Quote:
Originally Posted by Fahd
I'm not sure how you're defining native working class, but in terms of income ineqaulity (i.e. the ratio between what the wealthiest percentage earn and what the same least wealthy percentage earn) whilst the UK doesn't do very well, it does rank a few places higher than the US. There's also the distribution of wealth (i.e. money, assets, etc) amongst a countries population, where 10% of the US' population owns 80% of its wealth, whereas it's not that much better in the UK (10% own 70% of the wealth). |
I'm not talking about income inequality, it has nothing to do it. I'm talking about
culture, an English aristocrat has very little in common with a working class man. They speak differently, they eat differently, they enjoy very different entertainments, and they'll rarely, if ever, come into direct contact with one another. There is almost 2 seperate "parallel" cultures. In comparison, the United States doesn't really have much of an "upper class" other then the "Daughters of the American Revolution" type clique on the east coast.
The United States does not have a "high culture" or a "low culture" in the way the UK, and other European countries, have. There are cultural divides between different ethnic groups (EG Whites and Hispanics etc.), but within those ethnic groups (particularly whites, the majority culture), it varies more by
geography then class.
The USA has a considerable economic divide, but a much lower Class divide, the only indicator of class in America is your wealth or fame. But there isn't much of a cultural one. For instance, everyone drinks Coke. In Britain that would be considered distinctly working class.
Upper class status is something all Americans can aspire towards, in Britain, a working class person can only at best be described as "nouveau riche".