Are you or your employees "working class"

[Pieces_of_Eight]

Americans, Aussies, Kiwis and the like, departed these shores for many reasons, but equal opportunities and freedom from our privilege/class system must have been high on their agenda. I'm not entirely sure it has worked out as expected for all of them.

"equal opportunities and freedom" weren't often on the agenda when it came to interacting with the indigenous people they happened upon. (Just sayin')

 

[Bald Rick]

.....old lord Bath often walked round longleat dressed in clothes full of holes ....

Usually in the crotch, the dirty old goat.


(Dang, I've demeaned myself by posting)

 

[glasshouse]

Americans, Aussies, Kiwis and the like, departed these shores for many reasons, but equal opportunities and freedom from our privilege/class system must have been high on their agenda. I'm not entirely sure it has worked out as expected for all of them.

They went to get land first and foremost
They generally got it, and freedom from class too

 

[robs1]

Usually in the crotch, the dirty old goat.


(Dang, I've demeaned myself by posting)

No that was his son, the one I was referring to is the one who started the safari park.

 

[Bald Rick]

No that was his son, the one I was referring to is the one who started the safari park.

Pfft ... all the upper class are dirty old goats esp the bluest of bloods

(Dang, done it again)

 

[Lowland1]

I was state educated and scraped into a decent university where I came to rub shoulders with many very privileged, exclusively privately educated folk (probably upper or upper middle class). They always had a slightly different outlook on life and their way of interacting with people outwith the set was noticeably different to what I was used to. That said, they were just people and we got along well, many are friends to this day, 20 years on.

However the thing that always stuck in my head during my time there was that their parents had probably blown six figures to get them to exactly the same spot as I was for free.

I can't help thinking that a lot of the reason behind that was based on class and driven by their parent's desire to maintain family prestige or keep up with peers, rather than the supposed advantage it gets their kids.

I've spent a lot of money on my kids education and I can tell it's not to maintain prestige or keep up with my peers. It's what I chose to give them the best opportunities I could. They're not going to inherit much but they are well educated, well travelled. well spoken and actually fit in well where ever they go. They may have to make their own way and so a good education is my gift to them it will stand them in much better stead than the sixty acres of land I could have bought with their school fees. I was sent away to school as well because my Dad didn't want me spending all my time after school on the farm. I think it has worked pretty well. Both have done History at University as I didn't want them to go to Agricultural college where they'd end up with a bunch of farmers sons all talking about how much land/cows/tractors their fathers have.
Obviously if you meet my son you might think from his accent he's a posh twit but he can drive/set up any combine or tractor as well as anyone from any comprehensive school but he can also talk about lot's of other things too.
Class is a load of rubbish it's an outdated concept.

 

[glasshouse]

Owning property is now more important than paying for education

 

[unlacedgecko]

Owning property is now more important than paying for education

It's definitely not!

 

[Lowland1]

Owning property is now more important than paying for education

What do you mean? You can't beat a good education it gives you lots of choices. There's lot's of people on here with a lot of property and they spend all their time complaining. Property works when you cash it in.

 

[toquark]

I've spent a lot of money on my kids education and I can tell it's not to maintain prestige or keep up with my peers. It's what I chose to give them the best opportunities I could. They're not going to inherit much but they are well educated, well travelled. well spoken and actually fit in well where ever they go. They may have to make their own way and so a good education is my gift to them it will stand them in much better stead than the sixty acres of land I could have bought with their school fees. I was sent away to school as well because my Dad didn't want me spending all my time after school on the farm. I think it has worked pretty well. Both have done History at University as I didn't want them to go to Agricultural college where they'd end up with a bunch of farmers sons all talking about how much land/cows/tractors their fathers have.
Obviously if you meet my son you might think from his accent he's a posh twit but he can drive/set up any combine or tractor as well as anyone from any comprehensive school but he can also talk about lot's of other things too.
Class is a load of rubbish it's an outdated concept.

Fair enough, I don’t know your circumstances and wouldn’t like to presume. I’ve nothing against private education at all, it was just an observation I made at the time.

Personally I’ve always believed formal education private or otherwise only really works with strong family support. My wife went to a terrible state school and aced her exams. Apart from being bright, she put her success down to a family which supported her and valued education. In that regard class is irrelevant (if it ever really is relevant these days).

 

[betweenthelines]

If you tell someone else what to do you are middle class, if you are told what to do you are working class.

If you own or control the means of production (eg a farmer), you are middle class.


Many years ago, some landowners would describe themselves as "gentleman farmers" only to be told they could be one or the other, but not both!

 

[Lazy Sod]

No that was his son, the one I was referring to is the one who started the safari park

There were lots of stories about old Henry, his agent and their wives back in the fifties, so he had his moments as well.

 

[robs1]

There were lots of stories about old Henry, his agent and their wives back in the fifties, so he had his moments as well.

Why not, you only live once

 

[Cowmansam]

Usually in the crotch, the dirty old goat.


(Dang, I've demeaned myself by posting)

Had a harem did he not

 

[Cowmansam]

Pfft ... all the upper class are dirty old goats esp the bluest of bloods

(Dang, done it again)

Does that make you the king or something then

 

[Lowland1]

Fair enough, I don’t know your circumstances and wouldn’t like to presume. I’ve nothing against private education at all, it was just an observation I made at the time.

Personally I’ve always believed formal education private or otherwise only really works with strong family support. My wife went to a terrible state school and aced her exams. Apart from being bright, she put her success down to a family which supported her and valued education. In that regard class is irrelevant (if it ever really is relevant these days).

Yes it’s all about how people are brought up. Generally if children turn out bad you need to look at the parents first before looking for other reasons.

 

[Bald Rick]

Does that make you the king or something then

 

[Cowcorn]

On the old forum, the chap who used to SHOUT A LOT once said that all ex-public school pupils should be killed. I thought this was a bit unfair as dad scraped enough to send me to a reasonable school, as I'm sure many of our farming dads did.
Out of my old gang, I can't think of anyone who would deserve killing for fitting the stereotype. No one became an MP, minister or civil servant- one drove an artic until he jacked it in and became a self employed builder; one runs a couple of fish n chip shops, one is an agronomist and one is an insurance agent.
Once we all left, it didn't really matter where we went to school. The only people who seemed to have a bee in their bonnet were a couple of neighbouring farmers who really had a chip on their shoulders ("My boy only went to the village school and he is just as good as anyone else!").
When I was a student, I did a year on a very well run (ie posh) huge arable farm and it was a fantastic experience, but I remember the boss giving me a pep-talk on my first day. He told me not to get any ideas about his daughter while I was there as she was very bright and destined for a sparkling professional career. Ever since then, I have tried to remember my place in the farming hierarchy.

He was probably worried that you might " fix her " and eventually fall in for the farm
Years ago my father was collecting a load of potato seed when he got a puncture on the old ford 6600 . He set off walking to the nearest pub to ring home for jacks and help it been the era prior to mobile phones . One of his workmen a young scallywag of 17 summers or thereabouts was left in charge of the tractor . Now the tractor was parked close to the front gates of a prosperous farmer with only one child a daughter . When the guvnor returned the young lassie and the young gun were getting on like a house on fire . With the wheel changed the journey to the potato field continued the young gun assuring his new love that he would see her at the local disco that Friday night
Six months later their was a wedding which of course my father attended .
He was accosted by the father of the bride who was laughing with one eye and crying with the other who said " you and your bloody puncture are the cause of this only for that he would never have got near her and fixed her " .
In the fullness of time the farm transfered to the young gun and the old farmer can rest easy because he certainly didnt squander it !!!

 

[thesilentone]

You know you've made it when your out of the shoe box

 

[robs1]

Had a harem did he not

The one did but not the one who started the safari park, they were called wifelets, he had murals of them naked in longleat house iirc, but not in the bit the public saw.