When successful, wealthy people die, they usually pass that wealth to more than one person. Those people in turn pass their more modest wealth down to more than

When successful, wealthy people die, they usually pass that wealth to more than one person. Those people in turn pass their more modest wealth down to more than one person. So it goes exponentially until the fortune dissipates. With the wealth goes the influence and power. Additionally, most rich people will now set up foundations that get the majority of their wealth, so the kids lose any claim to that pool of money. The timescale on which this happens today is surprisingly rapid compared to the lifespans that many immortality-lovers want. For example, the infamous Rothschild family is collectively worth only $1 billion now. That is the whole family, not any one individual. A modern example of the beginning of this process is the Walton family. Going back further, the descendants of many 1600s English barons have middle-class lives, but one person from each family retains the fancy title. The only societies that keep concentration of wealth are ones with primogeniture and other unequal distributions of wealth to children.