Because middle class is used wrong in North America.
Poverty class is simple, you don’t have enough to live.
Labor class is divided into three;
Low labor, your barely paid enough to scrape by.
Middle labor, your paid enough for your work to live.
High labor, you’re paid well for your work. Perhaps you own your own small business.
Middle class, you aren’t paid a wage or salary anymore, you’re income comes from the things you own. As rich as a politician or nobility but not much political power.
Upper class, in old Europe this would be the nobels. Duke’s, Earls, Lords, that type of stuff. In modern north America this would be the ultra rich. You have political power and you own a lot of stuff. This is where most representatives are.
Politician class, former Royal class. You rule, extreme political power and wealth.
Most people in North America think they’re in the middle class when really they’re in the Labor middle class, it’s very different
most doctors come from wealthy families. and if you are anything above a PCP, you’re making like 300K+ a year, you’re not labor class. you’re part of the 1%. yeah being a resident and an intern sucks balls, but you’re taking a short term low age for a long term massive payoff.
80% of med students come from families making over 200K a year. that’s a hard fact.
most of us who grew up in middle/lower class families never even dreamed of being a doctor because we knew it was basically impossible for us without rich parents to help pay the bills for med school.
This is something I want to address. Firstly, youre correct. The vast majority of medical students come from VERY privileged backgrounds and it shows. Hell, applications fees can run from 75 to 300+ bucks a pop and the MCAT itself is almost 400 dollars.
That being said, if youre smart enough to get into med school, you should do it. I grew up about as poor as you could, I graduated early and immediately went into working fulltime. After the dotcom burst I became an EMT then a paramedic and started working 72+ hour weeks to save up for my premed. I was MUCH older than your standard 23 year old med school applicant.
But even if you have a relatively decent job (65k in a low cost of living area), the finances work out to pull the trigger and get your MD. Without doing any self doxxing, I can say a relatively uncompetitive specialty paid more in one year than I made in 5 years as a medic. I took 2 years for premed, a gap year, 4 in med school and 3 for residency. 10 years total. Which I made back in 2 years and thats not including the pay as a resident which was actually a bit higher than medic pay.
Your circumstances might prevent you from being a traditional applicant, and AAMCAS needs to work on the financial gatekeeping. You can absolutely swing going to medical school if you have the desire, will, and capability to though. It will be hard as hell though.
There is no such thing as a middle class, that is a lie. Everybody seems to think they’re in the middle class, because that puts somebody below them, and gives them a reason to continue working under wage slavery. This is the purpose of the lie.
The fun thing is that everyone thinks they are middle class. When I was making €45k a year I thought I was middle class because I had an university degree and a leadership position. At the same time my boss, who had just spent €5mio acquiring a 50% share in a second company and owned three houses (two of which he rented out) also considered himself middle class because he wasn’t a billionaire.
I once had a friend, which gf had to send him like 10Euro per month, for him to get monthly more than minimal wage which was considered “middle class” for some fucking reason in this country.
He was so emotional about this shit, that I am still not sure if he was for real about that or not…
I bet it’s for their bank. At least in Europe, many banks charge for your account if your income is below a threshold. My partner can’t work full time so I send them like 50€ per month so that they don’t have to pay bank fees. Which is ridiculous, as we have our 3 accounts all at the same bank.
A better metric is homeownership to me. Someone who is middle class is secure and doesn’t have to rent nor pay debt. They only really have to work when it’s mutually beneficial. That is basically impossible to achieve in the modern world with the hundreds or thousands of micro taxes and cartel controlled corporate markets and complete lack of land for the lease it’s to live on without virtual indentured servitude. Even if you did spend your entire life buying a house the state would just take it away from your children with the brutal taxation. Without a home you are always going to be a slave and have to work at any shitty job just to have food and a roof over your head.
plenty of people rent their entire lives are fine. and plenty of people own homes get them foreclosed because they can’t afford the payments, or buy too much house.
owning a home isn’t really a huge economic benefit or security, unless your house massively goes up in value. a house is also a huge liability if it has problems. home owning nearly bankrupted my family at one point because of the crazy expensive repairs.
Even if you own the house and land outright, you still need to pay real estate taxes, and feed yourself. Either you have the money in the bank to cover those expenses for the rest of your life or you don’t. You can have unexpected medical expenses, houses require maintenance which is generally expensive, and transportation is still an issue.
If you have to work to live, you are working class. Full stop.
Because middle class is used wrong in North America.
Poverty class is simple, you don’t have enough to live.
Labor class is divided into three;
Low labor, your barely paid enough to scrape by.
Middle labor, your paid enough for your work to live.
High labor, you’re paid well for your work. Perhaps you own your own small business.
Middle class, you aren’t paid a wage or salary anymore, you’re income comes from the things you own. As rich as a politician or nobility but not much political power.
Upper class, in old Europe this would be the nobels. Duke’s, Earls, Lords, that type of stuff. In modern north America this would be the ultra rich. You have political power and you own a lot of stuff. This is where most representatives are.
Politician class, former Royal class. You rule, extreme political power and wealth.
Most people in North America think they’re in the middle class when really they’re in the Labor middle class, it’s very different
Even well paid doctors are labor class mostly. Because even in the past doctors weren’t as well paid as today.
most doctors come from wealthy families. and if you are anything above a PCP, you’re making like 300K+ a year, you’re not labor class. you’re part of the 1%. yeah being a resident and an intern sucks balls, but you’re taking a short term low age for a long term massive payoff.
80% of med students come from families making over 200K a year. that’s a hard fact.
most of us who grew up in middle/lower class families never even dreamed of being a doctor because we knew it was basically impossible for us without rich parents to help pay the bills for med school.
This is something I want to address. Firstly, youre correct. The vast majority of medical students come from VERY privileged backgrounds and it shows. Hell, applications fees can run from 75 to 300+ bucks a pop and the MCAT itself is almost 400 dollars.
That being said, if youre smart enough to get into med school, you should do it. I grew up about as poor as you could, I graduated early and immediately went into working fulltime. After the dotcom burst I became an EMT then a paramedic and started working 72+ hour weeks to save up for my premed. I was MUCH older than your standard 23 year old med school applicant.
But even if you have a relatively decent job (65k in a low cost of living area), the finances work out to pull the trigger and get your MD. Without doing any self doxxing, I can say a relatively uncompetitive specialty paid more in one year than I made in 5 years as a medic. I took 2 years for premed, a gap year, 4 in med school and 3 for residency. 10 years total. Which I made back in 2 years and thats not including the pay as a resident which was actually a bit higher than medic pay.
Your circumstances might prevent you from being a traditional applicant, and AAMCAS needs to work on the financial gatekeeping. You can absolutely swing going to medical school if you have the desire, will, and capability to though. It will be hard as hell though.
Working class is everybody who must work to live.
Wealth class is everybody else.
There is no such thing as a middle class, that is a lie. Everybody seems to think they’re in the middle class, because that puts somebody below them, and gives them a reason to continue working under wage slavery. This is the purpose of the lie.
The fun thing is that everyone thinks they are middle class. When I was making €45k a year I thought I was middle class because I had an university degree and a leadership position. At the same time my boss, who had just spent €5mio acquiring a 50% share in a second company and owned three houses (two of which he rented out) also considered himself middle class because he wasn’t a billionaire.
because middle class is good and noble.
being poor or wealthy means you’re an asshole and is considered shameful.
hence everyone is desperate to claim they are not rich and desperately afraid of being seen as poor by people richer than themselves.
I once had a friend, which gf had to send him like 10Euro per month, for him to get monthly more than minimal wage which was considered “middle class” for some fucking reason in this country.
He was so emotional about this shit, that I am still not sure if he was for real about that or not…
I’m very curious what the reason is
I bet it’s for their bank. At least in Europe, many banks charge for your account if your income is below a threshold. My partner can’t work full time so I send them like 50€ per month so that they don’t have to pay bank fees. Which is ridiculous, as we have our 3 accounts all at the same bank.
Nah, he was too young and student too, so not bank income tax yet.
He just wanted to feel better than those “bottom class losers”. And I do not joke. He study economics.
Checks out
A better metric is homeownership to me. Someone who is middle class is secure and doesn’t have to rent nor pay debt. They only really have to work when it’s mutually beneficial. That is basically impossible to achieve in the modern world with the hundreds or thousands of micro taxes and cartel controlled corporate markets and complete lack of land for the lease it’s to live on without virtual indentured servitude. Even if you did spend your entire life buying a house the state would just take it away from your children with the brutal taxation. Without a home you are always going to be a slave and have to work at any shitty job just to have food and a roof over your head.
no.
plenty of people rent their entire lives are fine. and plenty of people own homes get them foreclosed because they can’t afford the payments, or buy too much house.
owning a home isn’t really a huge economic benefit or security, unless your house massively goes up in value. a house is also a huge liability if it has problems. home owning nearly bankrupted my family at one point because of the crazy expensive repairs.
Even if you own the house and land outright, you still need to pay real estate taxes, and feed yourself. Either you have the money in the bank to cover those expenses for the rest of your life or you don’t. You can have unexpected medical expenses, houses require maintenance which is generally expensive, and transportation is still an issue.
If you have to work to live, you are working class. Full stop.
People can inherit a house and still be poor. Look at india
If you’re going to talk about class society, you might as well use the Marxist terms: proletariat, petit-bourgeoisie, and bourgeoise.