Old Money – Keeping it in the Family
It’s called old money and it is found in old families. Old money is money that has passed down from earlier generations in someone’s family. Old money is a term that refers to the established upper class. It is typically used to describe families who have been wealthy for several generations, as distinguished them from the nouveau riche. As opposed to old money, nouveau riche refers to a person who has acquired considerable wealth within his or her generation. This term is generally used to emphasize that the individual was previously part of a lower socioeconomic rank, i.e. and not from old money. Different from old money, nouveau riche people now have the means for the acquisition of goods or luxuries that were previously unobtainable.
According to surveys conducted in the late 1930s American society was divided into two groups: lower-upper and upper-upper. The lower-upper class included those with "new money", or money made from investments, business ventures, and so forth. The upper-upper class included aristocratic and "high-society" families with "old money" who had been rich for generations. These extremely wealthy people lived off the income from their inherited riches, their old money. The upper-upper class was seen as more prestigious than the lower-upper class as they had that old money.
The lower-upper class with their new money were not as highly regarded as those from the upper-upper class as the emphasis on old money constituted a more prestigious background. Old money trumps all forms of money and influence in a society driven to evaluate the worth of individuals. Old money, even if it is a small fortune of old money trumps new money. The best money is old money.
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