[untenured]

Their lifestyle is the cultural ideal of large portions of the population.

Interesting. I am always struck by both the differing attitudes toward work in the two locations (an opportunity for achievement here, a necessary evil there) and the stark preference of Europeans to work in a secure position for someone else. Many Americans view starting a business as almost a personal declaration of independence.

In your view do the idle European rich to whom you refer have any great influence beyond being role models? Do they tend to dominate the governing classes, corporate boards, etc.?

Earth Last! Conservation as a Special Interest.

[JasonC]

Certainly. Scads of people work for them, directly or indirectly. They are consumers of intellectual opinion rather than inventors of it, but decide what is fashionable. They have no idea how wealth is actually created, because they have never had to. Intellectuals who are actually gifted want to pass one exam, get an easy job for working for the state whose requirements they can fufill in 2 hours each morning, and for the rest live like the privileged inheritor set, on the public payroll. A norm of opinionated useless leisure trickles down. People who actually work for a living, independently, are treated as slightly disreputable, although in my (limited, but recent) experience they are polite and conscientious by comparison.