I don't think it's the education that matters. It's as another commenter said, it's the ability to "visit the right clubs and (therefore) know the right people"

I don't think it's the education that matters. It's as another commenter said, it's the ability to "visit the right clubs and (therefore) know the right people". Studying at Harvard isn't going to make you a millionaire. Being from a Harvard legacy family and already being a millionaire is going to make you a millionaire. Your point about the value of owning land in the past was spot on. Several hundred years ago the primary occupation was subsistence farming, which requires a lot of fertile land. The most readily available source of energy was the photosynthetic energy from the sun stored in the trees of the forest, access to which also required lands. And the most healthful food sources were the animals who lived off of those lands. But today? We have a diversity of occupations, ample energy and plenty of food (in the developed western world at least). We have these things because of an increasingly complex web of progress and interdependence that's been enabled by technology. The resources that really matter in 2015 are human resources. The world is changing faster than any textbook can keep up with, faster than even the best teachers can understand and communicate to others. The only way to find and take advantage of the newest the rent seeking opportunities is to associate with the people who are creating them. Knowing a guy who knows a guy is the new nobility, and no amount of book learning can compete with being a member of the "in" crowd. On the brighter side, society is exponentially more egalitarian than it was in the days of the landed aristocracy. If a man from Victorian England could observe the current level of social mobility (again, in the developed west) he would end up flat on his fainting couch. Unfortunately there is no way to prevent the wealthy from using their resources to give their kids a better life than everyone else has. Most people genuinely love their kids more than anything, who's to tell them that they can't spend money on what they hold most dear? The good news is that the long view paints a pretty picture. We're as far from aristocracy as we've ever been, and we're not going back any time soon.