Social status of Borb? -

[DykesDykesChina]

I'm kinda confused about the Chandlers' social status... They're often referred to as White Trash/scum/rednecks/lower class, but Bob was an electrical engineer - in Europe, this would put him into academic middle class, somewhat below a medical doctor or university professor, but above working class professions, roughly on euqual footing with a teacher.
Why are the Chandlers always referred to as lower class, if Bob had a good engineering career? I don't know much about the social structure of the USA, anybody help out?

 

[Grand Number of Pounds]

My dad is an electrical engineer and he earns a 6 figure salary. It's not as much as a medical doctor or lawyer, but engineering is a major, respected profession that pays well.

You could say my family is a typical middle-class, suburban family.

I also think redneck/white trash is more of a way of life than an economic status. They aren't very well cultured, so that's why they call them rednecks.

 

[Kosher Dill]

When people call Borb lower-class they're referring to their social graces, and to the run-down living conditions that now prevail at 14BC. By all indications they lived a solidly middle-class lifestyle income-wise before they retired and everything just kind of decayed.

Other people didn't seem to think too highly of the Chandlers during Chris's lifetime either - back in one of their previous apartment residences there were "rumors going around" about them.

 

[DykesDykesChina]

When people call Borb lower-class they're referring to their social graces, and to the run-down living conditions that now prevail at 14BC. By all indications they lived a solidly middle-class lifestyle income-wise before they retired and everything just kind of decayed.

Other people didn't seem to think too highly of the Chandlers during Chris's lifetime either - back in one of their previous apartment residences there were "rumors going around" about them.

This makes sense... One of my uncles was an engineer with a solid career and good income, but his and his wife's social graces left VERY much to be desired.
They were kinda the outcasts of the family... Nobody wished to have anything to do with them due to their weirdo behaviour.

 

[pickleniggo]

People can be white trash and still make a good income. It's how they handled themselves that really made them what they were: litigious, ignorant, and living in filth with no desire to better their autistic son. Let's not forget how their children from other marriages want nothing to do with them.

 

[Henry Bemis]

Chris has begrudgingly acknowledged that the Chandlers aren't exactly on Easy Street. Easy to see why: two modestly respectable salaries saved up-one, an engineer's; the other, a secretary's-then blown away to not only keep a lawyer at their beck and call, but also to buy that second home in Chesterfield County that they only bought to bite their thumbs at Greene County.

 

[Alec Benson Leary]

Borb were middle-class while in their prime.

Then they retired, and basically gave up on life over a decade before Bob died. This led to a natural decay in status.

 

[CatParty]

not to mention chris chan's various early school legal issues and living in a second house may have seriously hurt their nest egg. you can also add in all his toys and crap not bought with tugboat monies. not to sound a-loggy, but the more i think about it, the more it seems as if chris might have ruined them financially.

 

[Anchuent Christory]

People can be white trash and still make a good income.

Example: Britney Spears.

 

[IceBeam]

Well, here in the USA, our idea of social class is based upon income. There's not much of an idea in most places of hereditary class, and we've traditionally been strong believers in class mobility, but that's becoming a more and more rare thing. I'd say the Chandlers were economically middle class or upper middle, but I think, in their retirement, their whole life and sense of priorities and worth atrophied. It says something that all of Bob's kids, as well as Cole Smithey, did conspicuously well in life, but Chris was a total train wreck.

 

[QI 541]

People are getting confused between Socioeconomic status and Sociometric status. One is about how rich you are, and the other is about how much people hate you.

 

[CatParty]

People are getting confused between Socioeconomic status and Sociometric status. One is about how rich you are, and the other is about how much people hate you.

who doesn't hate the rich?

 

[Tomboy]

They always seemed suburban middle class to me wealth-wise, but they way they act and live is pretty trashy. You can still be well-off and trashy.