[Blarg]

There is no point for most purposes in America. Then again, the upper class probably don't care about anyone's purposes but their own.

America views itself as a classless society with the perfect political system. Even the poor and lower middle class often feel that money and virtue are more or less the same thing and proof of each other.

By that outlook, new money may be gauche, but even gaucheness can be worshipped as simply being expressive with one's freedom or ignoring convention after having earned the right to do so. It's our own version of "the noble savage."

There is a strong admiration of new money in America as a signal that the system is working the way it should and that the fellow with new money is working the way he should, too. This gives him automatic high moral standing. There is even a contrasting resentment, occasionally, of old money as "unearned" and less of a ringing moral endorsement.

There is a consciousness in America of great fortunes being obtainable within a single lifetime, even starting out from poverty, that is so central to the American take on life that it's probably hard for others to picture, and may even seem a bit absurd. The American Dream has not only internalized this possibility, but exaggerated its relevance to the daily lives of its citizens. Americans are much more likely to think they'll hit the lottery, or that doing so is possible, so to speak, than are other people in equal circumstances. Then again, it is typically American to think there are no equal circumstances, as we are the endpoint of moral and social evolution. So we can find ourselves and our possibilities exceptional without hesitation, whereas others would cast a more rueful eye.