Careless and worry free childhoods extended to careless and worry free lives as education, connections, and most importantly, high social status was readily handed to old money descendants at birth. Without the constant looming requirement to earn money for survival, the heirs were free to live extravagant lives with beautiful clothing, expensive parties, and other ostentatious luxuries. For many in the twenties, this lifestyle seemed fantastic, but was it too fantastic? Bountiful inheritances left those of old money with jobs that only took up part of their time, yet they were always so busy. These successors, left with nothing to do, seemed to have become frantic in attempt to fill the insatiable void that was their life. This realization may lead to the cliche, the grass is always greener on the other side. Thought the statement may be true, in this case, green grass may not be for everyone.
The roaring twenties was the era that altered the system. The unprecedented development after WW1 had impact on both the economy and society in the US. Businesses ravaged with new technologies became prosperous and the surplus wealth went towards investment for other companies. This economic change in turn shifted social structures, where the once poor were then able to move up with greater ease, causing those of old money to lose identity. Old money heirs that held strong ideas of definitive social classes passed down by parents, they lunged and grasped at any morsel of past mindsets and clung to them. This lead to the childish and ridiculous lack of acceptance towards those of new money held by the previously wealthy which plays a heavy role in The Great Gatsby.
