The image of a leisure-class aristocrat with a family fortune is kind of a misdirect for what's actually happening. In the 1% and the top marginal tax rates you

The image of a leisure-class aristocrat with a family fortune is kind of a misdirect for what's actually happening. In the 1% and the top marginal tax rates you're mostly going to find FAANG drones. Maybe a few other species of college-educated workers whose wages pay their mortgages on ordinary homes in coastal cities. I think the "aristocrat" characterization is actively harmful. For one thing, it makes the FAANG drones fail to realize that if "the rich" is anyone, it's them. And for another, it makes the top seem much more distant than it really is. If a Wisconsinite in the 55th percentile spent a few days inhabiting the home and the routine of a Californian or New Yorker in the 98th percentile, I think he would primarily notice how small and shabby the house is, and how unpleasant the commute. I'm not sure he would even elect to keep it. Many of us that do get from here to there, end up turning back. While you may as well tax inheritances, that's not really how advantages get passed down. It's things like vocabularies and school districts.