social class

   There was a time when I first came to realization which social class I belonged to. When I was younger it never really bothered me too much. About having money or not having money, in order to determine your social class. I started to take notice when I would always travel around town with my parents and would realize how great and privileged my life was.

   Personally I don’t consider myself to be amongst the upper rich part of society, rather I consider myself to be middle class. My family was never poor, but at the same time I didn’t consider myself to be rich beyond belief. I started to take notice of  my social class when homeless people would start coming up to me ask asking for money. I can remember the first time it happened to me. I was about 14 years old, my mother was driving her new Mercedes Benz.  We were on our way to a restaurant that just opened up around the area. When we got out the car there was a homeless person sitting outside of the restaurant  When we first entered the individual didn’t bother to look at us. May be the person was shy or felt intimidated. To be honest I didn’t feel as if I was much more or a person then he was. I didn’t feel that just because I had more money that I was a much better person then the homeless guy. But he gave off the impression of shame and inferiority. After we finished eating we decided to leave the restaurant and to my surprise the homeless person was still there. My parents walked by him not even speaking. I decided to say hello, he finally picked up his head and looked at me and smiled and said “ hello,  was I able to spare some change”, and I dug into my pocket and pulled out three dollars and I told him yes. And I gave to him all that I had, at the time. But the question that I have is that just because at that present moment in time I had more money then he did. Dose that give me the right to say that he is poor and I am in am rich?

   I guess that was the first time that I realized and took notice to the social classes that was out there in the world and I knew that I was not rich but I knew that I was not poor either. So just took the notion that I was in the middle class.

    Have I ever had a feeling that I have experienced false consciousness of my social class, yes.   Im guessing the only time when I may have the impression of false consciousness is when you are in an area where there is a large group of people who may have more money than you do. When you are not able to afford certain things that you may want and your neighbor  can, it may sometimes give you the feeling of being poor. But in all reality you’re not.