4 ms·

Misleading and flat out wrong, as this link shows: https://jacobinmag.com/2017/10/inheritance-wealthy-one-percent https://jacobinmag.com/2017/10/inheritance-wea

Misleading and flat out wrong, as this link shows: https://jacobinmag.com/2017/10/inheritance-wealthy-one-percent https://jacobinmag.com/2017/10/inheritance-wealthy-one-perce... What motivates you to defend and apologize for inequality anyway?

WalterBright 6y ago
Your link doesn't show that. > inequality Every society that attempted to make everyone equally wealthy succeeded only in making everyone miserable.
- djrobstep 6y ago
  You didn't read it, did you? > Every society that attempted to make everyone equally wealthy succeeded only in making everyone miserable. Wrong. For instance, people in Norway are doing fine.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    > You didn't read it, did you? I did, and you are welcome to cite the actual statistic you are relying on from it. > people in Norway are doing fine Pumping 20% of their GDP out of the ground. Besides, they didn't try to make everyone equally wealthy.
    - djrobstep 6y ago
      You didn't, otherwise you wouldn't still be saying that inherited wealth isn't a problem. Norway is equal because of high redistribution, actually. It's sad that you're so politically motivated to do apologetics for the rich that you'll refuse to learn some basic facts about a country that does it better than yours.
      - WalterBright 6y ago
        > You didn't, otherwise you wouldn't still be saying that inherited wealth isn't a problem. You're moving the goalposts.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    I'll do my part. Here are stats from the book page 16: ♦ Only 19 percent receive any income or wealth of any kind from a trust fund or an estate. ♦ Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth. ♦ More than half never received as much as $1 in inheritance. ♦ Fewer than 25 percent ever received "an act of kindness" of $10,000 or more from their parents, grandparents, or other relatives. ♦ Ninety-one percent never received, as a gift, as much as $1 of the ownership of a family business. ♦ Nearly half never received any college tuition from their parents or other relatives. ♦ Fewer than 10 percent believe they will ever receive an inheritance in the future. The book is from 1996.
    - inter_netuser 6y ago
      pre-1996 might as well be a different universe at this point. Speaking from experience.
      - WalterBright 6y ago
        > pre-1996 might as well be a different universe The rhetoric I heard back then about it being impossible for ordinary people to accumulate wealth is exactly the same as I read in this thread. It was the same in the 80s and 70s, too.
    - dragonwriter 6y ago
      > Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth. That's a very misleading statistic; it takes less than 25 years and the long term average return if the S&P 500 to get a 10× multiple; so with that much time, an inheritance that represents only 10% of final wealth is quite easily the source (with just basic passive investment) of 100% of it. At 40 years from inheritance, it's over a 42× multiple, so an inheritance or less than 2.5% is the source of a whole fortune. And, surprisingly, your statistic doesn't cover how many had “business” (whether genuine or as a tax dodge method of giving large gifts as “businesses expenses”) funneled to them to build their fortune directly from their wealthy family members, businesses controlled by wealthy family members, or people seeking to curry favor with wealthy family members. Which is how the pros do it.

WalterBright 6y ago

Your link doesn't show that. > inequality Every society that attempted to make everyone equally wealthy succeeded only in making everyone miserable.

djrobstep 6y ago
You didn't read it, did you? > Every society that attempted to make everyone equally wealthy succeeded only in making everyone miserable. Wrong. For instance, people in Norway are doing fine.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  > You didn't read it, did you? I did, and you are welcome to cite the actual statistic you are relying on from it. > people in Norway are doing fine Pumping 20% of their GDP out of the ground. Besides, they didn't try to make everyone equally wealthy.
  - djrobstep 6y ago
    You didn't, otherwise you wouldn't still be saying that inherited wealth isn't a problem. Norway is equal because of high redistribution, actually. It's sad that you're so politically motivated to do apologetics for the rich that you'll refuse to learn some basic facts about a country that does it better than yours.
    - WalterBright 6y ago
      > You didn't, otherwise you wouldn't still be saying that inherited wealth isn't a problem. You're moving the goalposts.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  I'll do my part. Here are stats from the book page 16: ♦ Only 19 percent receive any income or wealth of any kind from a trust fund or an estate. ♦ Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth. ♦ More than half never received as much as $1 in inheritance. ♦ Fewer than 25 percent ever received "an act of kindness" of $10,000 or more from their parents, grandparents, or other relatives. ♦ Ninety-one percent never received, as a gift, as much as $1 of the ownership of a family business. ♦ Nearly half never received any college tuition from their parents or other relatives. ♦ Fewer than 10 percent believe they will ever receive an inheritance in the future. The book is from 1996.
  - inter_netuser 6y ago
    pre-1996 might as well be a different universe at this point. Speaking from experience.
    - WalterBright 6y ago
      > pre-1996 might as well be a different universe The rhetoric I heard back then about it being impossible for ordinary people to accumulate wealth is exactly the same as I read in this thread. It was the same in the 80s and 70s, too.
  - dragonwriter 6y ago
    > Fewer than 20 percent inherited 10 percent or more of their wealth. That's a very misleading statistic; it takes less than 25 years and the long term average return if the S&P 500 to get a 10× multiple; so with that much time, an inheritance that represents only 10% of final wealth is quite easily the source (with just basic passive investment) of 100% of it. At 40 years from inheritance, it's over a 42× multiple, so an inheritance or less than 2.5% is the source of a whole fortune. And, surprisingly, your statistic doesn't cover how many had “business” (whether genuine or as a tax dodge method of giving large gifts as “businesses expenses”) funneled to them to build their fortune directly from their wealthy family members, businesses controlled by wealthy family members, or people seeking to curry favor with wealthy family members. Which is how the pros do it.