Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Affordability

[Fred-List manager (fholson]

"Tobia,Blaise" <tobiabj [at] drexel.edu>
is the author of the message below.  It was posted by Fred of
the Cohousing-L management team <cohousing-l-owner [at] cohousing.org>
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I’d like to respectfully differ with Sharon. Upper "Class" and Upper
"Income" are very different things. It was because the original post
and a follow-up post used the terms upper class and middle class that
I felt compelled to challenge the statements.

If we're just discussing income and/or wealth, Investopedia would put
a household with a net worth of $2.5 million in the top 2% - but,
again, this doesn't address the question of class. A household headed
by working people living in Brooklyn, in the house their family has
owned for generations (many valued at $2.5 million or more) is simply
not upper class. Besides net wealth, the definition of upper class
includes issues of celebrity, family lineage, etc. Upper class people
have servants, nannies, vacation houses, multiple cars.

This is why I insist that co-housers are not upper class and, most
likely, not even truly middle class (as opposed to middle income).

To clarify my position, though, all this is not to say that we aren't
"privileged." By U.S. standards most of us are indeed privileged. By
world standards, we are incredibly privileged. And, this is the
salient point in terms of discussing diversity.

-- Blaise Tobia

> Date: Sun, 19 Feb 2023 11:42:06 -0500
> From: Sharon Villines <sharon [at] sharonvillines.com>
>
>> On Feb 18, 2023, at 6:42 PM, Tobia,Blaise via Cohousing-L <cohousing-l [at] 
>> cohousing.org> wrote:
>>
>>
>The post that started this thread said some true things about the typical 
>co-houser, but also said that they are ?upper class.? A follow-up said that 
>they are ?middle class.? I think that it is important in terms of knowing who 
>co-housers are, and what our society is, to say that neither of these 
>characterizations is accurate.
>
> Pew Research Center has a calculator to determine if you are in the 
> middle-class range:
>
> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pewresearch.org%2Ffact-tank%2F2020%2F07%2F23%2Fare-you-in-the-american-middle-class%2F&data=05%7C01%7Ctobiabj%40drexel.edu%7Cf10dbaa598444e4dec0208db1333dfd1%7C3664e6fa47bd45a696708c4f080f8ca6%7C0%7C0%7C638124885744454705%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=Oc6Zn7REnkDFT50Dla2X6aGbdp7qTFax2D7onKp%2FHo8%3D&reserved=0
>
>> About half of U.S. adults (52%) lived in middle-income households in 2018, 
>> according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of government data. Roughly 
>> three-in-ten (29%) were in lower-income households and 19% were in 
>> upper-income households.
>
> Middle-class includes the professional and business workers
>
> And there are fine points about ?class? vs ?income?. I think sociologists 
> would have other determinants of whether one was ?middle class? than annual 
> income. It also is characterized by desire for ?upward mobility?, college 
> education, professional status, behavioral norms related to character and 
> ethics, etc.
>
> Income is easier to assess but the other characteristics are important as 
> well. It?s entirely possible to have a very small income and still be a 
> ?middle-class" person. And then there are artists who are outside the income 
> classes and have been dubbed the ?creative class."
>
> Sharon
> ----
> Sharon Villines
> TakomaDC [at] Groups.io
> "Neighbors Talking to Neighbors?
> Takoma Park DC and MD