Clase medio

Most of the folks I know in Chile are clase medio (middle class). It's here that the differences - and similarities - between Chile and Australia really hit home. Like my friends in Australia, these guys are all university educated, often own laptops and smart phones (no iphones or macbooks though), are big into facebook and the internet generally, and are conversant with international popular culture (though with a latin twist). Many of them are the first in their families to go to uni and lots of them seem unable to find work in the field they studied. The work they do have often pays poorly and they are forced to rent lower-price apartments, buy poor quality goods, and live cheaply. They are workers but their lives look more like that of a university student in Australia. They need to put money aside for hugely expensive school fees and medical bills, and for this both husband and wife must work. (There is a public education and medical system here, but if you can, you go private.) There's nothing left over for overseas travel, but that doesn't mean they don't have fun - there are lots of dinners, suppers and parties at friends places, lots of chucking big hunks of meat on the barbie (no, they don't call it a barbie here) and kicking back around a table groaning with food.