[jumpy]

I always looked at the class system in this country as a product of economics, and not birth or family origins.
Anecdotally the 'middle classes' are never quite on an even keel - they earn too much to get any help from the government (unlike the working class), yet they earn too little to not worry about where the next bill is coming from, unlike the upper class.
The truly poor get all the state help available, whilst the truly rich enjoy a life free from the burdens of financial frugality. Those who lie somewhere in-between get shafted by the government in taxes and lack of assistance. Is it any surprise that today's take on the class system is as it is? If you're 'middle class' you have to work like a dog to get anywhere secure and break even.

Seems about right to me. I don't consider myself to be any particular class (though I have been described as having a 'posh accent' - no, I just don't have a regional twang to the way I speak), however I fit nicely into the financial bracket of earning too little to be truly comfortable and too much to get a break from the government or local council. I get taxed the most 'because I can afford it', but only just.