We admire the Americans for their lack of a class system.
Well, I hate to burst your bubble of admiration for us, but, we definitely have a class or caste system here.
What WE have that you
might not, is what I like to call
Class Flexibility, Class Mobility.
For example, if you are born into a lower class background, you can become higher class just by earning a certain amount of money ... You can become of the noble class here, without having been born into that caste, although whether or not
that milieu will accept you (We have our snobs here, too, don't be fooled) is another matter entirely.
I think in the UK you have to have been born into a class or caste to be considered part of that caste.
Conversely,here you can also go from riches to rags, too. You can be born into a higher class here, meet financial ruin and now, be thought of as being lower class!
We are not limited by what we are born into, in other words. You can become self-made here. You can be born in the poorest ghetto here, and then become one of the highest social pecking order. Rappers are prime examples of this. People like that P. Diddy, Snoop Dog, etc. were born into abject poverty and now make 50 million a year. They socialise with Presidents of Corporations and our own President, Movie stars etc.
Mind you, I may be stereotyping the UK. But, I think it's harder to move from one class to another over there. I think the same might be true for Europe, too.