[britspin]

A monied (or more properly privileged) background is a needed but not sufficient condition for being upper class.

You don't have to be wealthy to be upper class, but you can't stay "upper class" for long without money. After a couple of generations you'd soon stop being upper class.

On top of privilege and wealth, Class is defined by a whole set of subtle and obvious clues designed to define those who observe or are ignorant of them. These include education, style, "breeding" and (very importantly) accent and vocabulary.

As bernard Shaw said.. "It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him".

I think America doesn't have quite the same class system- because I think it's history as been made up of wave after wave of immigrants, so landed wealth has never had the chance to assert itself as socially superior to wealth creation.