Originally Posted by
calamus
I live in rural northern California, but have lived in many parts of the US. Customs and attitudes vary quite a bit from one part of the US to another, and also between subcultures living in the same geographical area (up here it's "hippies" and "rednecks"). The economic disparity between the extremely wealthy and the rest of us isn't particularly noticeable because the extremely wealthy rarely if ever come into contact with the hoi polloi -- except perhaps with their servants, gardeners, and the like -- but live insular existences well out of sight of the masses. Such extreme wealth generally comes from involvement with multi-national enterprises in which US interests are routinely thrown under the bus, so their self-identity as Americans tends to be pretty anemic. They might as well live in Dubai or Zurich, and many of them do abandon the US for tax and other reasons. I believe that's true of the UK as well.
I remember once taking a train from Texas to California. I got on the train in Fort Worth, part of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex, a major US city. Despite being in a large population center and the train being pretty crowded -- very few empty seats -- the atmosphere was very friendly and relaxed. People made eye contact and smiled at one another, strangers struck up conversations to while the time away, and it was quite pleasant. A barely perceptible coolness set in as the train moved through New Mexico and into Arizona, even though these were less populated areas, but it didn't get really noticeable until the train started approaching Los Angeles. By then the coolness was definitely noticeable. People tended to keep to themselves, and there was no eye contact to speak of. Then the train headed north, and as it approached San Francisco the atmosphere became downright chilly. Many of the passengers who got on for that leg of the trip appeared to sneer at everyone else if they took notice of them at all. What interaction took place, and there wasn't much of it, tended to be rude.