How Big is Your Bubble?

[catherine]

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy...ubble-a-quiz-2


Thought this "Do You Live in A Bubble" quiz would be fun for those of who have participated in discussions on privilege and the lack of it. My friend who posted it on Facebook said, "I have no earthly idea what this means" and maybe you'll feel the same, but FWIW, I got a 44.

[iris lilies]

We have taken this before. This time my score was 44 but it isnt accurate. I am not first generation middle class, I am middle middle middle class from a couple of generations..

I think my last score was around 33.jp1 and I had the same score.

This is the test that bae amd Alan go,head to head on about who is a bigger hillbilly at origin.

They should have said, about neighborhoods and towns, did we live there as adults. As a kid I lived in small towns and surrounded by people with no college degrees. That generation of people didnt have a lot of degrees.

[Alan]

This is the test that bae amd Alan go,head to head on about who is a bigger hillbilly at origin.

I don't know about bae but in my case, hillbilly isn't the right word, growing up I heard multiple references to 'poor white trash' directed towards my extended family, and that is probably more accurate as a label. I grew up in the kind of poor, stunted environment that made it necessary for me to leave home at 17 because I knew it was the only way to find and perhaps have the ability to grasp the slightest opportunity.

The military was my salvation, on the one hand it required me to subvert myself to higher authority and go into harm's way upon someone else's whim, but it also encouraged me to be all I could be and provided training and educational opportunities I would have missed otherwise.

I get a kick now out of the occasional inference that those of us who finally enjoy a solid middle class or higher background are only able to do so because of our "privilege". I think the tight little enclosed bubble they enjoyed throughout life didn't prepare them to see what it takes from others not hindered by early comforts to get to that point. I've never heard that term used by anyone who doesn't use it in regards to race or gender or as a means to separate themselves from their perceived enemy. I often chuckle to myself because I know something they don't and probably never will, that the privilege they disdain is not always genetic but since they didn't earn their own, the concept is unfathomable.

Sorry for the rant.

[catherine]

I don't know about bae but in my case, hillbilly isn't the right word, growing up I heard multiple references to 'poor white trash' directed towards my extended family, and that is probably more accurate as a label. I grew up in the kind of poor, stunted environment that made it necessary for me to leave home at 17 because I knew it was the only way to find and perhaps have the ability to grasp the slightest opportunity.

The military was my salvation, on the one hand it required me to subvert myself to higher authority and go into harm's way upon someone else's whim, but it also encouraged me to be all I could be and provided training and educational opportunities I would have missed otherwise.

I get a kick now out of the occasional inference that those of us who finally enjoy a solid middle class or higher background are only able to do so because of our "privilege". I think the tight little enclosed bubble they enjoyed throughout life didn't prepare them to see what it takes from others not hindered by early comforts to get to that point. I've never heard that term used by anyone who doesn't use it in regards to race or gender or as a means to separate themselves from their perceived enemy. I often chuckle to myself because I know something they don't and probably never will, that the privilege they disdain is not always genetic but since they didn't earn their own, the concept is unfathomable.

Sorry for the rant.

A couple of random thoughts:

• As different as we all are on this board, thinking about it, I can say that all of us are very strong on self-determination.
• This test, now that I am rereading it, isn't as much about privilege as about how well you fit into the wider mainstream culture.
• I can see how it's aggravating, Alan, to be accused of privilege as a rationale for your success, rather than real reason for it, which was hard work and drive.
• As liberal as I am, I definitely get really aggravated by family members who call on me with expectations--they feel "entitled." I'm thinking of my brother, who by all accounts should be labeled "privileged" because he is white, male, and grew up in the same house I did, with educated parents and grandparents and lots of opportunity. Like Alan, he joined the service, but unlike Alan, he bailed early and embarked on a life of excess and waste. From there the VA enabled him for 40 years, providing free food, shelter and medical care. As a result, he has reached a point in his life in which he feels utterly entitled. He has told me "you have a problem" if I have don't have the money to give him.
• Not sure what I'm getting at. But I think it's this: "privileged" is a word that is often used to denigrate white, middle-class and above, educated, mostly male. "Entitled" is word that is used to denigrate those of the other end of the spectrum--poor, less educated, mostly minority. Interesting, when many of us have been on both sides of the divide at one point or another. Makes those words kind of pointless.

[pinkytoe]

I got a 25 but I come from a weird background - two hillbilly parents who ended up with professional degrees (physician/pharmacist) and moved within those circles. Then they divorced and both became alcoholics (sigh). So... I grew up in upper income environments with very wealthy, old money friends but retained some of the lower class experiences my parents grew up with and couldn't shed. I have empathy and experience for both.

[Williamsmith]

73.......might explain why the first instrumental I learned on guitar was Dueling Banjos.

[catherine]

Oh, shoot! Gee, I do remember that test, but I thought it was different. I'll have to do a search and see how I came out! And then I should find a quiz to determine how bad my memory's getting!

ETA: Here's the previous thread/quiz. It is a little different, but definitely same idea:

http://www.simplelivingforum.net/sho...highlight=quiz

[Williamsmith]

So this was really a dementia test ......I’ll score high on that too!

[mschrisgo2]

56.

[ApatheticNoMore]

You got 4 points.

The higher your score, the thinner your bubble. The lower, the more insulated you might be from mainstream American culture.

0–20: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person with the television and movie going habits of the upper middle class. Typical: 2.

Yea I live in a bubble alright, and my latest hobby is hanging out at the unemployment office (eh they have support groups and classes on job seeking and stuff there). Wow I feel so insulated from any harsh realities and stuff ... I know, could be worse. But these bubbles don't seem to be champagne (Perrier perhaps ...).

The categories also seem unrealistic, an upper middle class person with middle class parents, a middle class person with working class parents. Geez, haven't they ever heard of DOWNWARD MOBILITY? Because there seems a serious upward mobility bias in those categories there, and I don't think that's very realistic these days. Where is the precariat millenial with middle class parents?

Anyway I'm not really from the upper middle class (I guess the breadwinner was a scientist, if that's what you call a lab tech - they can and do do original research). I have NEVER BEEN in the upper middle class (middle class I'll grant), my partner is not upper middle class. In fact if even one of these was the case life would not be such a struggle all the time, but it is, but obviously it is often worse (many people don't even have shelter etc.). But no I don't own a t.v. and I watch ZERO movies. I'm mostly kind of anti-media if that's an upper middle class category I guess, I guess us very well off people just read books or something? Well I do