I discovered I “don’t even have a bubble” after taking a quiz as part of Charles Murray’s new book Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.
The quiz asks a series of questions and then gives you a score to see if you are part of a new upper class that is isolated and ignorant about the rest of America, having never interacted with others outside their class. Apparently, with my score, I should be heading to NASCAR and fishing every other weekend. The description in Murray’s book for my score is “A lifelong resident of a working-class neighborhood with average television and moviegoing habits.” This was the lowest class one could be in on this particular quiz. Fine with me.
The questions asked were things like “have you ever ridden on a long-distance bus” (yes, from Knoxville to California and back and many other places as a teen and into my twenties), “How many times have you eaten at an Applebees, Denny’s, IHOP Chili’s etc. in the past year” (too many to count), “During the past month, have you voluntarily hung out with people who were smoking cigarettes?” (of course)and “have you had a friend who was an evangelical Christian?” Depending on the definition of friend, I’ve had many.
The test was kind of fun, and frankly, if you have never done any of the things listed, you must really live in a bubble.
Take a short form of the test here yourself and report back on your score if you like.
Okay, I’m ready.(raises hand) Call on me!
Went straight to quiz, of course. First thing,it’s definitely created for extroverts, not quiet, cat-loving, bookish types. Haven’t done lots of these things because, for instance, I don’t go to ANY movies. But anyway, it got me dead zerio — 9-12 score, which means you may or may not be “upper,” but you’ve experienced “working” class. As one who grew up small-town middle-class and then lived poor till going back to school in my 30′s (along with my new, Navy vet husband) to teach, it all fits.
I scored “between 9 and 12,” and the description said “even if you’re upper class, you’ve had plenty of experience with other Americans.” Well, yes. I’m from a small town in Kentucky; my father was an electrician; I was the first person in my family to go to college (then I couldn’t stop, going on to do a Phd); and I served in the military.
13. I have no bubble. Whoopee!
13-16
i think my fridge full of bud’s and hanging out with smokers put me in the clear
Same here. I do not live in a class bubble. Or, more correctly, I live in a no-class bubble!
My results:
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 9 and 12.
In other words, even if you’re part of the new upper class, you’ve had a lot of exposure to the rest of America.
No bubble here!! But, some of the questions were kinda hardcore binary. As an example, how many MEN have watched an episode of Oprah all the way through? There’s going to be way more of a gender divide there than class divide.
It would be really interesting to flip the quiz. Both to identify how deeply inside a “upper class” bubble one is, but also to see how thick the bubble is for “lower class” folks.
As an example, instead of identifying a NASCAR driver, how about identifying a PGA golfer other than Tiger Woods.
Purchase of a new Lexus/Mercedes/BMW/Cadillac (upper class) vs a truck with ONLY 2 DOORS. (working class).
Have you ever purchased a new car?
Do you have a “family attorney” for other than criminal matters?
Since finishing your education, have you ever had a job that pays an hourly wage? Have you ever had one that is salaried?
Do most of your vacations involve flying someplace, or driving?
Have you ever had a vacation home?
Generations of family that have gone to college?
etc.
No bubble for me too. Maybe I am in the Instabubble family.
“In other words, you don’t even have a bubble.”
…and I’m a GOP official in LA! Highly reassuring.
5-8
13-16, No Bubble.
“On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.
In other words, you don’t even have a bubble.”
I don’t hang out with people while they’re smoking because my husband and I both have asthma. We’d be dead if we did that.
9-12, but 5 should have included camping and 11 should have included Knights of Columbus. Lotta females and Catholics out here, you know.
I scored between 5 and 8. It said I “can see through [my] bubble, but [I] need to get out more.” Fair enough as an assessment, I would say.
I am so far out of a bubble that I would need the Hubble just to see one.
My score: “On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 5 and 8.
In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.”
Funny thing is, I’m not exactly part of the 1%. I did go to the University of Virginia, though…so maybe that explains it.
Reading this book now – I would highly recommend it as there is a lot more to this discussion than just a survey. He very accurately describes how the new “upper middle class” formed, and how insulated from the rest of the country they have become, and distorted one’s views of America can get when living (or aspiring to live) in this upper class bubble.
Apparently this test rests on an invalid assumption, namely that a person’s relative wealth in this country is (or used to be) a matter of choice. Granted, the choices are not easy. In my experience, extremely high income correlates with a period of desperation.
The wealthiest branch of my family loaded up their kids and their clothes in their only significant possession, a car, and went looking for work. They found it, moving dirt. I was born with health problems, and my dad chose security and good health benefits over higher income potential for many years. I have a cousin that went into the trades, and he and his buddies built each others’ houses. I married badly, took out loans to go back to school and get a doctorate while raising a small child. I raised my income significantly, and then made choices that limited the increase, so that I would have time to raise him properly. I am in the top 15%.
I don’t have a bubble, either. And I’m the college-educated daughter of a dentist who married a fellow with a PhD.
I as well do not have a bubble. Even though I now work in a professional field and make good money, I grew up workin in construction, been involved in boy scouts as an adult, and live in an outerring semirural suburb.
In reality, outside from folks that essentially live on a college campus community or in a gated suburb of some kind with NO outside connections, how do you avoid getting a low score? I will admit being the National Guard did help the score a bit
5-8, and I’m ok with that. Smoking and Michael Bay are bad for your health.
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.
I grew up in central Minnesota, very poor, held odd jobs until age 25, joined the military, 21 years later retired from the military, and for the last 5 years am now an American diplomat.
Prior to, and while in the military I worked with many “normal” folks that truly represented all walks of American life.
Unfortunately now, as a foreign service officer, I see a bit too evidence of a rarified, entitled upbringing. Diplomats do not tend to be “salt of the erath” types (sadly).
Get in there and show ‘em how it’s done, Mike!! America needs you!
That’s insulting. The test is nothing more than a list of the typical leftist stereotypes of “fly over country”:
Nascar, Applebees, and bible thumpers.
I thought so, too. So are there few elites in flyover country or are we just not as isolated as the coastal elites? I think its the latter. When I think about the movers and shakers in my small city, they don’t seem nearly as “bubbly” as what Murray describes. But they still have high incomes and college degrees.
Hmmm. Apparently I’m looking through my elite little bubble, but I need to get out more.
Unfortunately, the short version of that test isn’t much of a test at all.
And is there a similar test for working class people, or welfare people?
Why don’t they have to get out of their little bubbles more?
Also, is PBR really a good representative beer for the working class? Sure, my grandfather drank himself to death on it, but it’s been the beer of choice for those pretentious hipster ejits for the last few years.
Living in where I do, I drink local brews. I think Lagunitas is the only one that’s technically “mass produced”. Why drink watery swill when you can drink a Scarface Stout? Does that make me elitist? If you think so, come on down to Speakeasy tonight and check out the crowd. Hardly elitist.
Well, the audience for Murray’s book is the elites, so that is who the test is aimed at. But it also goes into much more detail regarding their good qualities as opposed to the superficial snobby qualities identified in the test. If you read the book you will be glad you’re in the bubble after all.
“On a scale from 0 to 20 points, …, you scored between 9 and 12.
In other words, even if you’re part of the new upper class, you’ve had a lot of exposure to the rest of America.”
I’ll say! One of my sisters remarked a few years ago that we were probably considered white trash in the tiny little southern town where we grew up. Out of seven girls and two boys, all but one brother and one sister completed bachelors degrees, and that sister did a two-year associate’s degree in veterinary science before going to the police academy. I married a blue collar man after I finished my M.S. in physics, and my oldest son is planning to join the USMC after high school. I’d call that fairly bubble-less. Or crazy mixed up, anyway.
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 13 and 16.
In other words, you don’t even have a bubble.
What? What does that even mean? I demand a bubble, right now! And I want the government to pay for it! Because… well, just because.
In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.
Umm, no thanks, it’s all nice and warm and cuddly in here.
Between 9 and 12 for me too. Curious; the test is an interesting exercise, but it seems to, like the Sith, deal in absolutes. I mean, I saw Transformers 3, but I turned it off two-thirds through because I was bored beyond belief. And “I or my spouse” never served, but my family is heavily pro-NRA and my two older brothers were in the USMC during the Iraq war. It might be a little more accurate if there was more of a sliding scale aspect.
Also, why must the bubble necessarily be the upper-class bubble? Because I don’t like NASCAR, that doesn’t make me an elitist snob, it just makes me someone who doesn’t like racing. I’m a bit confused.
Another 9-12er. That doesn’t mean I belong to the “new upper class.” It means I don’t fit any of this joker’s categories. I mean, I make about seventy grand a year, I buy most of my clothes at Wal-Mart, I read Greek and listen to Medieval music, I like to go fishing, I’m not interested in NASCAR, I don’t drink beer, my wife comes from Pennsylvania coal-mining stock, I prefer blue jeans and work boots to cargo shorts and flip-flops, I like cats as well as I like dogs, I don’t drink beer or wine, I work as a technical writer, I plant a vegetable garden in the spring, I like to shoot my rifle, I drive a pickup truck, and I vote Republican. I don’t care what the elites or the hoi polloi are doing. If I am in a bubble, I’m in it by myself.
Bugs, You sound like a quintessential American less your lack of affinity for BEER. With a little effort I’m certain you could learn to enjoy beer! Ben Franklin referenced beer as, “proof that God loves us”. In moderation, I must concur. Peace out.
LizKng: Nope, beer’s N A S T Y! It was so hard as a teen, going to keggers on ditchbanks (of irrig. canals). I had to hold a glass all night, veeerry slowly pouring out a bit now & then — 1 or 2 sips was enough for “beer breathe”, then holy cow, where’s the 7-up?
I’m about halfway through Mr. Murray’s book, and I think his concepts are really skewed toward the East Coast. It’s difficult to be in a thick bubble in much of the country, certainly where I have lived most of my life (the mountain states). So I don’t know if we’re less bubble-prone out here or if there are different bubbles. There are plenty of people here who meet his income criteria for the top 5%- maybe more de facto because the cost of living is so much lower.
However, owning a pickup, hunting and fishing, following sports on TV, eating at Applebees- well, what else are you going to do in Montana? Even if you make $300,000, all that buys you is a better truck.
I presume this bubble test applies to 20 million a year, never has to personally shop or break a sweat, our man of the people transnational Romney? No wonder there isn’t a pubic hairs difference between Romney care and Obama care given his similar “existence prior to essence” situated knowledge base, apparently derived from Davos Switzerland where everyone is mandated to buy a private health insurance contract. And, low and behold, Romney, that current rich “warmonger,” shares the same dearth of military experience as warmonger Donald the Trump. Truly, those two are living, never having to bleed doppelgangers of General George Patton, famous for saying you win wars by making the enemy die for his country. Only Mitt’s and Donald’s updated version of Patton is to make sure only the children from the lower orders die for their country while winning is optional. Is the chicken hawk phenomena included in the bubble test?
13-16. No dang bubble here!
I took this test about a month ago. Scored pretty high. And as I noted at the time, “In my younger years, some of those markers (owned a truck, stocked common domestic beer) were things I couldn’t afford. Compared to me, people who did those things were cultural elites.”
17+
Retired Career Military. Former (forced) UAW member. Ex LEO .
‘Need to visit the Bubble’ from time to time, to see how the other half lives.
I don’t believe in class, Im an American. My ancestors weren’t allowed to take that idea on the boat when we were thrown out of Europe.
The only time people discuss the concept of class is to ensure themselves that someone they dont like is not in the same class as they are.
‘Nother 9-12er here. But wow, is this weird. My dad was Navy during WWII, joining at 17. One son joined army in 2001 (pre-9/11, dischrgd 3 wks. prior), but during boot camp was given medical discharge under honor. circumstances (illness related asthma). Other joined 2007 as buck priv., still serving (3 tours Afgnstn/Iraq) and worked his way up to sgt. in just a bit over 2 yrs. I grew up on a big ranch, and have ALWAYS worked, whether outside/inside (since I’m female, sometimes wrkng meant cooking for 20+). Yeah, many times at something that I hurt pretty good at the end of the day. Even loving to ride horses & doing it almost every day, 25-30 miles/day herding cattle in the drag position makes one hurt & choke. (and just try it in late Nov. when it’s around 15-20 deg. — by the end, you gotta get off & WALK, or your toes will get get frostbite) Talk about “rattlesnake reality” — when you go outside on the porch in summer, and hear a distinctive buzz, then jump back in the house while mom says, “is it IN here? in the HOUSE?” — well, you’re real well acquainted with the reality of about any situation. Which is why I can’t understand how people don’t understand or even KNOW what Obama et al is doing to this country. WAKE UP!
I guess it was my lack of loving beer & NASCAR that gave me this rating, altho I’ll say I enjoy *some* car racing (mostly going live to “World of Outlaws”), but never on TV. Beer’s plain awful; give me hard liquor any day (or wine w/dinner). I’ll talk to anyone at any time about most anything, b/c everyone’s got a story. I don’t care where or when, what color or anything else you are; all that matters is you can share something I don’t know about YOU.
No bubble. 13-16
The parade question was kind of odd; I’ve never been in a parade of any sort, and I don’t think I know anyone who has. A better question for what they were trying to get to with the pickup truck is “Have you ever purchased a used vehicle?” I know guys around here who have pickups as their commuting vehicle; the beds of these trucks have never seen any kind of construction material, or much of anything else. Those extended-cab, short-bed trucks won’t hold a sheet of plywood anyway.
I would recognize almost any NASCAR driver. I would also recognize almost any Indycar driver. Where does that leave me?
Just thought of another one… the house my lovely wife and I live in would be described by a lot of people as “upper class”. However, one reason we were able to have this house is because we did a lot of the work ourselves. Which leads to a good question…
Have you or your spouse ever pulled a construction permit?
Grew up on the Texas Gulf Coast. Attended college in the Texas panhandle. Worked and lived on the Texas Gulf Coast. Work and lived in Paris, NYC, and Boston. Now work and live in Central Texas.
And the answer is…..
On a scale from 0 to 20 points, where 20 signifies full engagement with mainstream American culture and 0 signifies deep cultural isolation within the new upper class bubble, you scored between 9 and 12.
In other words, even if you’re part of the new upper class, you’ve had a lot of exposure to the rest of America.
“You scored between 5 and 8.
In other words, you can see through your bubble, but you need to get out more.”
Oh well… I am with others in agreeing that the text is too skewed to absolutes. I mean, does the NASCAR guy always shows up unshaven? Does stocking up on Belgian ale not count, versus Pabst Blue Ribbon?!
Another 9-12er. Grew up in a largely low-collar leftwing northeastern Italian Immigrant 90% Catholic mill town with a half-mile Nascar oval, and went on to become a PhD in Finance, right-wing evangelical Christian who’s lived in Deep South and Midwest. Not much of a beer drinker, and have a little kid, so we don’t get out much.
The quiz had a pretty strong NorthEast metropolitan bias.