Hyacinth Bucket (pronouced Bouquet) Was Right

[sudsmaster]

The other difference is that in America, people who manage to sprint from the lower echelons to highest are generally considered heroes, not bounders. Except perhaps by the "old money" crowd, but that crowd is also quick to embrace someone who combines wealth with postive celebrity, although someone without any manners probably will not be so welcome.

Over here, "Duke" is a popular name for a dog. Is it used much in England for pets?

 

[launderess]

Well the entire idea of the United States was that anyone could suceed and rapidly shed a humble background. Although there was not supposed to be any "royalty" or such in the new nation, there have been various groups that set themselves up as such, if only in a quasi sort of way.

First it was the WASP's, then the Kennedy's, though Catholics seem to have rised in terms of mobility by state and local government office holding rather than commerce/trade, as the Dutch and English families did.

Think it is true what was said during the PBS program about the history of NYC, money matters, nothing else. Andrew Carneige came to the United States as a poor Scotish immigriant, and died one of the wealthiest men in the world. Same can be said of many other "great" American families like the Vanderbilts, Fricks, Dukes, etc. Many landed gentry families in England may have snickered at this "upstarts", but it didn't stop them from snapping up American heiress daughters as fast as they hit the marriage market. *LOL*

L.

 

[sudsmaster]

Actually, the founding fathers of the USA were largely... landed gentry... who generally viewed the lower classes as dangerous and not worthy of the vote. They were Enlightened, yes, but only towards others of a similar station. Many of them still considered themselves British up until the first shots of the revolution. But they were united in the view that British rule had ceased to be relevant or productive.