The upper middle class is a sociological concept referring to the social group constituted by higher-status members of the middle class. This is in contrast to the term "lower middle class", which is used for the group at the opposite end of the middle class stratum, and to the broader term "middle class". There is considerable debate as to how the upper middle class might be defined. According to sociologist Max Weber the upper middle class consists of well-educated professionals with graduate degrees and comfortable incomes.
The American upper middle class is defined similarly using income, education and occupation as the predominant indicators. In the United States, the upper middle class is defined as consisting mostly of white-collar professionals who not only have above-average personal incomes and advanced educational degrees but also a higher degree of autonomy in their work. The main occupational tasks of upper-middle-class individuals tend to center on conceptualizing, consulting, and instruction.
Read more about Upper Middle Class: American Upper Middle Class, British Upper Middle Class
Famous quotes containing the words middle class, upper, middle and/or class:
“Had middle class black women begun a movement in which they had labeled themselves “oppressed,” no one would have taken them seriously.”
—bell hooks (b. 1955)
“The enemy are no match for us in a fair fight.... The young men ... of the upper class are kind-hearted, good-natured fellows, who are unfit as possible for the business they are in. They have courage but no endurance, enterprise, or energy. The lower class are cowardly, cunning, and lazy. The height of their ambition is to shoot a Yankee from some place of safety.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“After sixty, the self-questioning of middle age is obsolete.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“You see, after the war—and don’t forget it lasted a hundred years—thousands of us went from door to door, asking for honest work, and we were whipped for begging. The ruling class didn’t say, “Work or starve.” They said “Starve, for you shall not work.””
—Sonya Levien (1895–1960)