The "lords" in US (not all, but the great majority) are self-made and in the process of making themselves they created significantly more value for the society, which ended up benefitting most of us.
The titles in EU are inherited or bought with inherited money.
Actually my idea of Europe is based on living in it (Eastern side, to be precise) and building and running startups here.
My idea of US is based on living and working there (a while ago though) and (for the last 20+ years) watching powerlessly how more and more of the products and services I interact with and use every day are designed there (and often build in China) while the EU is becoming less and less relevant.
One singular anecdote doesn’t say much about the overall state of things. I don’t think anyone in their right mind would claim in present day that Donald Trump became wealthy without receiving significant financial help/inheritance from his family.Of course there will be some people who are rich due to the wealth they inherited from their parents, that number will not be zero anywhere.
There are multiple studies on this, but they all seem to converge on the number of around 80% of current millionaires in the US being first generation/self-made[0]. That is, the ones who didn’t receive an inheritance from their parents or other family members.
It also shows some other interesting stats, such as “only 8% of those in the study attended prestigious private schools, with 62% attending state schools.”
The titles in EU are inherited or bought with inherited money.