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> Due to the historical averages of the rate of return on capital, he concluded empirically that wealth will continue to concentrate to the point to inheritors,

> Due to the historical averages of the rate of return on capital, he concluded empirically that wealth will continue to concentrate to the point to inheritors, to the extent that individuals become increasingly unable through labor to achieve parity to the inheritors. You're obviously incredibly unlikely to become a billionaire. If someone inherits billions - you're not going to out-labor them to become richer. Only luck will help there. So where is the cutoff? You can easily out-labor someone who inherits $2M at 50. >10% of people in the US amass >$1M (without counting their home equity) by around 50... How many people are inheriting more than $2M? 0.5% of people? You're never going to out-labor luck. It's always going to be better to be lucky than work hard. But luck doesn't scale, and hope isn't a great strategy. I'm in favor of inheritance taxes. But this doesn't seem like the main driver of inequality....

wing-_-nuts 3y ago
>I'm in favor of inheritance taxes. But this doesn't seem like the main driver of inequality.... I mean, Piketty's work shows that it is... I'd like to see a scandi style tax system and social safety net. Inheritance taxes at the point where 90% of small business and farms won't be affected. Progressive carbon taxes. Massively increased social safety net that includes paid education, healthcare, and unemployment generous enough that one won't be destitute if they try to start their own business and fail (look at the rate of small business formation in the scandi countries!) There's a common refrain in conservative circles that they're more in favor of 'equality of opportunity over outcome'. Right now we clearly have neither.
- onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
  > I mean, Piketty's work shows that it is... He shows that - currently - R > G. I'm not convinced this "proves" inheritance is the main problem. It shows that you can't work your way to the top - only invest and get lucky (of which inheritance is one of many ways to get lucky). And by the way - it shows that this was true for all of human history except a brief window after WW2.

wing-_-nuts 3y ago

>I'm in favor of inheritance taxes. But this doesn't seem like the main driver of inequality.... I mean, Piketty's work shows that it is... I'd like to see a scandi style tax system and social safety net. Inheritance taxes at the point where 90% of small business and farms won't be affected. Progressive carbon taxes. Massively increased social safety net that includes paid education, healthcare, and unemployment generous enough that one won't be destitute if they try to start their own business and fail (look at the rate of small business formation in the scandi countries!) There's a common refrain in conservative circles that they're more in favor of 'equality of opportunity over outcome'. Right now we clearly have neither.

onlyrealcuzzo 3y ago
> I mean, Piketty's work shows that it is... He shows that - currently - R > G. I'm not convinced this "proves" inheritance is the main problem. It shows that you can't work your way to the top - only invest and get lucky (of which inheritance is one of many ways to get lucky). And by the way - it shows that this was true for all of human history except a brief window after WW2.