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Benjamin Franklin invested a today-equivalent of $4444 in his time, for the states' use 200 years later. http://eh.net/book_reviews/benjamin-franklin-and-inven

• gwern 16y ago
  Yes, but he got lucky. How well would such a scheme have worked if he had done it in Germany? Or Japan? Or Russia? Or Italy? (Or maybe France?) Outside of the US and the English Commonwealth, where would such a scheme have worked? The US is almost unique in going 200 years with consistent growth, no invasions, no hyperinflation, no confiscatory dictatorships, etc. There's a serious issue of bias here - where are all the bequests which didn't survive 200 years to impress us? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias#In_finance http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Survivorship_bias#In_finance)