Class Markers

We've been considering how various factors influence social identity and how they are portrayed in Ragtime.  Poking around on the topic of social class, I found that PBS did a program called "People Like Us."  This strikes me as an apt title since class is a matter of identifying who one is like and unlike, where one's group fits in the scheme of groups.  The site includes some games intended to display the importance of "taste" and "style" in determining class; put another way, intended to show that financial resources is the not the sole factor in identifying one's social class.

from IKEA, yes indeed

Then I played one of the games that involves furnishing a room: pick a floor covering, put stuff on the shelves, hang something on the wall, chose something to sit on, etc.  The truth: I was all over the class map!  Some old money, some middle-middle.  On another game that focused on life aspirations I kept registering near the bottom of the scale.  Maybe this is because academics are famously hard to categorize?  Maybe it is because I'm confused?  Maybe it is because in American class categories are fluid and Americans expect social mobility?  (Or it could be that the multiple choice responses just did not allow me to express my true views.)