[thekevan]

"old-money, hard earned"

I'm confused. That phrase reads to me as "inherited and thus old money, I was poor or middle class but worked hard and made myself rich the hard way"

In my understanding, you used opposite situations to describe the same people. Can you tell me what I'm missing here?

[AvenueIngres]

Elites that are reproducing themselves but with "old" values so-to-speak, often they have a family history of doing the same job. They work hard to maintain their living standards.

To get a little more in details wrt to the demographics: I am thinking about lawyers, physicians or researchers which have assets >5 million who had to go through the grind of tough academic programs, highly competitive and skilled professions etc.

I am opposing this to rich heirs, actors, athletes, lottery winners, just-sold-my-pizza-app-startup etc. who like to show-off their recently acquired wealth. This is not a universal example obviously, there are outliers everywhere. Only talking about trends here.

[adrianratnapala]

You are describing people who are rich because they and their lineage belong to professions. That's a kind of modern aristocracy, and like most aristocracies they have good manners and obey a kind of noblesse oblige.

But also, most of the unequal laws and policies in a country are created to prop up the position of such people. E.g. house-price inflation helps only those who already own - or stand to inherit - houses.

[1812calif]

old/new money suffices without an indicating your opinion whether people worked hard, or not.

[avar]

Rich athletes? It's literally true that they work hard for their money.