Americans & Brits Have Completely Different Ideas Of What ‘Middle-Class’ Means

The United States might have declared and fought for independence from Great Britain, but many of the British customs already in place in the U.S. continued after the Revolutionary War.

One thing that the U.S. and U.K. do not have in common is their concept of what different social classes mean. One country is more focused on money, while the other goes by someone’s social standing, which has led to some confusion about what the “middle class” really is.

An American who lived in London for a while learned an interesting lesson about the middle class when he realized he didn’t understand the Brits’ definition.

A content creator who goes by the username @IdeaSoup shared the way he learned that the idea of the middle class isn’t something universal in a YouTube Shorts video. “In the U.K., ‘middle class’ means kind of the opposite of what it means in the U.S.,” he explained. “It means well off … It kind of means bougie.”

He said that people with high-paying jobs like doctors and lawyers, and even millionaires, can be considered part of the U.K.’s middle class, which is a complete departure from the American system, where middle class refers to “people who are in the middle of the economic spectrum, many of which would be called ‘working class’ in the U.K.”

Mikael Blomkvist | Pexels

So, why is there such a stark difference between the social classes of two countries that really have a good deal in common? He offered two reasons. The first is the existence of nobility in the U.K., which is its own class made up of people who have titles and land handed down through their families for generations.

The second reason is pretty similar. “Class in the U.K. is connected to money, but it’s not dependent on it,” he shared. “Class in the U.K. has as much to do with accent, who your parents are, where you went to school, things like that, as it does money.”

RELATED: The Middle Class Has Been Divided Into 5 Categories And The One You’re In Determines How Much Money You Need To Live

This makes classifying people’s social class a bit confusing in the U.K., which even Brits will admit to.

Having a title that’s survived in your family for centuries doesn’t always mean a fortune has survived as well, so it’s entirely possible for someone in the U.K.’s nobility, the country’s highest class, to be more like lower middle class or even working class by American standards.

Alex Dos Santos | Pexels

A native Brit tried to explain this in a Reddit thread that addressed the subject. “Money is not the key component of class,” they commented. “You can easily have upper middle class people who are richer than upper class. Upper class is about generational privilege and opportunities that are not just about money (though they are often linked).”

If you think about the stereotypical images of the U.K. and U.S., it starts to make sense. The first thing most people think of in relation to the U.K. is its iconic royal family, which is marked by both wealth and status. Meanwhile, the U.S. likes to project the image of the self-made American dream, meaning that anyone can get ahead if they work hard.

RELATED: British People Try To Guess How Much Having A Baby Costs In The US & They Don't Even Come Close

This reveals a lot about what each country values most.

Although it sounds a bit crass, Americans do seem to have a preoccupation with wealth. Lauren Greenfield, a photojournalist whose work was compiled in a book called “Generation Wealth,” said her career opened her eyes to American consumerism, especially after the Great Recession.

“We had lost our moral compass and were partying on the deck of the Titanic,” she said. “We now know the characters on TV better than [our] neighbors and aspire to what they have.”

RDNE Stock project | Pexels

Her words could really apply to the British obsession with nobility too, though. For hundreds of years, people have been venerated for holding a title like duke or earl, but public sentiment doesn’t really match up with this attitude. A YouGov survey found a majority of Brits thought that the upper class “has things easiest in life” and “contributes the least to society.”

Ultimately, it seems like the things that define social classes in both countries aren’t the things that matter most, and the differences in definitions make them feel almost meaningless. People are far more interesting than the labels applied to them because of their wealth or status.

RELATED: Middle-Class People Usually Have A Hard Time With Something That Doesn’t Affect The Poor Or Rich As Much, Says A Finance Expert

Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.