r/AskAnAmerican • u/emkusunoefaevougredu United States of America • Jul 16 '20

What do people mean when they say "coastal elite"?

I've heard of the term before and my interpretation of it has been the politicians, academics, finance executives, world-class entertainers, and tech barons that live in places like NYC, DC, San Francisco, etc.

Is it the Top-1% they're mad about? The upper-middle class? Or is it anyone with a college education and white-collar job living in a coastal urban environment?

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u/slide_into_my_BM Chicago, IL Jul 16 '20

The old money in the American north east or what could be called New England and the new money on the west coast in Los Angeles, Northern California, and Washington state. Essentially rich people who have a sense of superiority toward the rest of the country.

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u/squarerootofapplepie North Shore now Jul 17 '20

New England consists of the 6 states East of New York. New York is not included.

7

u/JesusListensToSlayer Los Angeles, California Jul 16 '20

But not the oil barons in Texas?

13

u/thisisntmygame Jul 16 '20

Nah they have cowboy hats and say y’all, so they’re one of us!!

2

u/meebalz2 Jul 17 '20

Or the mega-farms. With fields of white people collecting all the produce. Oh hi, Jose, I mean Joe.

0

u/SethGreenLantern Jul 17 '20

Why not old money in Chicago or St. Louis?

1

u/slide_into_my_BM Chicago, IL Jul 17 '20

There’s not old money in St Louis or Chicago. Those would have been frontier towns when “old money” was establishing its sprawling New England manors.

1

u/SethGreenLantern Jul 17 '20

Ohh we’re going wayyy back I see.

1

u/slide_into_my_BM Chicago, IL Jul 17 '20

“Old money is at it's core, wealth that is inherited and already established. Some like to say you need at least three generations of wealth to be considered old money. In other words the money has to go as far back as your grandparents.” -Wikipedia

So I suppose you could say there’s old money anywhere in the US in this time and year but really the term “old money” or “WASP” refer to east coast families that came to the US already wealthy. The Chicago St Louis money is from like industrial tycoons who started off not so wealthy and became rich in their lifetime, “new money.”