[te_chris]

Excellent comments both yours and the one you replied to. Once you see it you really can’t unsee it.

The UK is a marvel that it manages to cultivate such an incredible creative scene in the shadow of the rent seeking mediocrity.

[usrusr]

From my continental Europe perspective I suspect that Americans will inevitably look at those inherited wealth structures through their assumptions of unbounded rent maximization, oblivious to a certain element of responsibility that will be far more present in Europeans, continental or not. "Only because you can squeeze out that penny doesn't necessarily mean that you should" is something that exists in most places that aren't the US. American wealth seems to have that siloed off into charity completely separate from how the money is made than others, "exploit hard/donate hard". I'm certainly not suggesting that everything is fine in the UK, but I do think that certain assumptions that are true in American will tint the picture quite considerably.