*** OFFICIAL BREXIT SUNLIT UPLANDS and #MEGA THREAD ***

[The Bean Counter]

Thankfully we've moved on from the simple three tier system of class in the UK, based upon your inherited wealth and titles and having a posh voice. Any recognition of "class" today is a mix of education, attitude/behaviour and income/wealth. All of these things tend to be interdependen, but you can of course be rich and act without any class.

I'm thankful that we've moved on, as I've benefited a lot from free education and a reduction in snobbery. I was somebody that had a working class chip on my shoulder, but that quickly went away at university and at work.

I think as the current over 60s die off, we have another step change in the blurring/removal of class barriers. Older people in my experience do appear more deferrent to Lord and Lady whassname. Maybe that explains why they keep voting for Eton-educated PMs.

[OngBonga]

How do you intend to create this "fairer" world poop? Are you going to reduce the number of low paying jobs, reduce the number of high paying jobs, and increase the number of middle paying jobs? That would reduce the income gap.

Who the fuck needs people earning proper money like doctors and whatnot? Wankers, being richer than normal folk and widening the income gap. How fucking selfish of them to be on 6 figures a year. They should be on half that so I'm not as poor (relatively, I'll still have exactly the same spending power though).

[Poopadoop]

How do you intend to create this "fairer" world poop?

IKR? It has only happened in places like Scandinavia and Canada because of accident, not because they tax the wealthy more than we do, so the gov't can provide proper public services.

[OngBonga]

IKR? It has only happened in places like Scandinavia and Canada because of accident, not because they tax the wealthy more than we do, so the gov't can provide proper public services.

It's hilarious you keep referring to Canada. We were talking about how the monarchy was to blame for class in the UK, and you keep telling me how the income gap in Canada, a constitutional monarchy, is not as wide as it is in the UK.

Why is the income gap not as wide in Canada? Don't they have as many high paying jobs as we do?

[Poopadoop]

It's hilarious you keep referring to Canada. We were talking about how the monarchy was to blame for class in the UK, and you keep telling me how the income gap in Canada, a constitutional monarchy, is not as wide as it is in the UK.

Why is the income gap not as wide in Canada? Don't they have as many high paying jobs as we do?

I don't expect you to understand this because you've never been to Canada, but the royal family there is essentially a nominal part of the gov't. It's more a way of maintaining ties with the UK than anything else. No-one in Canada is expected to pledge allegiance to King Chuck. We stopped being your lackey a long time ago.

And I don't "blame" the royal family for perpetuating class system, if anything it's the upper classes who want to keep the monarchy as a reactionary response to the idea of progressive socialism.

More to the point, there is very little in the way of a landed aristocracy in Canada, certainly not in the West where I am from and I've never heard of it being the case in the East of Canada either. In the UK, 30% of the land is owned by a group of 1000 people. That's enormous wealth inequality.

[OngBonga]

Seeing as you skipped that wall (fair enough) I'll just quote one comment from it for you...

If 10000 people who were previously earning the average suddenly got a pay rise of 50%, the wage gap just increased slightly, despite the fact that the average wage also just went up.

You're talking about the income gap like it's a bad thing. That isn't necessarily the case. It's an indication of a diverse economy. If there were only high paying jobs, I'd be unemployed and nobody would be making your hotel room ready for you. Either that or your hotel room is going to cost a shit ton more. Take your pick.

Low paying jobs keep the economy ticking over. We need them. We also need high paying jobs if we want to call ourselves an advanced economy. So the gap between the top and bottom is going to be wide in an economy such as ours. It's a good thing. Stop being jealous of other people and focus on your life.

[Poopadoop]

I think as the current over 60s die off, we have another step change in the blurring/removal of class barriers. Older people in my experience do appear more deferrent to Lord and Lady whassname. Maybe that explains why they keep voting for Eton-educated PMs.

Yeah let's hope you're right. My fear with any argument that "when old people die they're outdated attitudes die with them" is that it may be they're just replaced with 'new' old people whose attitudes move towards what their parents' were. But I suppose it's a bit of both going on, some attitudes change with age and others change with the times.