Nutty, the nouveaux riches in 1890 desperately wanted to be accepted by "old money". See Edith Wharton. By contrast, today the nouveaux riches are perfectly happy to hang out with each other. Donald Trump doesn't care if Mrs. Astor asks him to tea. Alva Vanderbilt (then new money) cared very much indeed.

Boston and Charleston and New York City all have established social elites that are difficult to break into; you have to have been born into the right family. The difference between the 21st century and the 19th century is that people outside those circles aren't particularly interested in breaking in. You weren't invited to the St. Cecelia Ball? Who cares? There's a better party being thrown at the brand-new country club.

Wait, Paris Hilton has Old Money pedigree? Wasn't her grandfather a hotel owner? That's new money by WASP standards.

I know there are a ton of people who work on movies (yes, those pirating is bad ad-spots really got me ), but am I really supposed to feel bad that Tom Cruise or Jerry Brukheimer is not getting a piece of my rental? Don't they factor things like that into the huge amounts of money they get as payment for their jobs on each movie?

Smaller movies? sure, I get that everyone down the line made less money, but aren't those smaller films working with distributors like Sundance and whatnot to get their product out?

But most whites are stuck there too.

Proportionately? Fewer. Even fewer than the new money disproportion.

Of course rich is exclusive. It's pretty much tied up in the definition.

However, trailer trash with money? Still trailer trash, for those as use the term. The Gottis and the Hiltons and the ... dunno, Kennedys? Not on the same level.

There's still an old money/new money divide, and most non-whites are definitively stuck on the new money side.

But nobody cares about old money in America besides old money. It still exists, but it's lost much of its cache. Middle class people used to read the society pages and follow what the Vanderbilts and Scribners were up to. Now people wonder why Paris Hilton (who is largely a joke and hardly revered) is of interest since she's never done anything... it's slipping away.

But for some reason realizing I can see this movement in the form of a band of light moving across my screen is really amazing. I'm not talking "hey, it's on the other side now." I'm talking watch it inch across.

sarameg is me. I just love noticing evidence of the earth's rotation, revolution, etc.

Sometimes I'll look up and see the moon and I'll wonder if it's waxing or waning. Then I picture the earth rotating to the east (causing the sun and moon to set in the west) and I remember that the moon is going in the same direction around the earth as the earth is rotating (just much slower) so that 24 hours later the moon will also be further to the east. Then I picture where the sun is, and where the moon will be, and then I can tell if more or less of the moon will be illuminated.

wow I hate the shorthand that WASP = money.

That's new money by WASP standards.

What's the standard? Three wealthy generations in the ground?

I still like Kevin Spacey's quote from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: "I'm what they call 'nouveau riche,' but then, it's only the "riche" that counts."

The Gottis and the Hiltons and the ... dunno, Kennedys?

All trash as far as Old Money is concerned. The Kennedys are Irish Catholics, so not even WASPs. But whay I'm saying is that money will get you a lot further in Anerica than pedigree, unlike England.

wow I hate the shorthand that WASP = money

Me, too. I'm a decidedly middle class WASP.