Personally, I think we need social class, I see it as a kind of guide for social structure.
However I don't believe you can jump from one class to another, I don't think you can change your class, you can change your life and lifestyle, but you cant change who you are, even if you change your name by dipole, underneath it all your still you in the original sense, even if you change your gender just because you've cut off or sewn on something doesn't change the fact you were a certain sex before you went under the knife. Just as someone could move from a council estate to a castle but it's still you who lives in it, it's still your home wherever you move to.
For example, imagine a Mr. Bloggs, who in the historical sense is lower class (i.e has no or low income, poor housing, poor lifestyle etc) but in modern society would most likely be classed as working class, even if they don't actually work - anyway - imagine that person living on a council estate - now this isn't to say that everyone who lives on a council estate is lower or working class, but neither does it mean they are of a higher class. I am just trying to give an example that people can relate to in the sense that a council housing estate usually houses most working class because there is usually more affordable housing or council housing.
Right so we have Mr. Bloggs living on a council estate maybe working on minimum wage or maybe on benefits, lets say he wins the lottery and is now a millionaire. If we agree that having a lot of money equals status and power and if we assume that the elite and higher classes have power and status and money then shall we assume that Mr. Bloggs is now a member of the upper crust? I don't think so. It's just Mr. Bloggs with a lot of money.
Class has been and continues to be defined by certain properties, probably the most common being education and money. There's a lot I could go into there.
In 1515 the first free grammar school was founded in Mnachester but it wasn;'t until 1840 when the Grammar School Act was passed to enforce the needs and then much later in 1870 the Forsters Education Act made elementary education available for all, then 1876 Elementary Education Act put duty on parents to ensure 3R's then there was the 1880 Elementary Act (Mundella Act) made elementary education compulsory and blah blah blaaaaaahhhhhhhh
I cant be bothered to go on about bloody dates, to be honest I don't think it matters so much when unless it's a very significant time like the fall of the Berlin Wall or when slavery was abolished, that sort of thing. Anyway once again I am babbling so lets get to the point, just because something happened doesn't mean that when it happened is significant. (I know I know this is open to A LOT of criticism but I'm just flowing at the moment ok so bear with me...) In this case I think the end result is what matters really. That sounds like what happened in between the dates is insignificant, that is not what i mean, I am just saying the results of these Acts are the most relevant because of where they have taken us to today. Of course all this bloody business with government cuts and education budgets and all that bollox Cameron and his buddies are enforcing has opened up a can of worms we keep getting force fed with.
But anyhoo...
I was gonna get into how education can be a type of classification but I'm getting tired and I gotta get up in a few hours so I'll get into that another time.
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