Well, I had a long response, but clicked the wrong thing and lost it.

I don't think that you can have one "way of life" that encompasses over 300 million people. Certainly, "American Way of Life" is a term often used by some politicians and TV commentators. If I had to describe what I think that means, to me, I'd say it is the right to live as I wish, with limited outside interference, subject to the rights of others. We have a saying that "your rights end where mine begin".

Theleveler describes himself as a left-wing, radical, atheist, gun-hating, peace-loving environmentalist, fundamentally opposed to the death penalty. He would fit in fine with the very large number of Americans who think exactly the same way, although we may not really have a "left-wing" as that term is defined in the UK and Europe in general, and many of us tend to reserve "radical" for the nuts on the right. We also mix things up a lot - that is, it's as common to find gun-hating Christians as gun-hating atheists, and gun-loving environmentalists are pretty normal.

I'm not sure what an oligopolistic hereditary elite is. Sure, if grandpa made a pile of money, that might still be in the family, but the grandson is more likely to work full time for the family foundation giving it away than living like we think the idle rich do in the UK. Family foundations are the way we (but not me - I will never be wealthy) avoid inheritance taxes, which are very high in the US - or at least we think 45% to the Federal government plus whatever the states take (they are all different) is high.