Class counts but hard to tell who's who

While the rich are growing richer, it's the poor becoming middle-class who are driving China's booming economy and keeping the rest of the world afloat. So, who are China's middle class and how are they defined?

The question occurred to me after reading a BBC report suggesting the long-lived class system of the British was no longer applicable. Instead, it was suggested there are seven classes, ranging from the "elite" down to the deprived "precariat". The new league table of social standing was based on 160,000 responses to a survey, which I tried out and got rated third from bottom as an "emergent service worker", with "low economic capital and high social capital." Apparently, I'm also likely to be young. Ha.

As any fan of Downton Abbey will tell you, the Brits used to separate themselves into three categories: the upper or landlord class that appeared to do little but give orders and drink tea in the afternoon; the merchant or middle-class that made money and drank wine; and the working class, which as the name suggests, did all the work, for little reward, but enjoyed a pint of beer at the end of the day.