drive you mad, so it is best to let go
I'm from the working class, though given my mother didn't work and we relied on benefits and crime I prefer "criminal class". Anyway, so I looked at my life in poverty at 13 and decided I needed to be middle class to be happy so I changed my accent, my dress sense (at 18), mannerisms, and focused on getting into a top university, getting a masters and working as a programmer. I succeeded and yet despite that middle class people sometimes tell me that there's something off about my accent and personality and that I don't seem fully British. Even after 15 years of acting middle class I couldn't perfect it. So I moved to Japan. Fuck it if I'm gonna be an outsider I'll be one where I expect it. UK class system is shite.
It is rather simple: Lower Classes -- they are owned. Middle Class -- they own themselves. Upper Class -- they own others. Or in economic terms terms: Lower Classes -- living day by day, no assets, no access to capital. Middle Class -- they own as personal assets what they utilize, but need to work for a living, some have capital. Upper Class -- no need to work, living off capital gains, own and control resources and societal narrative.
This is very true but there's also an element of what you are born into. As pointed out in the video David Beckham would be considered 'working class' but obviously has enough cash to live off the interest today. It's more 'If my parents were owned I am lower class...' etc.
@@iainwall, yes, but as he said, not everybody has got great talent, and Beckham grew up in a time, when even being talented was an easier way to (long term) success, than these days. And… also said, that if you are poor, trying to survive, as many do these days, it’s hard to become inventive, creative, have cool business ideas. However, the above comment is really impressive… when it comes to a comparison between colonialism and how the ‘peasants’ were treated by the same white upper class twits in their own country… no, there wasn’t much difference. Africans or Brits - all being mistreated by some few, ‘born into power’ people with delusions of grandeur. And as he states… in Kenya it doesn’t make much of a difference any more either, which colour, nationality you are, or which social background you have. As soon, as you make it somehow to a good education, and speak the right way, you may succeed… with some talent and ruthlessness, likely, or background money or class, which still make it easier to go places. But saying, that poverty is always something self-inflicted, is becoming a more and more fashionable opinion, just as it was in the past. Having the poor as the scape-goat for society values declining, is wrong, as can be. Not looking, where the money goes, is a mistake. It goes into some rich people’s pockets, mostly out the lower and middle working-class bank accounts, who can’t afford tax advisers, property, or foreign hideaways. If it went into education, environmental protection (sewage…), health-care, ah education, did I mention education?, wages, more than minimum, affordable housing, education… society would thrive. However, I’m a little disillusioned by now… having grown up through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I thought, we’d be on the way, to become better people in a better world, but the last 20 years, or so, were like a rollercoaster ride in reverse. Back to intolerance, class divide (only new classes by wealth or infamy), fanaticism - political or religious, or both - war-, and fear-mongering, propaganda. It’s so sad…
In Germany aristocrats were expected to become officers in the army. It was sort of a unwritten contract, that they had to repay their privileges by serving the King / Kaiser/ Führer.
Showing military prowess was how you became aristocrat in the first place. You win wars, you get rewarded a castle. Nothing honourable or sacrificial about it. Heck, without ambitious aristocrats, 90% of wars wouldn't even have happened.
@@ctlspl yeah, but how did they become land owners in the first place? They were part of a local warlord's warband, razed a bunch of villages and got the land in their posession. Long before Germany existed as a nation state.
Continental countries had to live with armies sweeping across their territory from time to time, upsetting the established order. Britain hasn't endured a successful invasion since 1066, so the Establishment has had almost 1000 years to bed in.
My family has always been in military positions, although my line never exeeded the rank of a knight. My granddad still sold weapons to the persians for a german company in the Wirtschaftswunder- era.
My accent betrays me in some ways. I sound posh. My dad was a builder and my mum grew up in total poverty (but in a loving family). I went to a private school on an assisted place (because my parents couldn't afford the fees but I did so well in the entrance exam). I was kicked out of home while still at school when my mum died and my dad married a narcissist. I then self funded my way through the rest of my life with no financial aid. I developed anxiety, depression and chronic pain on the way - now I am over all of that and have a well paid job in London. I'm really proud of myself. However, I now get slapped with 'privileged white woman' in multi cultural intersectional victimhood loving London. It's a joke tbh. Growing up with no family support is really stressful on your body and mind, regardless of your background or skin colour. Having a loving, supporting family is the greatest privilege anyone can be blessed with, in my opinion. I do feel I've had to work twice as hard to get to where I am.
Quite the life story, losing your Mum must have been tough, hope the narcissist stepmother is out of the picture now. I guess the private school is what led to the posh accent? You can change your accent if you want to.
i think its the money and the looking down ones nose, and writing off everyone else as intersectional victims that makes you a toff, ask any upper class what makes you upper class and they will say blood but ask any working class and they will tell you its power and the attitude towards those lower than themselves
Unlike in America, the British class system is mainly defined by education, not money; although of course there is still a general correlation between class and wealth. If you've been to an elite public school like Eton, you're upper or upper-middle class. If you've been to a minor public school, you're upper-middle class. If you've been to a comprehensive, you're working or lower middle class, depending on the quality of state schools where you live. Likewise, if you've been to Oxbridge or a Russell-group university, that gets you into the middle class if you're not there already. This is why private schooling reinforces & perpetuates the class system. When there were more grammar schools, and university student grants plus free tuition fees, there was more social mobility because this allowed kids from working class families to move into the middle class - this was my own experience, & I'm grateful for it. Much of that opportunity has now gone. With little opportunity for social mobility, inequality tends to increase. Inequality in Britain is now significant and increasing; and this is why reducing incentives for private education is so important, because it tackles a large part of the root of the problem.
Unlike America - it is exactly like America without the aristocracy. The upper class is privately educated and go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, women go to Smith, Vassar, etc. In 2024 there are more private schools for the white middle class; public schools are suffering because the lower working class, immigrants, and non- working mothers on welfare provide many children with “problems.” This has lead to a teacher shortage, which is another problem. School systems are hiring unqualified teachers.
Worst thing about this country. I have a very mild Geordie accent (locals often ask where I'm from originally) but work in finance and IT for London based firms. The shit I've heard in professional meetings would be an insant sacking if I was a Pakistani or something. I've had my accent mocked, been told I can't be taken seriously, told didn’t realise you lot could use computers, etc. The class system in this country is pervasive and vile. Can't wait to leave the UK eventually. I'm always made to feel like a lesser person here.
Yeah it definitely goes both ways. I'm from Nottingham but hung out with and played Rugby with the kids from the local public school (I went to a school that had three one star off stead reports in a row 💀 btw), so I picked up alot of etiquette rules and posh mannerisms. Anyway due to that I often get odd looks when I go up to Northumberland or Yorkshire to see family, they see me as a posh tory even though I'm just as working class as them.
I have a guy at work who is a Geordie and he speaks very, very slowly - claims so that he's understood. I asked him once to speak normally and I had no issues understanding him, despite not being British and english not being my native language (okay his accent is thick, but not unreasonable; I would've had real trouble understanding him if we were talking over a bad line or next to a busy, noisy road, but not in a quiet environment like home or an office). It's sad how many people just stop listening if they don't hear what they expect, like an accent.
@@mortarien I've had a lot of foreign people say they can understand me more clearly than other English people. I make an effort to speak at a pace and with a cadence that's understandable to all and try to mute some of the way I'd say words if I was speaking to locals
Great job 👏🏽 I'm a French guy living in the UK for 5 years and it always amazed me how class based Britain is, I never really understood. Without the French revolution we would have the same class divide today
@@etbadaboum If France has no colonies, explain the situation in Caledonia? Explain why a number of African states (who have flag independence from France) have been required to maintain their gold reserves in French banks and said countries do not control their currency (France does)…Explain why the ppl in Niger and Burkina Faso have kicked the French out…Explain where the uranium that powers French homes comes from (and ask what % of homes are powered by uranium in said country)? Just start there and report back please.
I can’t speak for Sweden but in Denmark when I lived there, social class was very much there but it sort of ignored until people wanted to vent. My ex bf family were divorced and the dad was very working class and the mum and her partner were very middle class. It was definitely there, not to mention there are still aristocrats and Royalty as there is in Sweden and Norway (not sure if they have aristocracy)
@@sams3015 Yea I don't know what their on about, I'm also Swedish and I'm middle class but many of my friends are lower class. There is a clear difference between how we're perceived and treated.
Not really.You had a similar system until the 1800's when democracy kicked in.Sweden lost its empire fairly quickly but Britain hung on until after WW2 instilling the notion that the ordinary people benefited from colonial trade and upper class governance. We wish that we were more social democratic like Scandanavia but have a powerful elite that manipulates elections and cries false tears for tge nation under the pretext of national pride. 😢
There's an excellent book called Watching the English - The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour. It's a fascinating study of what makes English people English. Being able to determine someone's class is hard-wired into the English. From the way you speak to what school you went to are all loud pointers towards someone's class. How you dress and even what you eat. The English (As well as the Welsh, Scots and Irish) recognise very quickly which class you occupy. How you got your money also comes into it. Inherited wealth is superior to newly earned wealth. You can't jump class with cash. You're simply born into it.
Actually, only the English have a true preoccupation with class. The class system is largely imposed upon them by the English. Before the English the Scots and Irish were much more egalitarian. Which is why they had 4 universities at a time when the English only had two (despite England having four times the population).
‘You can’t jump class with cash’ - one thing I can’t stand is people like Alan Sugar claiming to be working class just because they have a cockney accent. Sure, the born upper class may scoff at him, but I’d like to think the true working class would scoff at him as well. At the end of it money defines your life, not playing up to stereotypes.
@@keithwellerlounge74 Yes, he’s definitely not “working class”. Alan Sugar is part of the “millionaire business class”, but he is from a “working class” background.
@@andrewwotherspoona5722It doesn't mean they can always determine someone's class accurately though. They can only form an impression of what they think it is. My mother was raised in one of the most impoverished parts of UK but because she loved period dramas and related books, she always was well spoken compared to most others in her town. All her life people from her own town asked her where she was from, thinking she must be from a family with jingly pockets. Until she told them she was from the same town as them. So yeah, people made their determinations but still got them wrong.
@@cultfiction3865Exactly education plays a big factor in what class your perceived. Sometimes even if you are working class but have the right mannerisms and understanding of the English language and literature then they don't care if you have a working class background.
Let’s be honest here: if the UK truly wanted an equal society, they would start from the very bottom with high-quality, affordable (or free) education. Replicating the Nordic model, as seen in Finland, is the best example. Having lived in both the UK and Finland for a long time, I can tell you the difference in how society functions in each is abysmal. In the UK, there are so many elites in the upper spheres who’d start trembling at the very thought that maybe their historical privileges would go down the drain a few generations down the line if we actually used a meritocratic system. Imagine this: if everyone received the same high-quality education and qualified for the best public universities based on merit, they’d have the skills and knowledge to apply for the jobs they are most qualified for, purely based on merit. At this point, we would have a final sample of people who are there for purely meritocratic reasons. Let’s cut the nonsense about the idea that “some” Eton kids are middle class who just work hard. That’s bullshit! The price tag is too high to enter that “equality” illusion.
as an educated immigrant who decided to change professions & go back to university while in the UK, I worked a lot of low-paid jobs. it was hard to find friends because most people around me took little interest in history, politics, art, etc. seemed like thats reserved for the upper class. my husband says it's better to be an immigrant in the UK, than to try changing social status. regardless, because of where I am from (Poland), it seems like people still class foreigners ! it's very visible in the mimics and approach and I cannot stand the ever-present 'where are you from' question. very different in mainland Europe, where high culture is desired and accessible to all. im glad so many European countries got rid of the titles.
This is true, I live in Bulgaria where it's as cheap to go to the opera or ballet as it is to go to the cinema. Ordinary working class people know about classical music and art because it's accessible to them, maybe a remnant of communist times, which may also be responsible for a pride in national history before and after communism.
@@BonMooney oh Bulgaria is beautiful ! I absolutely loved it. My Polish friend is dating a Bulgarian guy, much more similar mindsets, social customs, etc. they are thinking of leaving UK and moving there.
I remember the case of Dagmara Przybysz, a school girl from Cornwall. She was bullied at school, constantly called "stupid Pole" and that was the reason she comitted sui cide. Of course there's a certain "class structure" for immigrants as well according to their birth country, race, economic situation back home. And Central and Eastern Europeans take double hate from both the British and non white immigrants. Some British individuals, who want to be nasty, will not verbally attack South Asians or Carribeans becauce in that case they'll be reported for hate crime immediately. But Central And Eastern Europeans could be an easy target because they share the same skin colour with Brits. It's complicated🤷♀️
@@minniemoe4797 True. Imagine the facial expressions of such stuck up idiots gradually change, when I explain my ancestry ; I'm Norwegian. Plus Icelandic, Swedish, (so far so good), Finnish, and Danish, (still acceptable), and Russian, Ukrainean, Polish, and a pinch Jewish ! 😂 Love from Oslo ❤
Lithuanian (hello, Polish neighbours!) here who emigrated to the UK. I get asked where I'm from a lot too, but it's been a mix of "you sound american/canadian" (because I do) and "you *look* European" (I'm 6'4", blonde, etc) :D I don't necessarily mind it, as I ask people where they're from too - I don't see it as an offensive question, just human curiosity. The class divide among the "native" (if you could call it that) brits, however, is truly baffling... I enjoy baked beans and I enjoy caviar - I really find it kinda stupid that you must either eat one OR the other somehow.
The UK Class system basically has no relevance to someones income. It's all about how they were brought up and what they think of themselves. You've got pensioners who can't afford their heating bill calling people scum because they think of them as a lower class, despite that "scum" earning 5x the money the pensioner has ever earned in their life. It's weird.
You're right. Money is only one small part of the class structure (if at all). Everything from how you speak to holding a knife and fork weighs in. Music preference, behaviour, upbringing, dress choices... it goes on and on.
I'm a lower class disabled single mum on benefits, not due to choice, but I sound upper middle class because I was taught to speak with a BBC British accent (I had to learn local regional accents to fit in in my peer group). It is hilarious when talking to people, especially middle class people who love chatting with me, at the theatre or a cafe in town, for example, they love talking or debating philosophy, politics or theology (the top subjects I've noticed), until they find out I'm on benefits then suddenly they're extremely confused and trying to hide their disgust 😂
I was actually surprised when my friend told me that in England you still have leasehold type of house ownership that was abolished on the continent. The new British govermnent restricted this on July 17th.
Seen as the election has been announced it becomes official that this is the first time in British history where living standards have dropped during a single Parliament and it is the largest drop in living standards since the Napoleonic war. And at the same time the richest in society have got a lot richer deepening the divide.
Yea, I used to be someone who wasn't too concerned by the inequality that existed here, but the old illusion of meritocracy has been completely eroded in the UK now. It wasn't until I spent time away, experiencing how social classes exist in Australia, that I realised the extent of our problem. But I think it runs deep, it's often the attitude of the upper class to totally disregard any merit of anyone 'below' them, to the point that even the middle class is in an eternal uphill battle to be comfortable while the rich look down in disgust.
Britain might need another peasant revolt and the US might need another revolution. The King's taxes are out of hand all across the land. Cheers down under mate. My dad was from Brisbane
Charles Dance literally changed his lower class accent to an upper class one with a dialect coach when he went into acting. I watched him having lunch with his brother on Finding Your Roots and they sound completely different.
I changed my accent to posh when I came to England from Ireland in the early '70's. It was the obvious thing to do given the class system. Apart from that, it seemed pernicious to me that the 7% of the population who went to schools their parents could pay for (rather than being smarter than the other 93%) were running the country. A lot of talent was obviously being wasted with this state of affairs.
Just finished watching your vid on high streets, and now this. You've got a genuine talent for being able to talk about history and important topics in a fun and engaging way. Great channel and you've got a new subscriber.
People like Rishi didn't necessarily earn their own money by their own merit. He was born into a good amount of wealth and had all the tools to make more at his fingerprints. That combined with the fact he married a billionaire.
This is often overlooked. It's not so much the money you have but the doors you have open to you by virtue of going to the "correct school" for example. If you're from a poor background but your family can somehow pay to put you through a fancy school, you're not better educated than those in the state system, but you have connections there for later life that those in state school would never, ever have had access to even if they were the most intelligent and brilliant minds of a generation. There's a reason most people in positions of high office or power in this country went to places like Eton and Winchester, or one of the fancy universities. Both of them Just having that on your CV gets you through doors that wouldn't even be closed for people who went to other schools, they wouldn't even SEE the doors.
@@TalesOfWarthe difference is that in britain you could do service to the empire and make a name for yourself but in india if you were born in a low caste or untouchable hindu family you would never be able to be a high rank officer or have wealth or own land.Many British officers were not nobility of course and still reached high ranks.Europe has been ahead of Asia in this aspect for centuries.
Exactly no way is Rishi Sunak self made. For a start he does have an aristocratic accent, and had an expensive education at high end private schools and all the right connections to use honest people's heads as stepping stones
Entertaining and informative.My British mother met my Bengali middle class father at Oxford where they were studying.They married at the height of India's Independence and raised three children.All three went to university and did Masters' degrees.My professor mother from Delhi University,took up a Spalding Professorship in Oxford after retirement.Wrote 17.books ,became an Internationally known specialist on Gandhian studies ,and died at 93.
The first time I saw a Merchant, I thought "hilarious". Then next time I saw it, I thought "Oh... It's going to be every time is it? That's going to get old." But after that, it didn't get old! It was still awesome!
we did decapitate a king in England, or rather the middle class did. And we didn't nerf them, rather the middle and upper classes nerfed everyone else. Then Thatcher sold them the American Dream
@@righteousmammon9011it’s depends on where you live in if you live in the suburbs your Doing okay but if you live in the Hood my only advice is to avoid them or learn how to dodge bullets.
im impressed, as a brit working class with a keen interest in topics discussed the guy gives good info, informed perspectives and doesn't push an agenda. subscribed mate well done im look for more investigative journalism and social commetary
It’s interesting how the 17th century British colonists along the North American midatlantic were a weird mixture of aristocratic “second sons” who had to make their own fortunes, destitute peasants who were cleared off the common land by the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts, and skilled laborers from the middle class. They mostly felt pretty ok adopting a new lowest-class (enslaved and indigenous people) because they thought that was how the world works and they were just glad that bottom class wasn’t them. And yet we still act like peoples’ place in society is because of their own personal choices. Some things haven’t changed.
My fucking ass America has ever had a class system, and anybody who's complicit and indifferent to one ever being established in this country will also be on the receiving end of a barrel of a gun. If you're frustrated with our American standard of living, then be a citizen and organize. And keep this bullshit on the other side of the Atlantic, fucking repulsive.
My ass America has ever had a class system. And anybody who is complicit and indifferent to one ever being established will also be the receiving end of the barrel of a gun. If you’re frustrated with our American standards of living, then be a citizen and organize. And keep this on the other side of the Atlantic, fucking repulsive.
"And yet we still act like peoples’ place in society is because of their own personal choices. Some things haven’t changed." Quite a few things have changed since the 1860s, a lot of immigrant groups had to endure serfdom or even slavery-like conditions many decades later, and yet they are doing much better on average.
I think it was on the Second Thought that I heard: There is no middle class, upper class or lower class. There's only working class and the ruling class. If you have to work to get through the month and don't get to call the shots, you're working class. I liked that painful reality check.
Not so. The concept of 'working class' is founded in the idea of people who are employed by other (owners, maybe through a structures of managers) to do tasks. They are relatively powerless; they need not be educated; they can change jobs but they don't control what they do. Professionals - doctors, teachers, lawyers, managers, accountants, etc - are different in that they earn more, they have qualifications. There is a difference in lifestyle, house ownership, pensions and in expectations, but they are still working for a living, at someone else's beck and call. The upper classes OWN stuff and can take decisions about how to derive income from it. They have more control over their lives (and their decisions affect the lives of thousands of others. However, they do still have to work in as much as taking those decisions, and getting it right - that's work, too.
@@rogerstone3068the point of the comment is that the professionals and working class still have more in common with each other than the either do with the upper class that own everything and want to stay at the stop. Divvying up the differences is what the elite want
@@occamsfarm1675 also, many people think they are middle class but they are really just playacting middle class when you into account mortgages, car loans and consumer debt
I remember being fascinated learning about the british class system in school (I'm from New Zealand) and seeing it played out on programmes such as Upstairs Downstairs. I was especially fascinated by the difference between upper middle class and lower middle class, and the attempts of those groups to climb the social ladder. I do remember Billy Connolly once saying that the aristocracy and working class get along ok as neither has any need to prove themselves...they are what they are. He said it was the middle class with their desire for upward mobility who were despised by both. Then again, in the words of Edmund Blackadder...." Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom and me in the middle making pots of money out of both of them". Or words to that effect. 😊
The most often referenced example of this by most British people is Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping up Appearances. She pronounces her last name as "bouquet" and puts on a posh accent to appear better than everyone else.
@@TalesOfWar Yes I loved that series! Her embarassment of her working class roots was perfectly captured....love that her sisters and Onslow always managed to bring her maximum embarassment though 😊
The British system has had a huge impact on our society as you'd expect, and while we don't really acknowledge it as much, I'd say Ao/NZ absolutely has the same nonsensical class system. You can be on the dole and still considered middle class just becausethats how you were raised, or be a homeowner but still considered practically an untouchable because you earn your living via sex work. Look at differently those two people would be treated by the justice system too, just as a couple of examples.
@@sarahquill7423 Yes I think we have remnants of the class system here, perhaps more in NZ than Australia? But people are often put into pigeonholes based on what their parents did, or how they were brought up. But it doesn't seem to matter quite as much over here...perhaps we have a more relaxed version of snobbery! 😊
@@chrisbacosBritish system often means its incredibly difficult to enter the upper class. Its not simply inheriting common things like homes. More so estates, social status, titles etc
I grew up in both Manchester and London as a kid, on a council estate in South West London and a coucil estate in South Manchester, and I also lived in both cities as an adult as well, although I now live in North Yorkshire in a quiet rural area but I regularly visit London, and when I did last week, and especially when I visited areas like Chelsea, Richmond, Kew, Hampstead and St Johns Wood, there was just this horrible feeling inside me that I just didnt belong, despite the fact I got a degree and am an intelligent and decently dressed guy who has travelled, it always felt to me that I just dont have the social, economic and cultural capital or the accent of these people. Even sitting having a coffee in some of those areas made me feel even more of an outsider, as if I would be told to move away for the upper middle class patrons who deserve a seat and not me. Tje worst thing is that you feel ignored in these areas, I would prefer to be explicitly told I dont belong more than just feeling like I dont exist.
I'm from Central Europe and I grew up in a somewhat rural area in a working class family. I got a degree and now I have a relatively good job. And I also feel the same way, while I can pass for middle class, I still identify with the working class more. I even prefer the company of my childhood friends, most of whom are much closer to the working class than I.
As an American I find this whole class system so strange. I grew up upper middle class, but I had friends that grew up in trailer parks and grew up in broken homes. I didn’t care. We have a class system in the US, but not like this. Cmon England
England is stuck in the Georgian era. If you’re talented, intelligent or have a knack for something, they stifle your creativity or try to get you to humble your expectations. With you guys, you find a way to nurture, mature and make talent/knack great. There’s also opportunities for developing it which we don’t have here in the U.K. The U.K. has no regards for excellence, until you make it elsewhere and then they claim you. That’s why, in my opinion, they currently can’t even compete on the same global stage as some of their formerly “lower” counterparts. Quite a few former balkanised economies doing well right now and most of them are geographically closer to Russia.
@@mickimickiafford, maybe. But from what I hear the current conservative government has pushed austerity so hard for some specialists you will be waiting years for first appointments.
many people who think they got social mobility reward of solely working hard, "no-one was helping me up I did it all on my own ". you have to work hard but you also need a bit of luck . there are so many factors that can stop social mobility
@@Arsenaldude21 good gosh!!! we'd never do such a thing when I was young... .... It was a bottle of 20-20 down the park before heading to the nearest rave 😂
As an American I say thank you to the creator and also thank you to all those from England that commented, as this has greatly opened my eyes to England, which is my native land many generations ago. I hope England is able to learn and find its way
Please 🙏🏻 stop. I’m American and this is what it’s like in the northeast. What are you talking about as an American? This was brought on over and not leaving. 😑
In India, it's doesn't stop at the cutlery. It also varies from area to area. You can't use the same water well. You mustn't allow your shadow to touch the upper class. You can't walk in front of their house. You can't use the same temple. And so on...
@@amvideos1041 true, although not entirely. It happens in urban areas plenty, but I believe it's more refined, I've heard only untouchable students cleaning toilets in a school, urban area, not others. Plus, most people in India live in rural areas.
Your class also depends on what your parents class is. So David Beckham can be a self made multi millionaire , but his father was a kitchen fitter, and his mother was a hairdresser and that and where he grew up will always make him working class .All the private jets and sports cars won't change that. But his kids will be middle class, and his grand kids who knows ? Grace Kelly became princess Grace of Monaco, and nobody's calling her kids working class oiks .
It's not all rosy on the continent, either. Germany still hangs onto a school system that is blatant institutionalised classism. Filtering 10-year-olds so they go to the "right" type of school leading to the "right" qualifications (trade, 'nicer' trade, uni) is considered some kind of cultural treasure. People placed into one of the lesser tracks *can* still grind their way to higher education, but that ends up taking a lot longer; it's basically an endless game of catch-up.
@@niwa_s Thank you! You are one of the few people on here who has perspective. It’s no worse in the UK than anywhere else in the world, we’re just frank and honest about it while other countries hide behind a different face.
Although there are far fewer private schools in Germany than in the UK, many parents send their kids to extra coaching lessons or employ a private teacher to teach their kids outside school hours, which might even be the same teacher they have at school. This is called "Nachhilfe" and is in itself a multi-million euro industry.
In Spain, it got so bad in the 1930s that we ended up having a civil war because of the clash of classes. Resulting in 1 million Spanish deaths. Unfortunately, those struggles still continue in Spain. But it is fascinating to see how different European countries adapt to their social hierarchies as well as the needs of their people.
Would you say you can still see remnants of classicism in Spain? I'm currently in Madrid, studying spanish, and I've travelled a bit through Andalusia and Valencia and the society feels very friendly and "eye to eye".... But it's obvious to me that without the language I just can't understand the culture. I'm slowly progressing, it'll be a while... But as i said, to me, the Spaniards seem very community oriented and not ones to be divided by classicism.
@@oh_rhythm Most definitely Spain has a classist undertone. I am a highly educated middle class expat living in Spain. Both lower and upper class individuals will make you feel you do not belong in the same lot as theirs.
In the western world it has became more revelant to talk about socio cultural background than social classes. Growing up in town or in the country makes a difference, growing up with books at home, etc... i think i never commented here but i love the work and topics here, i've always been fascinated in the study of different humain groups (these last years i discovered thomas sowell, if i dont agree with everything, his study of socio ethnical groups around tthe world within history makes a lot of sens imo).
I have to say, as an Irish lad, I hate when people say oh the English this the English that... Most of those 'English' people give out about are actually Norman, not even the same race as the English... The Norman's were boss all over the place, and if you dig, you'll see that many top players are indeed decended from the Norman's... Class is really a racial thing, in the case of England that's forgotten but it's almost always a racial thing..
The names of the major aristocratic families are Anglicised French Norman names. These families still own huge areas of England. The Grosvenors, Cadogans, Beaufort, Howard's, Boelyns and Mercy's.
That is a very accurate observation. I live in the west country near to the famous private schools Sherborne Boys and Sherborne Girls - seeing the kids walking around town you can clearly see that the upper middle to upper class are a different ethnicity from the local Anglo-Saxon working class.
This is an argument That I have put forward for quite some time, I am a working class English man, my family has been exploited by the ruling classes for as long back in history as I am able to research. Two were transported as convicts to America for poaching. One was pressed into the Royal navy in the Napoleonic wars. I finished my schooling at the age of sixteen with no option of taking it further, not through lack of ability but through lack of opportunity, so I started my adult life as one of Thatchers unemployed and its been a struggle ever since.
The intriguing thing to me is that the poorest person in the UK can go and live in Nigeria right now and immediately be rich. You'd instantly be part of the upper class, live in a mansion because nigerian currency is peanuts compared to the pound, get a top job in the government beause you have mandatory western education and chill with the country's elite because your british accent makes you automatically be seen as elite. But we all just stay where we are and stay poor. £1 is equivalent to around N2000 right now.
And its also crazy because many of the immigrants that make up the poorest sectors of UK society came from the upper class in their home countries. I know a lady whose parents were Nigerian royalty before they emigrated to UK. They spent the rest of their lives living in a Croydon council estate.
The issue of course being the fact you moved quite far away from your family back in England if you settled in Nigeria, and also the aspect of safety (being white in such a country would make you a target for kidnapping) should be the primary reason why not too many Englishmen move there.
2:40 The unlucky aristocrats in this system were the Saxon noble families. When you look at genealogy, you find many but not all nobles will have a direct link to William conqueror. That's because they seized land off the Saxon nobles and gave it to the Norman Nobles. There were only 3 Saxon families who survived the Norman conquest. Many of them moved to the Byzantine empire where many Joined up and became Varangians, wh were the historically the Byzantine personal Viking body gaurd.
@@Cadence733 By that logic, the King is also not related to the Stuarts or Tudors, because they had to go through 50 other people and a woman to get to the Hanovers.
Speaking of class & power, here's the key take away: power isnt something you have, it's something that's given, and while the working class possess the most power, they've given it all away.... effectively for free, for nothing. Actually not quite for nothing. They gave away their power in return for spite.... and unsurprisingly, to use towards each other.
@@chrisdonish NVM. Dude doesnt understand the concept. Force comes from the barrel of a gun, but these importance nuances wont register with "Autism is Unstoppable"...
British Class System= Indian Caste system= Russia Oligarchy control system = Arab Royal Family Rule system = Corporate controlled America system. Hope that makes sense
Another great one Jimmy. Just one thing: These days there is a separation of INCOME CLASS & SOCIAL CLASS. Although there used to be an intersection, these days its kinda important to distinguish
My dad studied in England for a brief while when he was young. I never quite got why he believes in some stuff regarding "the levels of people" he does throughout my life, we're an educated but definitely not wealthy family and where he was born they didn't even have electricity until he was in his early teens. The chain of education if you can call it that started with my grandpa and his brothers, they were from a rather neglected village in a rather neglected city in Anatolia and together they all supported each other through school and all became teachers, judges and prosecutors. Money doesn't run in the blood but he still holds some of these beliefs especially those from the middle class you've mentioned in the video. Crazy how 2-3 years in a foreign nation can affect you. Thanks for finally enabling me to understand some of his views.
At least that kind of family mindset helps you to avoid "slumming it" by having the confidence to at least make ends meet. Sometimes the worst thing to happen to poor people is the mindset that things can never change for themselves, whether real or not.
@@stevencooper4422 I guess so. After commenting that paragraph I dove deeper into the topic, apparently the belief of being born a minimum wage worker and dying that way is quite popular amongst the working class.
How we tolerate and make light of a class system in this country is beyond me. Someone is basically denied or given a whole host of opportunities based on who their parents are. If it was based on race or gender or something else we'd be up in arms, but somehow it's okay to do it based on your accent and your family background. Amazing for a 'progressive democracy'.
Within living memory, Britain lived in a state of unrecognised apartheid. The fault line running through society was whether or not you were a 'gentleman' (or lady). Qualifications for this evolved over time time, but the hallmark was breeding and education - before state education it would be public school, Oxbridge and posh parents. Gradually though, doctors and lawyers were accepted into the fold. You didn't have to be rich - 'impoverished gentlefolk' made the cut- because of their breeding and education. It was accepted that the 'common' people were there to respect and serve the gentry. So the different classes occupied different parts of the pub, train, public parks and every public space was effectively segregated. Oddly enough, many of the 'common' people were happy this this arrangement, believing it was ordained by God. You knew who you were and your place, and there were fewer of the insecurities and anxieties associated with meritocracy.
I'm from Mile End in the East End of London. I used to talk with a Cockney accent. My mum was a machine press operator in a local factory. But I was a fairly bright kid and got to go to university. When I got there in 1968 people thought I was a cleaner/janitor whenever I spoke, rather than a student. I felt the weight of the class system on my shoulders and developed a well pronounced chip, which I still have.
Working class didn't lead revolutions around Europe. They provided the muscle, but revolutions were led by middle class and counter-Elite. Most of the victims of the French revolution were peasants from Vendee region. Most of the people who rose to power in French revolution were upper-middle class. Same in Russian revolution and most others.
yep, peasants revolt was the same, the old records for my town in Essex show it was the merchants who were wanted for arrest afterwards, basically shopkeepers running things mafia style
@@GolerGkA Well the English elite was dispossessed or killed off in 1066, then the Normans intermarried with English people so the lines became blurred. But it’s not like there weren’t any rebellions in our history either, the English Civil War being a good example. We could also class the Roundheads as middling class too. Interestingly enough, it was an Englishman called Thomas Paine who actually influenced the American War of Independence and in turn the French Revolution. Research the Rights of Man and Common Sense.
I'm Irish, I've lived in London, qualified as a barrister with a scholarship, won awards, the lot, but when I interviewed for roles I experienced prejudice, I was always viewed as weird and unsophisticated, my qualifications didn't matter, I was called "too colloquial" "too informal" "too chatty". I work in law in Ireland now and no one cares about my accent. Suggestion, as interesting as your video is, do not include an Irish accent in your description of the British class system, we are not part of Britain, people fought for that, thanks.
Thank you so much for this video! I am German and I have my oral state exam in English next week and I was dreading it so much. But your video was so informative and funny at the same time, it really lifted my spirits a lot 😊
Its great how you present your videos, you provide great balance to them. We don't see much of that on social media or even on TV now. Keep up the good work
You seem to suggest that Sunak got power through hard work. What I think happened was high expectations from his parents and from his educational environment. You’re the odd one out if you don’t get into power if you’re in those circles. He just wanted to please his parents and peers. No-one who genuinely loves and cares for themselves would choose that path. In the school that I went to, in my year of ~100 I was one of ~5 people to go to uni. Did I work hard? Not really, I just didn’t have any friends so there was nothing else to do but study. And, being an immigrant, I had to work extra hard to meet the expectations my mum had placed on me.
As the middle class disappears so ladder upwards from the working class to wealth and a decent lifestyle also disappears. The gap between the working class and the middle becomes too much.
False dichotomy fallacy. There is many social classes. There is the owner, investor, small enterpenouer, manual working, intelectual working, managerial, political and journalist classes
@@stanisawzokiewski3308not really, either you work for your money/living or others work for your money/living its one of those 2 and the things you listed fall under those 2 categories
@@smo-king6504 That level of over simplification is so astronomically idiotic you have to be joking. Someone on Universal Credit who doesn't bother looking for a job is suddenly part of the "owner class" because they are not working for their income? really?
@@Casual93 I quess information distribution and narrative creation is a bit too long. Maybe media class would be better, they arent quite celebrities but not exactly writers. I guess we could squezee them into those two depending on how much influence they have or how much work they do.
“We didn’t decapitate any kings…” *Cough! Charles the First, *cough! Cromwell, *cough! Regardless, I loved your upload mate and love the way you presented all this. Hit the nail on the head.
This video reminds me of this cool cartoon I saw online. It features a bunch of working class men confronting an aristocrat on his land. The dialogue goes something like this: Aristocrat: “This is my property, you’ve no right to be here. Get off my land now.” Working class guys: “What right do YOU have to this land? How did YOU get hold of it?” Aristocrat: “I inherited it from my father of course.” Working class guys: “So how did your father get the land?” Aristocrat: “He inherited it from HIS father.” Working class guys: “But how did his father get the land?” Aristocrat: “He fought for it.” Working class guys: “Well…we’ll fight YOU for it.”
Love the content Jimmy. Thought I should mention that you didn't mention that the main purpose of the aristocracy in the Norman period up until the Georgian period was to mobilse the peasantry in an event of war or rebellion to march under the Kings banner as there was no full time army. Cromwell being the exception as he had a full time army as Protector of the Realm.
I thought it would be interesting to go over how they brought back the royalty showing maybe deeper fears within British society of not having this class system that remains ingrained to this day
@@nukelertoonz8418 it was mostly political how they brought back the royalty, done by aristocrats in the house of lords who had been kicked out of parliament by the army in prides purge the average person was mostly indifferent everything they jsut wanted the wars to be over and restoration of the monarchy was sold to them by the aristocracy
@@mrmug4000 Yes but there was a movement to include more of the lower classes in the wars from the roundheads’ side. Especially with the development of the New Model Army. Also, the rise of the ‘merchant class’ was after this period, during the interregnum as that’s when Cromwell mostly started expanding to the Caribbeans and passing laws like the Navigation Act (although Elizabeth kinda started it beforehand im pretty sure). So my point is that it’s all linked together; this point I feel might’ve started to change things?
@@mrmug4000 To be brutally honest, if you're making a video about British history and talk about the monarchy and are completely unaware of this fact of it.. You probably shouldn't be making videos about it as you don't know WTF you're talking about. Because from this moment on, the rest of the video was completely wasted on me as I spent the rest of it picking my jaw up off the floor.
Britain did decapitate a king. That was a whole important part of history where parliament gained power above that of the king because he had betrayed his people.
Loving the vids, loving the JRG origin story, killer writing & editing. I was surprised to see a couple of Australian shows spliced into the episode about class history. Seems odd to see
My only disappointment Cannot, I repeat, cannot talk about how the merchants and middle class emerged without (at the very least) touching on the plunder of other countries i.e. colonialism. Before Capitalism there was Mercantilism.
That's pretty true. Newly in the UK, I have a university degree, an office job, I believe I speak relatively well and yet, paying rent altought living a decent life. I consider myself to be part of the working class altough other people may see me as middle class. In my opinion, owning the house you live in and having an extra income or a higher income than 50k/year makes you an entry level middle class. It's not about how you live but about the financial security and how close to destitution you are if something goes wrong.
Good video thanks. For viewers who might have wondered who he is... Gary, the guy featured at about 23:30, also has a YT channel (Garys Economics) and is very good at explaining some of the mechanisms by which (some) people are rich/poor. He's a solidly working-class lad who was good at maths as a youngster and became a very successful trader for Citi-Group. He's quite brutally honest about what he sees.
I don't know where he gets the £8900 per year income in the 1950's - it was more like £300 - in 1964 a warehouse porter would earn less than £5 per week; by the late 1960s £20 per week was considered a good wage
When everything is lobbied away, it has to be regulated back again. A good thing is that democracy still exists, but the problem is to find very capable people that care about others. If you have the skills then it is easier to make money in the corporate world then to work in politics and be exposed to public scrutiny. It is quite a thankless job.
@@JimmyTheGiant I might have actually known you :D used to go down there ever weekend, was a long time ago though so maybe not either way your smashing it !!
📣 Discord - discord.gg/US8cuerhXJ
Damn you ! I have binge on this intro @:0:02 lol
I'm from a self made Dutch upper class we are even above the King Willem Alexander look up the Domeinen 2005 Act we are mainly interested in scientific or government jobs. Since the Netherlands loves auctions if you do that well the King will respect you. And we speak proper Dutch and RP English. We can buy clothes from the Bijenkorf and premier stores. Could you make a video about the Dutch aristocracy please? Lots of people don't understand our political system at all.
As always cool video🤗beside one little mistake: When related to aristocracy "blood-lines" or NOT a "Hitlery" thing,....fact is it´s more an "inbreed" thing!🤔
@@ronanbakker Bijenkorf💩is poop! You can buy ALL products there for a cheaper price elsewhere,...even on the original stores of the brands🤔....and i´m NOT talking about "outlets or 2nd-hand stores"!🙄This place is for dumb folks who like to burn money....😏
@@ronanbakker Ugh..c´mon.."de´Bijenkorf"💩is poop! You can literally buy ALL the products there cheaper elswhere...even at the original brands own stores/websites!🤔And i´m NOT talking about "second-hand & outlet stores"!🙄This is just a place for dumb folks who like to burn their money, nothing more...😏
I’m from a working class family and went to Oxford Uni and it was truly eye opening 😅 I didn’t know that a whole group of society didn’t have to work until I met people who thought I was joking when I said my dad delivered pizza.
Do attitudes towards the working class differ between colleges? I have an open offer so I don't know which one I'm going to end up at
@@eggbert504yeah a little! you’ll still encounter very posh people but some colleges you’ll feel more at home at. I went to St Catherine’s College, St.Catz, and made a lot of friends- it’s a lot more casual (you don’t have formal dinner every night) and you can choose to go to less formal events and eat at the Buttery instead. If you do go to formals they still expect you to stand up as the master comes in and speak some latin before you can eat though haha. Pals at St.Hughs also said it was way more relaxed.
Wow 🤩 Congratulations, truly! The fact that you could come from a background like you did and go to an Oxford university is amazing 🥰 I hope that you realize what a gift you have been given and make the most of your life☺️
Similar experience for me. I am from a working class family (e.g., clothes washed at a laundromat, no telephone until I went out to work, dad worked in a factory), but went to Cambridge as the first in my family to get to any university. What struck me was how much of the life of Cambridge was dependent on money that I never had. So despite making it to an elite university, I still felt excluded.
@@WickedVillathat’s so kind, thank you :)
I like how in The Gentlemen Guy Ritchy states that "English nobility are the original gangsters."
They grabbed power & money via violence, then solidified their position by pretending they were 'noble'.
Just like the Italian Nobility as well during the 14 and 1500s like the Medici. They were the real first Italian gangsters.
It has been thus since forever. Like when we were monkies up in the trees. It is the Beast System. But it will change soon, when Jesus returns.
Sounds exactly like the Chinese Communist Party.
Of course they did.
There's a wonderful segment on the back of the book "the poor had no lawyers"
A land owner comes across a guy walking through a forest he owns.
The land owner says WTF? Get off my land.
The guy says why is this your land?
The land owner says "My ancestors fought to make this land ours."
OK says the guy. I'll fight you for it now.
The rich oppressed us because they were hard back then now they are weak and they expect the government to protect their position but we vote in the government and we can take back our lands.
We could have with Corbyn but Starmer might be set in that direction with enough Campaigning.
This is our time.
Luv and Peace.
Yup. Tupac unironically contributed to sociology by pointing out the fundamentally gang-like nature of not just modern power structures like the police, but power itself.
I'm Kenyan and my country's colonial history was literally built on the British class system where the British aristocracy sent their scions to start a feudal state in Africa complete with castles, manors and landed gentry with white aristocratic Brits as the ruling class, Indians/Pakistanis taking up the merchant class and Africans acting as the serfs....it lasted for 60 years with an African revolt on the unjust system leading to independence.
Now the curious part is Kenya still retained the class system. Only now in 2024 we have African political leaders as the landed gentry with a few remnants of the old British aristocracy. Both black and white still aspire to send their children to the elite UK schools, speak with the same posh accents and come back home to take key positions in Kenya's economic and social spaces. The Indians also rose up the economic ladder to form the upper middle class and wealthy merchants (part of Rishi Sunak's background is from this part of Kenyan society). The black Africans span the entire spectrum of the classes with almost the same attitudes and dynamics as described in the video.
At least now I understand the origins of my country's class structure better after watching this.
This is so well explained. I'm Kenyan and I've never thought about it like that.
Be happy that you can speak, wear clothing, not live in a cave, have plumbing, electricity and education. You are blessed to have been colonized
@@jasonedwardblood don’t worry mate, they colonised you too. They just make you think you’re part of them as well haha. Freedom is an illusion and people feed into this delusion. Divide and rule my friend.
Kenyan here and I 100% agree. I was picturing the same thing while watching this.
Kenyan here and I 100% agree. I was picturing the same thing while watching this.
When you understand that Britain is an unreformed feudal society, a lot makes sense. Where I live in West Berkshire 40% of the district is still owned by three families.
Can ya explain more? you just made me curious lmao
nevermind the royal head of state, what I find really crazy is that the upper house of parliament is literally a house of lords, with most seats being inherited. [edit:not true anymore, but they all are lifetime-appointees, which provides just about 100% as much corruption opportunity]
i live in newbury and i didn’t know this wth. knew it was posh but that’s wild
That's not feudalism, just capitalistic wealth, usually inherited.
@@petesmitt The argument FOR inherited titles goes like this - it allows for people that are not solely competing for power to make decisions
I’ve lived in council flats my entire life. Went to one of the worst schools in the country, but still entered Uni I am now just finishing up my degree in Psychology, working 50+ hours a week in a mental health ward. I’ll work hard enough to make a comfortable living in future. But that’s not to say it was easy, Uni exposed me to people who weren’t always struggling and it took a while to come to terms with the fact that I will have to work harder than some to achieve the same.
The working class are looked down upon as lazy when it’s frankly untrue, I know some many people from within my town that were smarter than I, could’ve done incredible things if their families didn’t experience these struggles or if the schools were better. I got lucky in so many different ways to be in the position to finish university but others aren’t and it hurts because they shouldn’t be. The country needs to do better.
Thanks for sharing your story. Best wishes to you
I’m one of nine and my mum didn’t work.She encouraged us to ditch school and to go straight into work so we could help her financially and to take care of our younger siblings.My dad was a drug addict that abandoned me when I was 7.As a drop out myself who has struggled with suicide for many years it doesn’t matter how hard I work I will never go to a elite university with all the rich kids.I went to a catholic secondary school with a bunch of stuck up kids though,I could of probably been something but my mental health took over.
It is the sad reality for many of us.
The people who dont work, but subsist on the labour of others, are the lazy ones.
Now, you are a higher slave in the system, helping lower-class slaves cope.
Reflect.
That is life. Story of Cain and Abel is a lesson in how the resentment you develop against those who sacrifice less but attain more will drive you mad, so it is best to let go
I'm from the working class, though given my mother didn't work and we relied on benefits and crime I prefer "criminal class". Anyway, so I looked at my life in poverty at 13 and decided I needed to be middle class to be happy so I changed my accent, my dress sense (at 18), mannerisms, and focused on getting into a top university, getting a masters and working as a programmer.
I succeeded and yet despite that middle class people sometimes tell me that there's something off about my accent and personality and that I don't seem fully British. Even after 15 years of acting middle class I couldn't perfect it.
So I moved to Japan. Fuck it if I'm gonna be an outsider I'll be one where I expect it. UK class system is shite.
😂 💯
Not seeming British because you're self made 😂. Reminds me of 1890's jokes that a self made person can only be American.
I know a few English people who moved for that reason. The English accent generally sounds quite upper class outside of England :)
@@GeorgiaMartin-ll9qgonly a neutral accent
Looks like you were part of a pretty horrible group of people unfortunately.
It is rather simple: Lower Classes -- they are owned. Middle Class -- they own themselves. Upper Class -- they own others. Or in economic terms terms: Lower Classes -- living day by day, no assets, no access to capital. Middle Class -- they own as personal assets what they utilize, but need to work for a living, some have capital. Upper Class -- no need to work, living off capital gains, own and control resources and societal narrative.
This is so simple yet true. I will no doubt drop it into conversation to sound clever.
Yes , well done. When defining class in financial terms, this just about sums it up.
This is very true but there's also an element of what you are born into. As pointed out in the video David Beckham would be considered 'working class' but obviously has enough cash to live off the interest today. It's more 'If my parents were owned I am lower class...' etc.
@@iainwall, yes, but as he said, not everybody has got great talent, and Beckham grew up in a time, when even being talented was an easier way to (long term) success, than these days. And… also said, that if you are poor, trying to survive, as many do these days, it’s hard to become inventive, creative, have cool business ideas.
However, the above comment is really impressive… when it comes to a comparison between colonialism and how the ‘peasants’ were treated by the same white upper class twits in their own country… no, there wasn’t much difference. Africans or Brits - all being mistreated by some few, ‘born into power’ people with delusions of grandeur. And as he states… in Kenya it doesn’t make much of a difference any more either, which colour, nationality you are, or which social background you have. As soon, as you make it somehow to a good education, and speak the right way, you may succeed… with some talent and ruthlessness, likely, or background money or class, which still make it easier to go places.
But saying, that poverty is always something self-inflicted, is becoming a more and more fashionable opinion, just as it was in the past.
Having the poor as the scape-goat for society values declining, is wrong, as can be. Not looking, where the money goes, is a mistake. It goes into some rich people’s pockets, mostly out the lower and middle working-class bank accounts, who can’t afford tax advisers, property, or foreign hideaways. If it went into education, environmental protection (sewage…), health-care, ah education, did I mention education?, wages, more than minimum, affordable housing, education… society would thrive.
However, I’m a little disillusioned by now… having grown up through the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I thought, we’d be on the way, to become better people in a better world, but the last 20 years, or so, were like a rollercoaster ride in reverse. Back to intolerance, class divide (only new classes by wealth or infamy), fanaticism - political or religious, or both - war-, and fear-mongering, propaganda. It’s so sad…
@@stefanieberg1569You sound surprised that things go backward when secularism increases..
In Germany aristocrats were expected to become officers in the army. It was sort of a unwritten contract, that they had to repay their privileges by serving the King / Kaiser/ Führer.
Showing military prowess was how you became aristocrat in the first place. You win wars, you get rewarded a castle.
Nothing honourable or sacrificial about it. Heck, without ambitious aristocrats, 90% of wars wouldn't even have happened.
@@ericdane7769 In Germany it was that the land owners lent their peasants to the military of the kings and received nobility titles as a reward.
@@ctlspl yeah, but how did they become land owners in the first place? They were part of a local warlord's warband, razed a bunch of villages and got the land in their posession. Long before Germany existed as a nation state.
Continental countries had to live with armies sweeping across their territory from time to time, upsetting the established order. Britain hasn't endured a successful invasion since 1066, so the Establishment has had almost 1000 years to bed in.
My family has always been in military positions, although my line never exeeded the rank of a knight. My granddad still sold weapons to the persians for a german company in the Wirtschaftswunder- era.
One of the highest quality, most coherent and well made youtube videos i've seen in a long time, well done mate
squarespace keepin this guy off the streets fr
I actually can be found on street corners selling squarespace
@@JimmyTheGiant Yo canna get a Q of Squarespace in 40 min 😂😂😂
@@JimmyTheGiant 3 for 100 bro?
JimmyTheJunkie for squarespace
@@JimmyTheGiantgen
My accent betrays me in some ways. I sound posh. My dad was a builder and my mum grew up in total poverty (but in a loving family). I went to a private school on an assisted place (because my parents couldn't afford the fees but I did so well in the entrance exam). I was kicked out of home while still at school when my mum died and my dad married a narcissist. I then self funded my way through the rest of my life with no financial aid. I developed anxiety, depression and chronic pain on the way - now I am over all of that and have a well paid job in London. I'm really proud of myself. However, I now get slapped with 'privileged white woman' in multi cultural intersectional victimhood loving London. It's a joke tbh. Growing up with no family support is really stressful on your body and mind, regardless of your background or skin colour. Having a loving, supporting family is the greatest privilege anyone can be blessed with, in my opinion. I do feel I've had to work twice as hard to get to where I am.
Fair play 🙌🏻
Victim privilege is definitely a thing in society, look at Oprah… billionaire victim!
Sorry your dad married someone toxic, that sucks!
Quite the life story, losing your Mum must have been tough, hope the narcissist stepmother is out of the picture now. I guess the private school is what led to the posh accent? You can change your accent if you want to.
🙄
i think its the money and the looking down ones nose, and writing off everyone else as intersectional victims that makes you a toff, ask any upper class what makes you upper class and they will say blood but ask any working class and they will tell you its power and the attitude towards those lower than themselves
Unlike in America, the British class system is mainly defined by education, not money; although of course there is still a general correlation between class and wealth. If you've been to an elite public school like Eton, you're upper or upper-middle class. If you've been to a minor public school, you're upper-middle class. If you've been to a comprehensive, you're working or lower middle class, depending on the quality of state schools where you live. Likewise, if you've been to Oxbridge or a Russell-group university, that gets you into the middle class if you're not there already. This is why private schooling reinforces & perpetuates the class system. When there were more grammar schools, and university student grants plus free tuition fees, there was more social mobility because this allowed kids from working class families to move into the middle class - this was my own experience, & I'm grateful for it. Much of that opportunity has now gone. With little opportunity for social mobility, inequality tends to increase. Inequality in Britain is now significant and increasing; and this is why reducing incentives for private education is so important, because it tackles a large part of the root of the problem.
Education AND social standing/mobility
Unlike America - it is exactly like America without the aristocracy. The upper class is privately educated and go to Harvard, Yale, Princeton, women go to Smith, Vassar, etc. In 2024 there are more private schools for the white middle class; public schools are suffering because the lower working class, immigrants, and non- working mothers on welfare provide many children with “problems.” This has lead to a teacher shortage, which is another problem. School systems are hiring unqualified teachers.
Worst thing about this country. I have a very mild Geordie accent (locals often ask where I'm from originally) but work in finance and IT for London based firms. The shit I've heard in professional meetings would be an insant sacking if I was a Pakistani or something.
I've had my accent mocked, been told I can't be taken seriously, told didn’t realise you lot could use computers, etc. The class system in this country is pervasive and vile. Can't wait to leave the UK eventually. I'm always made to feel like a lesser person here.
To add, when I'm home my family take the piss out of me now "talking posh" and thinking I'm above my station. Can't win.
@@OldQueer fuck this country honestly
Yeah it definitely goes both ways. I'm from Nottingham but hung out with and played Rugby with the kids from the local public school (I went to a school that had three one star off stead reports in a row 💀 btw), so I picked up alot of etiquette rules and posh mannerisms. Anyway due to that I often get odd looks when I go up to Northumberland or Yorkshire to see family, they see me as a posh tory even though I'm just as working class as them.
I have a guy at work who is a Geordie and he speaks very, very slowly - claims so that he's understood. I asked him once to speak normally and I had no issues understanding him, despite not being British and english not being my native language (okay his accent is thick, but not unreasonable; I would've had real trouble understanding him if we were talking over a bad line or next to a busy, noisy road, but not in a quiet environment like home or an office). It's sad how many people just stop listening if they don't hear what they expect, like an accent.
@@mortarien I've had a lot of foreign people say they can understand me more clearly than other English people. I make an effort to speak at a pace and with a cadence that's understandable to all and try to mute some of the way I'd say words if I was speaking to locals
Great job 👏🏽 I'm a French guy living in the UK for 5 years and it always amazed me how class based Britain is, I never really understood. Without the French revolution we would have the same class divide today
France isn't that different. They just don't have the titles. Much like the USA, Russia, Switzerland e.t.c, oligarchs have replaced aristocrats.
@@DolphineAchonga-gn6kn France is still much more egalitarian. UK and US are the worst unequal countries in the developed world.
@@etbadaboumI would ask you to check with France’s neo colonies and ask them how egalitarian France is….
@@randomthgt7807 France has no colonies, and when I say France is egalitarian it's not just metropolitan France
@@etbadaboum If France has no colonies, explain the situation in Caledonia? Explain why a number of African states (who have flag independence from France) have been required to maintain their gold reserves in French banks and said countries do not control their currency (France does)…Explain why the ppl in Niger and Burkina Faso have kicked the French out…Explain where the uranium that powers French homes comes from (and ask what % of homes are powered by uranium in said country)? Just start there and report back please.
As a Swede (Scandinavian) the UKs classism sounds so old fashioned and weird.
Bröllopsfotografen :)
I can’t speak for Sweden but in Denmark when I lived there, social class was very much there but it sort of ignored until people wanted to vent. My ex bf family were divorced and the dad was very working class and the mum and her partner were very middle class. It was definitely there, not to mention there are still aristocrats and Royalty as there is in Sweden and Norway (not sure if they have aristocracy)
@@sams3015 Royalty have no power and aristocrats are the same
@@sams3015 Yea I don't know what their on about, I'm also Swedish and I'm middle class but many of my friends are lower class. There is a clear difference between how we're perceived and treated.
Not really.You had a similar system until the 1800's when democracy kicked in.Sweden lost its empire fairly quickly but Britain hung on until after WW2 instilling the notion that the ordinary people benefited from colonial trade and upper class governance. We wish that we were more social democratic like Scandanavia but have a powerful elite that manipulates elections and cries false tears for tge nation under the pretext of national pride. 😢
There's an excellent book called Watching the English - The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour. It's a fascinating study of what makes English people English.
Being able to determine someone's class is hard-wired into the English. From the way you speak to what school you went to are all loud pointers towards someone's class. How you dress and even what you eat. The English (As well as the Welsh, Scots and Irish) recognise very quickly which class you occupy. How you got your money also comes into it. Inherited wealth is superior to newly earned wealth. You can't jump class with cash. You're simply born into it.
Actually, only the English have a true preoccupation with class. The class system is largely imposed upon them by the English. Before the English the Scots and Irish were much more egalitarian. Which is why they had 4 universities at a time when the English only had two (despite England having four times the population).
‘You can’t jump class with cash’ - one thing I can’t stand is people like Alan Sugar claiming to be working class just because they have a cockney accent. Sure, the born upper class may scoff at him, but I’d like to think the true working class would scoff at him as well. At the end of it money defines your life, not playing up to stereotypes.
@@keithwellerlounge74 Yes, he’s definitely not “working class”. Alan Sugar is part of the “millionaire business class”, but he is from a “working class” background.
@@andrewwotherspoona5722It doesn't mean they can always determine someone's class accurately though. They can only form an impression of what they think it is. My mother was raised in one of the most impoverished parts of UK but because she loved period dramas and related books, she always was well spoken compared to most others in her town. All her life people from her own town asked her where she was from, thinking she must be from a family with jingly pockets. Until she told them she was from the same town as them. So yeah, people made their determinations but still got them wrong.
@@cultfiction3865Exactly education plays a big factor in what class your perceived. Sometimes even if you are working class but have the right mannerisms and understanding of the English language and literature then they don't care if you have a working class background.
Let’s be honest here: if the UK truly wanted an equal society, they would start from the very bottom with high-quality, affordable (or free) education. Replicating the Nordic model, as seen in Finland, is the best example. Having lived in both the UK and Finland for a long time, I can tell you the difference in how society functions in each is abysmal.
In the UK, there are so many elites in the upper spheres who’d start trembling at the very thought that maybe their historical privileges would go down the drain a few generations down the line if we actually used a meritocratic system. Imagine this: if everyone received the same high-quality education and qualified for the best public universities based on merit, they’d have the skills and knowledge to apply for the jobs they are most qualified for, purely based on merit. At this point, we would have a final sample of people who are there for purely meritocratic reasons.
Let’s cut the nonsense about the idea that “some” Eton kids are middle class who just work hard. That’s bullshit! The price tag is too high to enter that “equality” illusion.
Education is one of the lies the upper classes sell, innovation is the only way up
Does this mean I can have your phone number 😊
All the rest also have access to schools. If a person is talented or have exceptional intelligence, the school doesn't play any role nowadays.
Plus success is based on multiple factors.
Yup
as an educated immigrant who decided to change professions & go back to university while in the UK, I worked a lot of low-paid jobs. it was hard to find friends because most people around me took little interest in history, politics, art, etc. seemed like thats reserved for the upper class. my husband says it's better to be an immigrant in the UK, than to try changing social status. regardless, because of where I am from (Poland), it seems like people still class foreigners ! it's very visible in the mimics and approach and I cannot stand the ever-present 'where are you from' question. very different in mainland Europe, where high culture is desired and accessible to all. im glad so many European countries got rid of the titles.
This is true, I live in Bulgaria where it's as cheap to go to the opera or ballet as it is to go to the cinema. Ordinary working class people know about classical music and art because it's accessible to them, maybe a remnant of communist times, which may also be responsible for a pride in national history before and after communism.
@@BonMooney oh Bulgaria is beautiful ! I absolutely loved it. My Polish friend is dating a Bulgarian guy, much more similar mindsets, social customs, etc. they are thinking of leaving UK and moving there.
I remember the case of Dagmara Przybysz, a school girl from Cornwall. She was bullied at school, constantly called "stupid Pole" and that was the reason she comitted sui cide. Of course there's a certain "class structure" for immigrants as well according to their birth country, race, economic situation back home. And Central and Eastern Europeans take double hate from both the British and non white immigrants. Some British individuals, who want to be nasty, will not verbally attack South Asians or Carribeans becauce in that case they'll be reported for hate crime immediately. But Central And Eastern Europeans could be an easy target because they share the same skin colour with Brits. It's complicated🤷♀️
@@minniemoe4797
True.
Imagine the facial expressions of such stuck up idiots gradually change, when I explain my ancestry ;
I'm Norwegian.
Plus Icelandic, Swedish, (so far so good), Finnish, and Danish, (still acceptable), and Russian, Ukrainean, Polish, and a pinch Jewish ! 😂
Love from Oslo ❤
Lithuanian (hello, Polish neighbours!) here who emigrated to the UK.
I get asked where I'm from a lot too, but it's been a mix of "you sound american/canadian" (because I do) and "you *look* European" (I'm 6'4", blonde, etc) :D
I don't necessarily mind it, as I ask people where they're from too - I don't see it as an offensive question, just human curiosity.
The class divide among the "native" (if you could call it that) brits, however, is truly baffling... I enjoy baked beans and I enjoy caviar - I really find it kinda stupid that you must either eat one OR the other somehow.
The UK Class system basically has no relevance to someones income. It's all about how they were brought up and what they think of themselves. You've got pensioners who can't afford their heating bill calling people scum because they think of them as a lower class, despite that "scum" earning 5x the money the pensioner has ever earned in their life. It's weird.
You're right. Money is only one small part of the class structure (if at all). Everything from how you speak to holding a knife and fork weighs in. Music preference, behaviour, upbringing, dress choices... it goes on and on.
Is it weird though? If it was primarily about money would it be...whatever the opposite if weird is?
Yes considerably true facts.
Scum refers to the level of your integrity and mortality certainly not your bank balance!
My comment was immediately deleted
I'm a lower class disabled single mum on benefits, not due to choice, but I sound upper middle class because I was taught to speak with a BBC British accent (I had to learn local regional accents to fit in in my peer group). It is hilarious when talking to people, especially middle class people who love chatting with me, at the theatre or a cafe in town, for example, they love talking or debating philosophy, politics or theology (the top subjects I've noticed), until they find out I'm on benefits then suddenly they're extremely confused and trying to hide their disgust 😂
Unbelievable 🙄
🙄
sounds terrible i suffer from migraines and severe adhd what is your dissability ...sorry about the posh snobs u soud like an interesting person
Caroline, is that you?
What caused you to be in such a state?
I was actually surprised when my friend told me that in England you still have leasehold type of house ownership that was abolished on the continent. The new British govermnent restricted this on July 17th.
Seen as the election has been announced it becomes official that this is the first time in British history where living standards have dropped during a single Parliament and it is the largest drop in living standards since the Napoleonic war. And at the same time the richest in society have got a lot richer deepening the divide.
Yea, I used to be someone who wasn't too concerned by the inequality that existed here, but the old illusion of meritocracy has been completely eroded in the UK now. It wasn't until I spent time away, experiencing how social classes exist in Australia, that I realised the extent of our problem. But I think it runs deep, it's often the attitude of the upper class to totally disregard any merit of anyone 'below' them, to the point that even the middle class is in an eternal uphill battle to be comfortable while the rich look down in disgust.
@@fathertedczynski just moved to Melbourne from Glasgow and couldn't agree more.
Britain might need another peasant revolt and the US might need another revolution. The King's taxes are out of hand all across the land. Cheers down under mate. My dad was from Brisbane
Thanks to the Torie Party
So does that make Alan Sugar, sorry LORD Sugar, `upper class` ??
Charles Dance literally changed his lower class accent to an upper class one with a dialect coach when he went into acting. I watched him having lunch with his brother on Finding Your Roots and they sound completely different.
Smart man
I changed my accent to posh when I came to England from Ireland in the early '70's. It was the obvious thing to do given the class system. Apart from that, it seemed pernicious to me that the 7% of the population who went to schools their parents could pay for (rather than being smarter than the other 93%) were running the country. A lot of talent was obviously being wasted with this state of affairs.
Just finished watching your vid on high streets, and now this. You've got a genuine talent for being able to talk about history and important topics in a fun and engaging way. Great channel and you've got a new subscriber.
People like Rishi didn't necessarily earn their own money by their own merit. He was born into a good amount of wealth and had all the tools to make more at his fingerprints. That combined with the fact he married a billionaire.
This is often overlooked. It's not so much the money you have but the doors you have open to you by virtue of going to the "correct school" for example. If you're from a poor background but your family can somehow pay to put you through a fancy school, you're not better educated than those in the state system, but you have connections there for later life that those in state school would never, ever have had access to even if they were the most intelligent and brilliant minds of a generation.
There's a reason most people in positions of high office or power in this country went to places like Eton and Winchester, or one of the fancy universities. Both of them Just having that on your CV gets you through doors that wouldn't even be closed for people who went to other schools, they wouldn't even SEE the doors.
@@TalesOfWarthe difference is that in britain you could do service to the empire and make a name for yourself but in india if you were born in a low caste or untouchable hindu family you would never be able to be a high rank officer or have wealth or own land.Many British officers were not nobility of course and still reached high ranks.Europe has been ahead of Asia in this aspect for centuries.
Yes that is true
Exactly no way is Rishi Sunak self made. For a start he does have an aristocratic accent, and had an expensive education at high end private schools and all the right connections to use honest people's heads as stepping stones
and how much he made off covid
It's so refreshing to see someone speaking honestly about our suffocating class system!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Entertaining and informative.My British mother met my Bengali middle class father at Oxford where they were studying.They married at the height of India's Independence and raised three children.All three went to university and did Masters' degrees.My professor mother from Delhi University,took up a Spalding Professorship in Oxford after retirement.Wrote 17.books ,became an Internationally known specialist on Gandhian studies ,and died at 93.
Using Stepen Merchants face when you talk about the merchant class is cracking me up so much lool
It's a great gag
That was too good 😂😂
The first time I saw a Merchant, I thought "hilarious". Then next time I saw it, I thought "Oh... It's going to be every time is it? That's going to get old." But after that, it didn't get old! It was still awesome!
I cracked up every single time I saw it!
I had no idea who it was, so thanks for clearing up the mystery. 🙂
we did decapitate a king in England, or rather the middle class did. And we didn't nerf them, rather the middle and upper classes nerfed everyone else. Then Thatcher sold them the American Dream
America is pretty good to live in actually.
@@righteousmammon9011Depending on the State. Ever seen the poverty-stricken areas of Florida? I have. I floored it through those neighbourhoods.
@@righteousmammon9011it’s depends on where you live in if you live in the suburbs your Doing okay but if you live in the Hood my only advice is to avoid them or learn how to dodge bullets.
@@righteousmammon9011 Full of paranoia over there
@@righteousmammon9011Just don't look at all the poor people eh?
im impressed, as a brit working class with a keen interest in topics discussed the guy gives good info, informed perspectives and doesn't push an agenda. subscribed mate well done im look for more investigative journalism and social commetary
Anytime an aristocrat goes broke, a chav receives his Adidas tracksuit.
😂
😂😂😂 love it!
Northface tracksuit, but yeah haha
😅
😂😂😂 I am dead
It’s interesting how the 17th century British colonists along the North American midatlantic were a weird mixture of aristocratic “second sons” who had to make their own fortunes, destitute peasants who were cleared off the common land by the Parliamentary Enclosure Acts, and skilled laborers from the middle class. They mostly felt pretty ok adopting a new lowest-class (enslaved and indigenous people) because they thought that was how the world works and they were just glad that bottom class wasn’t them. And yet we still act like peoples’ place in society is because of their own personal choices. Some things haven’t changed.
My fucking ass America has ever had a class system, and anybody who's complicit and indifferent to one ever being established in this country will also be on the receiving end of a barrel of a gun.
If you're frustrated with our American standard of living, then be a citizen and organize. And keep this bullshit on the other side of the Atlantic, fucking repulsive.
My ass America has ever had a class system. And anybody who is complicit and indifferent to one ever being established will also be the receiving end of the barrel of a gun.
If you’re frustrated with our American standards of living, then be a citizen and organize. And keep this on the other side of the Atlantic, fucking repulsive.
Being enslaved ultimately requires your consent.
"And yet we still act like peoples’ place in society is because of their own personal choices. Some things haven’t changed."
Quite a few things have changed since the 1860s, a lot of immigrant groups had to endure serfdom or even slavery-like conditions many decades later, and yet they are doing much better on average.
@@celticdeamon567how can a child consent to slavery?
"I am a man of the people, vox populi vox dei" this might be one of the most ironic sentences said.
Can't stand the man, but this clip made me cackle
Vox watuli ? 🤷🏻♂️🤣
I think it was on the Second Thought that I heard: There is no middle class, upper class or lower class. There's only working class and the ruling class. If you have to work to get through the month and don't get to call the shots, you're working class.
I liked that painful reality check.
Not so. The concept of 'working class' is founded in the idea of people who are employed by other (owners, maybe through a structures of managers) to do tasks. They are relatively powerless; they need not be educated; they can change jobs but they don't control what they do. Professionals - doctors, teachers, lawyers, managers, accountants, etc - are different in that they earn more, they have qualifications. There is a difference in lifestyle, house ownership, pensions and in expectations, but they are still working for a living, at someone else's beck and call. The upper classes OWN stuff and can take decisions about how to derive income from it. They have more control over their lives (and their decisions affect the lives of thousands of others. However, they do still have to work in as much as taking those decisions, and getting it right - that's work, too.
@@rogerstone3068the point of the comment is that the professionals and working class still have more in common with each other than the either do with the upper class that own everything and want to stay at the stop. Divvying up the differences is what the elite want
@@occamsfarm1675 also, many people think they are middle class but they are really just playacting middle class when you into account mortgages, car loans and consumer debt
I remember being fascinated learning about the british class system in school (I'm from New Zealand) and seeing it played out on programmes such as Upstairs Downstairs. I was especially fascinated by the difference between upper middle class and lower middle class, and the attempts of those groups to climb the social ladder. I do remember Billy Connolly once saying that the aristocracy and working class get along ok as neither has any need to prove themselves...they are what they are. He said it was the middle class with their desire for upward mobility who were despised by both. Then again, in the words of Edmund Blackadder...." Toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom and me in the middle making pots of money out of both of them". Or words to that effect. 😊
The most often referenced example of this by most British people is Hyacinth Bucket from Keeping up Appearances. She pronounces her last name as "bouquet" and puts on a posh accent to appear better than everyone else.
@@TalesOfWar Yes I loved that series! Her embarassment of her working class roots was perfectly captured....love that her sisters and Onslow always managed to bring her maximum embarassment though 😊
This was basically the premise of saltburn
The British system has had a huge impact on our society as you'd expect, and while we don't really acknowledge it as much, I'd say Ao/NZ absolutely has the same nonsensical class system. You can be on the dole and still considered middle class just becausethats how you were raised, or be a homeowner but still considered practically an untouchable because you earn your living via sex work. Look at differently those two people would be treated by the justice system too, just as a couple of examples.
@@sarahquill7423 Yes I think we have remnants of the class system here, perhaps more in NZ than Australia? But people are often put into pigeonholes based on what their parents did, or how they were brought up. But it doesn't seem to matter quite as much over here...perhaps we have a more relaxed version of snobbery! 😊
Working class: Uneducated
Middle class: Educated
Upper class: Inherited
Well said
Then as an American, I am a hybrid of the middle and upper classes.
And it’s not a uniquely British concept either.
@@phoenixrose1192 true class/caste systems are all over the world 🌎
@@chrisbacosBritish system often means its incredibly difficult to enter the upper class. Its not simply inheriting common things like homes. More so estates, social status, titles etc
I grew up in both Manchester and London as a kid, on a council estate in South West London and a coucil estate in South Manchester, and I also lived in both cities as an adult as well, although I now live in North Yorkshire in a quiet rural area but I regularly visit London, and when I did last week, and especially when I visited areas like Chelsea, Richmond, Kew, Hampstead and St Johns Wood, there was just this horrible feeling inside me that I just didnt belong, despite the fact I got a degree and am an intelligent and decently dressed guy who has travelled, it always felt to me that I just dont have the social, economic and cultural capital or the accent of these people. Even sitting having a coffee in some of those areas made me feel even more of an outsider, as if I would be told to move away for the upper middle class patrons who deserve a seat and not me. Tje worst thing is that you feel ignored in these areas, I would prefer to be explicitly told I dont belong more than just feeling like I dont exist.
They're snobs. And you're not. They have always looked down on everyone else
I'm from Central Europe and I grew up in a somewhat rural area in a working class family. I got a degree and now I have a relatively good job. And I also feel the same way, while I can pass for middle class, I still identify with the working class more. I even prefer the company of my childhood friends, most of whom are much closer to the working class than I.
Fuck 'em. Get yer sen in pub and forget about it. The prices are gash and the beer's piss down South anyway, lad.
Broski u live in Merton council when u were london
@@nascarcricketer4702 I lived in Wandsworth for part of my youth.
As an American I find this whole class system so strange. I grew up upper middle class, but I had friends that grew up in trailer parks and grew up in broken homes. I didn’t care.
We have a class system in the US, but not like this. Cmon England
England is stuck in the Georgian era. If you’re talented, intelligent or have a knack for something, they stifle your creativity or try to get you to humble your expectations. With you guys, you find a way to nurture, mature and make talent/knack great. There’s also opportunities for developing it which we don’t have here in the U.K. The U.K. has no regards for excellence, until you make it elsewhere and then they claim you. That’s why, in my opinion, they currently can’t even compete on the same global stage as some of their formerly “lower” counterparts. Quite a few former balkanised economies doing well right now and most of them are geographically closer to Russia.
Yeah England, switch your class system to be based only on income and race like us normal people 😂
Softer...
At least in England, they can all afford to see a doctor… even those from "broken homes" (whatever that is supposed to mean).
@@mickimickiafford, maybe. But from what I hear the current conservative government has pushed austerity so hard for some specialists you will be waiting years for first appointments.
many people who think they got social mobility reward of solely working hard, "no-one was helping me up I did it all on my own ".
you have to work hard but you also need a bit of luck . there are so many factors that can stop social mobility
that’s my gcse history revision done for today 😂
Best of luck in your exams 🤞 I can think of worse teachers
icl same like half of power and the people is in this 😂😂
Just make sure you don't mention going down the pub with da boyz
@@Arsenaldude21 good gosh!!! we'd never do such a thing when I was young...
.... It was a bottle of 20-20 down the park before heading to the nearest rave 😂
ughhh i wish - i do health and the people 😭
Would love to see a more detailed breakdown of the miners strikes and subsequent closures and the years that followed
Yeah I second that; The 1926 General Strike is a great topic
As an American I say thank you to the creator and also thank you to all those from England that commented, as this has greatly opened my eyes to England, which is my native land many generations ago. I hope England is able to learn and find its way
And there are issues here in America too.
Please 🙏🏻 stop. I’m American and this is what it’s like in the northeast. What are you talking about as an American? This was brought on over and not leaving. 😑
In India, it's doesn't stop at the cutlery. It also varies from area to area.
You can't use the same water well.
You mustn't allow your shadow to touch the upper class.
You can't walk in front of their house.
You can't use the same temple. And so on...
Wow that's nasty.
@@davidh6300 that's the reality. Easily found on a Google search.
Only limited in dehati people lol.
@@amvideos1041 true, although not entirely. It happens in urban areas plenty, but I believe it's more refined, I've heard only untouchable students cleaning toilets in a school, urban area, not others.
Plus, most people in India live in rural areas.
@@youknow6968 not happen in Bengal or Assam.
Your class also depends on what your parents class is. So David Beckham can be a self made multi millionaire , but his father was a kitchen fitter, and his mother was a hairdresser and that and where he grew up will always make him working class .All the private jets and sports cars won't change that. But his kids will be middle class, and his grand kids who knows ? Grace Kelly became princess Grace of Monaco, and nobody's calling her kids working class oiks .
well said
normally all the money is lost in the 4th generation - fact
Yeah but Grace Kelly was not working class, she was already a rich girl from Philadelphia.
It's not all rosy on the continent, either. Germany still hangs onto a school system that is blatant institutionalised classism. Filtering 10-year-olds so they go to the "right" type of school leading to the "right" qualifications (trade, 'nicer' trade, uni) is considered some kind of cultural treasure. People placed into one of the lesser tracks *can* still grind their way to higher education, but that ends up taking a lot longer; it's basically an endless game of catch-up.
@@niwa_s Thank you! You are one of the few people on here who has perspective. It’s no worse in the UK than anywhere else in the world, we’re just frank and honest about it while other countries hide behind a different face.
Although there are far fewer private schools in Germany than in the UK, many parents send their kids to extra coaching lessons or employ a private teacher to teach their kids outside school hours, which might even be the same teacher they have at school. This is called "Nachhilfe" and is in itself a multi-million euro industry.
In Spain, it got so bad in the 1930s that we ended up having a civil war because of the clash of classes. Resulting in 1 million Spanish deaths. Unfortunately, those struggles still continue in Spain. But it is fascinating to see how different European countries adapt to their social hierarchies as well as the needs of their people.
Would you say you can still see remnants of classicism in Spain?
I'm currently in Madrid, studying spanish, and I've travelled a bit through Andalusia and Valencia and the society feels very friendly and "eye to eye".... But it's obvious to me that without the language I just can't understand the culture.
I'm slowly progressing, it'll be a while... But as i said, to me, the Spaniards seem very community oriented and not ones to be divided by classicism.
@@oh_rhythm Most definitely Spain has a classist undertone. I am a highly educated middle class expat living in Spain. Both lower and upper class individuals will make you feel you do not belong in the same lot as theirs.
@@guillesrl7569they're racist
A good docu by Juri Lina
*”CIach0fF0rzez”*
Rishi sunak is self made?? HE MARRIED A BILLIONAIRE'S DAUGHTER!!!!
Yeah, but he chose to do that himself. Nobody gave him that marriage on a plate. He had to go out and find her.
His father is a buisnessman and a chemist,sooo...
that's why it's called marrytocracy
Yeah Rishi Sunak’s wife is worth $700m but Rishi himself is worth $200m. A billionaire wouldn't marry off his daughter to a bum..
Richi is apart of the East African Elite.
I am a French guy really enjoying this analysis. keep on.
In the western world it has became more revelant to talk about socio cultural background than social classes. Growing up in town or in the country makes a difference, growing up with books at home, etc... i think i never commented here but i love the work and topics here, i've always been fascinated in the study of different humain groups (these last years i discovered thomas sowell, if i dont agree with everything, his study of socio ethnical groups around tthe world within history makes a lot of sens imo).
You forgot to close your parenthese
@@johnegan5967 yup. sooooory. wow! 18 likes in a few days, i wouldnt have thought. But if it brings poeople to go seek about Sowell, that's cool.
I have to say, as an Irish lad, I hate when people say oh the English this the English that... Most of those 'English' people give out about are actually Norman, not even the same race as the English... The Norman's were boss all over the place, and if you dig, you'll see that many top players are indeed decended from the Norman's... Class is really a racial thing, in the case of England that's forgotten but it's almost always a racial thing..
The names of the major aristocratic families are Anglicised French Norman names. These families still own huge areas of England. The Grosvenors, Cadogans, Beaufort, Howard's, Boelyns and Mercy's.
Ethnic*
That is a very accurate observation. I live in the west country near to the famous private schools Sherborne Boys and Sherborne Girls - seeing the kids walking around town you can clearly see that the upper middle to upper class are a different ethnicity from the local Anglo-Saxon working class.
This is an argument That I have put forward for quite some time, I am a working class English man, my family has been exploited by the ruling classes for as long back in history as I am able to research. Two were transported as convicts to America for poaching. One was pressed into the Royal navy in the Napoleonic wars. I finished my schooling at the age of sixteen with no option of taking it further, not through lack of ability but through lack of opportunity, so I started my adult life as one of Thatchers unemployed and its been a struggle ever since.
Yes feels racial indeed! And considerably even more today in the UK, as it is for the world at large dare I say. 😒
The intriguing thing to me is that the poorest person in the UK can go and live in Nigeria right now and immediately be rich. You'd instantly be part of the upper class, live in a mansion because nigerian currency is peanuts compared to the pound, get a top job in the government beause you have mandatory western education and chill with the country's elite because your british accent makes you automatically be seen as elite. But we all just stay where we are and stay poor. £1 is equivalent to around N2000 right now.
And its also crazy because many of the immigrants that make up the poorest sectors of UK society came from the upper class in their home countries. I know a lady whose parents were Nigerian royalty before they emigrated to UK. They spent the rest of their lives living in a Croydon council estate.
The issue of course being the fact you moved quite far away from your family back in England if you settled in Nigeria, and also the aspect of safety (being white in such a country would make you a target for kidnapping) should be the primary reason why not too many Englishmen move there.
I from London and my grandparents are from Bangladesh. I went there last year, and they were literally treating me like royalty and a celebrity.
It seems that German pensioners often move to live in Greece / Bulgaria.
@@magnuscord Хахахаххх! Те продължават да са пенсионери/обикновени, при това...
2:40 The unlucky aristocrats in this system were the Saxon noble families. When you look at genealogy, you find many but not all nobles will have a direct link to William conqueror. That's because they seized land off the Saxon nobles and gave it to the Norman Nobles. There were only 3 Saxon families who survived the Norman conquest. Many of them moved to the Byzantine empire where many Joined up and became Varangians, wh were the historically the Byzantine personal Viking body gaurd.
The King descends from Alfred the Great
@@jasonhaven7170 yes but only indirectly.
@@Cadence733 What does that mean?
@@Cadence733 By that logic, the King is also not related to the Stuarts or Tudors, because they had to go through 50 other people and a woman to get to the Hanovers.
I am greek and I find this very interesting
Where can I find more info?
Speaking of class & power, here's the key take away: power isnt something you have, it's something that's given, and while the working class possess the most power, they've given it all away.... effectively for free, for nothing. Actually not quite for nothing. They gave away their power in return for spite.... and unsurprisingly, to use towards each other.
True power comes from the barrel of a gun.
@AutismIsUnstoppable true power comes from the ability to lead people, what good is a gun if you have no one to use it?
@@chrisdonish NVM. Dude doesnt understand the concept. Force comes from the barrel of a gun, but these importance nuances wont register with "Autism is Unstoppable"...
@@chrisdonish Worked out pretty well for the guy who said it first.
And the only way a wirking class person can access that power is through proper taxation to the very rich.
British Class System= Indian Caste system= Russia Oligarchy control system = Arab Royal Family Rule system = Corporate controlled America system. Hope that makes sense
Another great one Jimmy. Just one thing:
These days there is a separation of INCOME CLASS & SOCIAL CLASS. Although there used to be an intersection, these days its kinda important to distinguish
Good thing he just made a video about it.
My dad studied in England for a brief while when he was young. I never quite got why he believes in some stuff regarding "the levels of people" he does throughout my life, we're an educated but definitely not wealthy family and where he was born they didn't even have electricity until he was in his early teens. The chain of education if you can call it that started with my grandpa and his brothers, they were from a rather neglected village in a rather neglected city in Anatolia and together they all supported each other through school and all became teachers, judges and prosecutors. Money doesn't run in the blood but he still holds some of these beliefs especially those from the middle class you've mentioned in the video. Crazy how 2-3 years in a foreign nation can affect you. Thanks for finally enabling me to understand some of his views.
At least that kind of family mindset helps you to avoid "slumming it" by having the confidence to at least make ends meet. Sometimes the worst thing to happen to poor people is the mindset that things can never change for themselves, whether real or not.
@@stevencooper4422 I guess so. After commenting that paragraph I dove deeper into the topic, apparently the belief of being born a minimum wage worker and dying that way is quite popular amongst the working class.
How we tolerate and make light of a class system in this country is beyond me. Someone is basically denied or given a whole host of opportunities based on who their parents are. If it was based on race or gender or something else we'd be up in arms, but somehow it's okay to do it based on your accent and your family background. Amazing for a 'progressive democracy'.
@@scallamander4899 Because it’s no better in most countries. The difference is, we’re frank about it while others hide behind a different face.
@@phoenixrose1192 and that makes it ok because?
@@Bromar1 It’s not ok, but it’s just the way it is.
Professional victim 😅?
@@phoenixrose1192 Same has been said about any injustice during its existence, including slavery and all the rest.
Within living memory, Britain lived in a state of unrecognised apartheid. The fault line running through society was whether or not you were a 'gentleman' (or lady). Qualifications for this evolved over time time, but the hallmark was breeding and education - before state education it would be public school, Oxbridge and posh parents. Gradually though, doctors and lawyers were accepted into the fold. You didn't have to be rich - 'impoverished gentlefolk' made the cut- because of their breeding and education. It was accepted that the 'common' people were there to respect and serve the gentry. So the different classes occupied different parts of the pub, train, public parks and every public space was effectively segregated.
Oddly enough, many of the 'common' people were happy this this arrangement, believing it was ordained by God. You knew who you were and your place, and there were fewer of the insecurities and anxieties associated with meritocracy.
I'm from Mile End in the East End of London. I used to talk with a Cockney accent. My mum was a machine press operator in a local factory. But I was a fairly bright kid and got to go to university. When I got there in 1968 people thought I was a cleaner/janitor whenever I spoke, rather than a student. I felt the weight of the class system on my shoulders and developed a well pronounced chip, which I still have.
Working class didn't lead revolutions around Europe. They provided the muscle, but revolutions were led by middle class and counter-Elite. Most of the victims of the French revolution were peasants from Vendee region. Most of the people who rose to power in French revolution were upper-middle class. Same in Russian revolution and most others.
yep, peasants revolt was the same, the old records for my town in Essex show it was the merchants who were wanted for arrest afterwards, basically shopkeepers running things mafia style
@@GolerGkA That could well be the problem!!
@@GolerGkA Well the English elite was dispossessed or killed off in 1066, then the Normans intermarried with English people so the lines became blurred.
But it’s not like there weren’t any rebellions in our history either, the English Civil War being a good example. We could also class the Roundheads as middling class too.
Interestingly enough, it was an Englishman called Thomas Paine who actually influenced the American War of Independence and in turn the French Revolution. Research the Rights of Man and Common Sense.
I'm Irish, I've lived in London, qualified as a barrister with a scholarship, won awards, the lot, but when I interviewed for roles I experienced prejudice, I was always viewed as weird and unsophisticated, my qualifications didn't matter, I was called "too colloquial" "too informal" "too chatty". I work in law in Ireland now and no one cares about my accent. Suggestion, as interesting as your video is, do not include an Irish accent in your description of the British class system, we are not part of Britain, people fought for that, thanks.
Ok
Doing a great job bud, top quality videos mate genuinely really watchable content made with passion. Top work!
Thank you so much for this video! I am German and I have my oral state exam in English next week and I was dreading it so much. But your video was so informative and funny at the same time, it really lifted my spirits a lot 😊
Its great how you present your videos, you provide great balance to them. We don't see much of that on social media or even on TV now. Keep up the good work
You seem to suggest that Sunak got power through hard work. What I think happened was high expectations from his parents and from his educational environment. You’re the odd one out if you don’t get into power if you’re in those circles. He just wanted to please his parents and peers. No-one who genuinely loves and cares for themselves would choose that path.
In the school that I went to, in my year of ~100 I was one of ~5 people to go to uni. Did I work hard? Not really, I just didn’t have any friends so there was nothing else to do but study. And, being an immigrant, I had to work extra hard to meet the expectations my mum had placed on me.
As the middle class disappears so ladder upwards from the working class to wealth and a decent lifestyle also disappears. The gap between the working class and the middle becomes too much.
There are only 2 classes left in the UK:
The Owner class (other people work to like their pockets)
The Worker Class (you work to survive)
False dichotomy fallacy.
There is many social classes.
There is the owner, investor, small enterpenouer, manual working, intelectual working, managerial, political and journalist classes
@@stanisawzokiewski3308not really, either you work for your money/living or others work for your money/living its one of those 2 and the things you listed fall under those 2 categories
@@stanisawzokiewski3308massive and unnecessary complications. Journalist class? Cmon.
@@smo-king6504 That level of over simplification is so astronomically idiotic you have to be joking. Someone on Universal Credit who doesn't bother looking for a job is suddenly part of the "owner class" because they are not working for their income? really?
@@Casual93 I quess information distribution and narrative creation is a bit too long.
Maybe media class would be better, they arent quite celebrities but not exactly writers. I guess we could squezee them into those two depending on how much influence they have or how much work they do.
“We didn’t decapitate any kings…”
*Cough! Charles the First, *cough! Cromwell, *cough!
Regardless, I loved your upload mate and love the way you presented all this. Hit the nail on the head.
Cromwell’s proto Stalinism was way ahead of its time was it not?
Some of the “facts” in this video where shaky at best! However, the video tackled the topic in an engaging and well-presented way.
Didn't Cromwell die before he was dug up and his corpse decapitated?
This should have way more up-votes!
@@pumpkinpatch5 Cromwell was a ruling faction’s hatchetman. Ireland can tell you how much a man of the people he was
0:50 I love that the UK has anime villains
I'm always real impressed by your videos. Thanks for sharing.
He’s British, innit!
I like the turn that the channel has taken. Well documented, open, good commentary.
This video reminds me of this cool cartoon I saw online. It features a bunch of working class men confronting an aristocrat on his land. The dialogue goes something like this:
Aristocrat: “This is my property, you’ve no right to be here. Get off my land now.”
Working class guys: “What right do YOU have to this land? How did YOU get hold of it?”
Aristocrat: “I inherited it from my father of course.”
Working class guys: “So how did your father get the land?”
Aristocrat: “He inherited it from HIS father.”
Working class guys: “But how did his father get the land?”
Aristocrat: “He fought for it.”
Working class guys: “Well…we’ll fight YOU for it.”
The start was so funny 🤣
Vlaams belang?
@@gunterification Vlaanderen weer van ons!
@@fallfountain6038 yup maar het gaat weer moeilijk worden zoals altijd.
@@gunterification Ben jij niet erg racistisch?
@@gunterification Na 9 juni zal het hopelijk makkelijker worden
Some excellent points raised, very balanced and approached with thought. Brilliant video mate 👏
Your videos are brilliant, very interesting.
@ 8:30 The Two Ronnies skit with John Cleese is class, no pun intended 😃🤓
Amazing video, very insightful. First video ive watched on class that is not only well explained and informative, but entertaining too.
Love the content Jimmy. Thought I should mention that you didn't mention that the main purpose of the aristocracy in the Norman period up until the Georgian period was to mobilse the peasantry in an event of war or rebellion to march under the Kings banner as there was no full time army. Cromwell being the exception as he had a full time army as Protector of the Realm.
I think you missed a step. King Charles I? House of Stuart? Beheaded in 1649? Ring anything at all? Maybe Oliver Cromwell?
‘We didnt decapitate any kings’ upset me more than it should have
I thought it would be interesting to go over how they brought back the royalty showing maybe deeper fears within British society of not having this class system that remains ingrained to this day
@@nukelertoonz8418 it was mostly political how they brought back the royalty, done by aristocrats in the house of lords who had been kicked out of parliament by the army in prides purge the average person was mostly indifferent everything they jsut wanted the wars to be over and restoration of the monarchy was sold to them by the aristocracy
@@mrmug4000 Yes but there was a movement to include more of the lower classes in the wars from the roundheads’ side. Especially with the development of the New Model Army. Also, the rise of the ‘merchant class’ was after this period, during the interregnum as that’s when Cromwell mostly started expanding to the Caribbeans and passing laws like the Navigation Act (although Elizabeth kinda started it beforehand im pretty sure). So my point is that it’s all linked together; this point I feel might’ve started to change things?
@@mrmug4000 To be brutally honest, if you're making a video about British history and talk about the monarchy and are completely unaware of this fact of it.. You probably shouldn't be making videos about it as you don't know WTF you're talking about. Because from this moment on, the rest of the video was completely wasted on me as I spent the rest of it picking my jaw up off the floor.
Britain did decapitate a king. That was a whole important part of history where parliament gained power above that of the king because he had betrayed his people.
Dont bring evidence and reason here.
Stop taking away their hope of ascending in class. Else they might revolt. This video would be banned.
“Most people are normal” exactly, yet individualistic cultures instill dreams of stardom into them. Be a baker or plumber & be happy.
And get paid proper wages.
@@hannelorefly Bakery, hardware store, Main Street, nothing but cobwebs, but everyone’s got a content channel 😆 madness
I dont have working class friends is classic nobility at its finest
So if I don't have any friends I'm noble too?
'Cause I wouldn't have working class friends then.
😁
Well done, thoughtful and funny. That's always the best combination.
maaaate, that was awesome, funny and packed info, I thoroughly enjoyed this video.. wow🙋🇨🇿❤️
The amount of oldies that still buy the Daily Mail, queuing up and complaining about waiting hours in the NHS says a lot about our current society.
That plague weather map is absolutely brilliant 😂😂
Squarespace maintaining jimmy social class status 🎉
These videos are great. It's my birthday today and this is a fab gift! :D
Loving the vids, loving the JRG origin story, killer writing & editing.
I was surprised to see a couple of Australian shows spliced into the episode about class history. Seems odd to see
My class radar is fire! Let me do you... your parents rose out of the working class to be middle class, and you had middle-class friends.
My only disappointment
Cannot, I repeat, cannot talk about how the merchants and middle class emerged without (at the very least) touching on the plunder of other countries i.e. colonialism. Before Capitalism there was Mercantilism.
Exactly. As if merchants were holy and saint, rather than becoming rich on the spoils of war and the slavery of colonialism.
That's pretty true. Newly in the UK, I have a university degree, an office job, I believe I speak relatively well and yet, paying rent altought living a decent life. I consider myself to be part of the working class altough other people may see me as middle class.
In my opinion, owning the house you live in and having an extra income or a higher income than 50k/year makes you an entry level middle class. It's not about how you live but about the financial security and how close to destitution you are if something goes wrong.
Good video thanks.
For viewers who might have wondered who he is...
Gary, the guy featured at about 23:30, also has a YT channel (Garys Economics) and is very good at explaining some of the mechanisms by which (some) people are rich/poor.
He's a solidly working-class lad who was good at maths as a youngster and became a very successful trader for Citi-Group.
He's quite brutally honest about what he sees.
I don't know where he gets the £8900 per year income in the 1950's - it was more like £300 - in 1964 a warehouse porter would earn less than £5 per week; by the late 1960s £20 per week was considered a good wage
Greate video
Can see the amount of research you did -- nice!
When everything is lobbied away, it has to be regulated back again. A good thing is that democracy still exists, but the problem is to find very capable people that care about others. If you have the skills then it is easier to make money in the corporate world then to work in politics and be exposed to public scrutiny. It is quite a thankless job.
just got on to your videos and after watching a couple im hooked. dont suppose you where free running in south bank about 11 years ago :D
I most certainly would have been haha
@@JimmyTheGiant I might have actually known you :D used to go down there ever weekend, was a long time ago though so maybe not either way your smashing it !!
A brilliant and engaging history of the class system. A perfect resource for schools.
The physiognomy of the thumbnail is so real. AI knows.