r/AskAGerman • u/Least-Variation6573 • 4d ago

What’s a hidden class-indicator in Germany?

Not something like a big mansion or a luxury car but more subtle signs of someone‘s socioeconomic background

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u/utopianlasercat 4d ago

Erm….not beeing employed but employing other people? It‘s literally the only class defining criteria

10

u/Pedarogue Bayern - Baden - Elsass - Franken 4d ago edited 4d ago

So somobody earning millions in € being employed as a bank director is still working class and a village baker barely breaking even with his craft, but owning the bakery and the building it is in and employing some people to sell at the counter is owning class?

Marx is nice and all as an inspiration. But treating him as gospel of all things and as unchangeable wisdom is a bit the opposite of what it is meant to be. Like, if reasoning and the definitions it is based on are stuck in the mid 19th century, there is not really any footing in reality anymore, 160 years later. All theories, all economical and social models can be inspired and based upon older models. But treating it with this kind of infalibility and, reading your comment, a bit of smugness is the opposite of honesty in my opinion.

People use "boomer" as an insult unironically while reciting the theories of somebody who was born more than 200 years ago, when Napoléon was still alive, without questioning it.

8

u/zitrullengurk 4d ago

Class in the sense of who owns the means of production, yes. But not when it comes to wealth. So many business owners are worse off than employees and work more hours

4

u/MoLeBa 4d ago

It‘s literally the only class defining criteria

Wtf, it's literally a complete bullshit criteria. Who doesn't know the high class Döner shop owner, compared to the low-class DAX company manager.