Over a period of a few centuries we have figured out that allowing significant amounts of wealth to be controlled by the wishes of people who died 100 years ago

Over a period of a few centuries we have figured out that allowing significant amounts of wealth to be controlled by the wishes of people who died 100 years ago. Imagine, for instance, how perfectly mainstream beliefs in the US would have led someone setting up an educational trust to specify that it was only to support white men. Just a couple generations passed we would look upon that policy with anathema. The rule against perpetuities is what our legal system evolved to address this problem. It says that you can direct how property is used during your lifetime, and beyond that through the lifetime of someone who was living at the time you died. But that you cannot control how money and property is to be used beyond that point.