Preposterous Universe

 
Classy

Different responses (e.g. from Jane Galt, Bitch, Ph.D., Matthew Yglesias, Kevin Drum, and Brad DeLong) to this New York Times series on social class. Personally I was struck by the graphic on How Class Works. If we take the column on the class value assigned to various occupations at face value, it would appear that "Astronomers and Physicists" are the fifth most classy (if you will) occupation we have, out of a list of about 440 possibilities. Woot!

The top ten would appear to be:

1. Physicians and Surgeons
2. Lawyers
3. Database Administrators
4. Computer System Administrators
5. Astronomers and Physicists
6. Chemical Engineers
7. Chemists and Materials Scientists
8. Network and Data Communications Analysts
9. Computer Support Specialists
10. Dentists

Okay, I admit that it was cooler before I figured out that we were lagging behind Database Administrators. (Although when I first typed it in, it came out as "Dadabase", which would be cool.) Not sure how exactly one ranks these different occupations in terms of their class value, and it seems perhaps a bit subjective. But so long as we are well above chief executives (46) or actors (86), I suppose I shouldn't complain.

~ posted by Sean Carroll at 5:11 PM ~ link ~ ~ ~