But "solidly middle" is still working class really.
My sister has a degree, and is a nurse of a about 5-7 years. Her husband also has a degree (and even went to private school) and does local government procurement paying ~35k. I'm sure the author would describe both as "solidly middle".
They're still wondering how on earth they're supposed to pay for childcare, energy, mortgage. If the car breaks down, they're in trouble.
Discussing this is a mess for a bunch of reasons, including that no-one bothers to agree on a framework before starting to argue over it, and that there's overlapping terminology, and there are major differences between countries. So you've got "lower/middle/upper-middle/upper" (or more nuanced versions like Fussell's that add a few more), you've got "working/professional/upper", et c, and terms get recycled such that some will say "lower" in the first is the same as "working" (and distinct from "middle") and so on. Then, on top of that, it's all different in Britain.
Plus there's the distinction between income and socialized class, which are tied up together, but which aren't identical, and lots of discussions take place without anyone bothering to specify which they're talking about.
[EDIT] Oh and then of course there's Marxist analysis. Folks should lead with explaining their angle and definitions, otherwise discussion about class tends to be a bunch of people talking past one another.
My sister has a degree, and is a nurse of a about 5-7 years. Her husband also has a degree (and even went to private school) and does local government procurement paying ~35k. I'm sure the author would describe both as "solidly middle".
They're still wondering how on earth they're supposed to pay for childcare, energy, mortgage. If the car breaks down, they're in trouble.