you do seem to have a bit of a class chip on the shoulder thing going on... Just an obs..
Ah yes... and here we have the good old commonal-garden slapdown for having the temerity to utter the dreaded "c" word...
Like I said, I know it's a bit taboo - whether unfashionable, non-PC, or "off message" in Blairite parlance - to put it in this context.
But that doesn't alter the fact that there are those who would seem to consider it "beneath them" take the sort of practical advice offered by the majority of posters here.
Despite the many pros, including the gilt-edged "safety net" argument as proposed by both
WWW and
otb, weak excuses (if any!) are offered about being unwilling or unable to take up such opportunities, and it is my suspicion many are in a state of denial about their simple snobbery.
If that means I have a "chip on my shoulder" then so be it.
An ex g/f once told me that one of the things she liked about me ( it wasn't a long list
) was that I didn't get my hand's dirty for a living. I was pretty dissapointed that she could say such a thing - and not only the grounds of being condemned with faint praise - but it turned out that this had been drummed into her by her mother as being very important. Exactly the kind of thinking one all too often comes up against.
It seems that my crime has been to call a spade a shovel.