There’s no straightforward link between your actual position in society and what class you think you’re in, says Savage.
“Even though I’m very comfortable materially now, my mindset is still that of somebody whose family didn’t have enough money to put meat on the table,” says Sennett.
It’s never been easier to hide your background and move classes, argues Wallop.
“Social inequality in pure income terms is very bad at the moment, the rich have got richer and the poor have got poorer, but the great majority in the middle can move around far easier than they ever did… “You can still furnish yourself with a very ‘middle-class’ lifestyle on not a vast budget,” he says.
BBC News – Class calculator: Can I have no job or money and still be middle class?.
shifting paradigms 