Downloading My Brain: Middle class targets

Monday, January 18, 2010

Middle class targets

So the battle has been joined. Middle Class votes are what matter for the next election. Gordon Brown has them in his sights.

But what does Middle Class mean?

If you read The Times, most of their writers seem to think it means having your children privately educated, with all that implies for job, income & lifestyle.

A very small class; 93% of children go to State schools.

Our Prime Minister is not alone of course. One of President Obama’s first acts was to set up a Middle Class Task Force on Middle Class Working Families.

A report published in July by the Council of Economic Advisers described the kinds of jobs these American middle class families would need to fill in the future.

Aircraft Mechanics: 2008 median earnings: $51,390
Medical Records and Health Information Technicians: 2008 median earnings: $30,610
Environmental Engineering Technicians: 2008 median earnings: $41,100
Electrical Power Line Installers and Repairers: 2008 median earnings: $55,100

A lot broader than our definition of middle class – I am pretty sure most would fall into the Registrar General’s Social Class 3. Bang in the middle of classes 1 to 5, but what we would have called Skilled Working Class.

So its not just exams that get grade inflation.

As the Economix blog commented at the time “They say there’s only one thing that matters in real estate: location, location, location. A similar mantra could apply to the job market: education, education, education.”

Now where have we heard that before?

Of course Mr Brown has not forgotten about education. He said that " the next project for New Labour, our next generation project... The coming decade will provide the UK with more middle class jobs than ever before … in the next decade, only 10% of jobs will be unskilled - the biggest number of middle class jobs in our history.” To be achieved through education.

So we have another inflation – this time in targets: 75% of people aged under 30 to have access to either university or technical college.