Restoring faith in humanity

[kitten645]

Miss Z, you are a class act. Thanks for sharing your story. I deal with "brats" everyday and have to remind myself that I don't dislike kids, I dislike the parents that let them do those things. I bet that young fellow will find something somewhere from his friend. The Universe is good that way.
Claudia

[kokopup]

ChrisH

Zara, I find the above section from your post very condescending and, as a working class person, somewhat offensive.

Actually as I started reading this thread I thought that "Miss Z" was very carefully choosing her words so as to not offend anyone. I thought that the thread was written in such a way that no one even in the "working class", as you Brits would refer to it, should be offended. I think that the "blue collar" , as it is called in the US, would have found it tastefully written. Maybe the "working class" is more sensitive there than I have found "Blue collar" workers in the US to be. I believe most Americans would not find being referred to as "blue collar" as being a disparaging thing. I worked for years as a Systems Engineer and in that position I worked with and supervised many construction types that proudly carried the "blue collar" label. While I was considered management I related well to the men I had to work with on a daily basis. While at work our worlds were very much the same, however after work I was anything but "blue collar" and it did nothing to change how I related to the men I had to work with. I was often "teased" because My life was so different than theirs, but it was always done with respect. Most of the time I was just one of the Guys, blue collar guys.

[Catherinedana]

Zara, you have experienced a lovely balance - that's what life usually has to offer. For every frown there is a smile; for every disappointment, there is a delight. How wise of you to see it for what it was. Thank you for sharing that with us.

Cathy

P.S. ChrisH - I think you may have missed the point of Zara's post. Hope you don't hold it against her. To me she appears to be sensitive and treading carefully, not condescending. Cheers!

[Cataholic]

Koko- my take, as an American, is that the term 'blue collar' refers, largely, to type of JOB. My take, again as an American, is that the term 'working class' refers to class/caste. I guess you could extrapolate that a 'blue collar' worker is from a lower socio-economic class than a white collar worker, and that is all tied into education and opportunity that could go hand and hand with a class distinction. I don't think that is so, but it could be seen that way.

It was interesting to read Miss Z's post, and decriptive terms, as an American. I don't think I recognize the class distinction that seemingly exists in GB. Here, in the US, there are plenty of class-less, high class (based on income) people!

[kokopup]

I guess unless you were born with a family inheritance, or have decided to be a social burden, then All Americans are among the working class. It is hard to classify income by White collar or Blue collar because I know many Blue collar type works that made much more than I did when I was a Management/white collar type. Cataholic you are right there are many class-less high income Americans. I traveled World wide for many years and found that the Brashest people I ran into were Americans. I was often reluctant to admit that I was an American for that reason. I always tried to blend in as much as possible. I actually had a Dutchman respond "but You look so normal" when I told him I was an American.