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Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

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Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#131

Post by pydry »

Fauntleroy wrote: post #81
abeppu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think it's worth calling out that his follow-up, "Capital and Ideology" in its latter sections includes several suggestions for counteracting the trend to increasing inequality. One of these is basically that _every_ person should have a windfall inheritance when they're in their early adulthood, which would give them opportunities to pursue education, try starting a business, or whatever else. And naturally,…

People whine about "wealth distribution" day and night, but at the end of the day what alternative is there to combat the (continually increasing) concentration of wealth at the top? At some point there will have to be redistribution, in some form, and the sooner society comes around to that the better off we'll all be.

I prefer to call it wealth re-re-distribution.

The Walton family wealth, for example, is a capitalised stream of rents predicated on underpaying store staff and abusing market power with suppliers. That's a wealth transfer. That's redistribution.

The Duke of Westminster is worth $11 billion because his ancestor was besties with William the Conqueror (not william the earner).

These are wealth transfers and redistributions that, ideally, ought to be undone.

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#132

Post by seydor »

gretch wrote: post #86
Qem wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are devolving to the status quo from the nineteen century and before. A couple owners of inherited wealth and huge dispossessed masses.

This is true if you view the world from a zero-sum perspective. If the rich are winning, then the poor must be losing. But I would argue the world is not zero-sum. Modern life for middle class or poor class people is a lot better than the vast majority of history (the 2 notable exceptions are post WWII USA and post Cold War USA, when America was punched through as an undisputed global superpower). We are a looooonnng…

that would be an interesting idea in the 2000s, when everyone wanted to be an entrepreneur.

This very forum is (ostensibly) about entrepreneurship. Since 10 years ago however, the common advice is to ditch the startup and go work for the bigtech behemoths instead.

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#133

Post by boeingUH60 »

Ekaros wrote: post #47
nvr219 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's very funny to see Rothschild described as "secretive"; I thought they were one of the most well-known families in the world or at least in Europe.

How many of them an average person can name? And how many of those are still alive? Name is known, but I don't think they are as individuals known very much at all.

There are multiple Rothschilds on the Forbes and Bloomberg billionaire lists. The family name is attached to many endowments, scholarships, museums, think tanks, hospitals, etc.

Virtually everyone who cares to look knows they're wealthy, but some conspiracy theorists prefer to act like they're a secretive cabal controlling the world, lol

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#135

Post by uoaei »

abeppu wrote: post #59
mushufasa wrote: post #17

This is the conclusion of Thomas Picketty's 2013 book, "Capital in the 21st Century." 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. The book was very provocative in economist circles, but even the c…

I also think it's worth calling out that his follow-up, "Capital and Ideology" in its latter sections includes several suggestions for counteracting the trend to increasing inequality. One of these is basically that _every_ person should have a windfall inheritance when they're in their early adulthood, which would give them opportunities to pursue education, try starting a business, or whatever else. And naturally,…

This technique is referred to as "baby bonds" in policy circles and has a number of advocates, lots of names you'd recognize.

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#136

Post by kelseyfrog »

Fauntleroy wrote: post #81
abeppu wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I also think it's worth calling out that his follow-up, "Capital and Ideology" in its latter sections includes several suggestions for counteracting the trend to increasing inequality. One of these is basically that _every_ person should have a windfall inheritance when they're in their early adulthood, which would give them opportunities to pursue education, try starting a business, or whatever else. And naturally,…

People whine about "wealth distribution" day and night, but at the end of the day what alternative is there to combat the (continually increasing) concentration of wealth at the top? At some point there will have to be redistribution, in some form, and the sooner society comes around to that the better off we'll all be.

The alternative of last resort is always violent revolution[1]. Wealth redistribution is the olive branch.

There seems to be an open question among the wealthy and political class of how far inequality can go given the modern police state and effectiveness of technology in accomplishing the goal of maintaining or exacerbating the current political economy.

1. See historical populist grivences against aristocracy that result in social restructuring.

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#137

Post by rabuse »

lifestyleguru wrote: post #91

Why should one even try anything at all?

There's still money to be made everywhere. It's just hard to compete in the markets against the entrenched giants that have been around since the 1800's. I feel there's more a shift towards making money "entertaining" than there is to made through the standard business model.

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#138

Post by uoaei »

pydry wrote: post #131
Fauntleroy wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People whine about "wealth distribution" day and night, but at the end of the day what alternative is there to combat the (continually increasing) concentration of wealth at the top? At some point there will have to be redistribution, in some form, and the sooner society comes around to that the better off we'll all be.

I prefer to call it wealth re-re-distribution. The Walton family wealth, for example, is a capitalised stream of rents predicated on underpaying store staff and abusing market power with suppliers. That's a wealth transfer. That's redistribution. The Duke of Westminster is worth $11 billion because his ancestor was besties with William the Conqueror (not william the earner). These are wealth transfers and redistribut…

Distribution implies few to many, concentration implies many to few. We could call it semantics or we could call it using words correctly.

Re: Billionaires amass more through inheritance than wealth creation, says UBS

#140

Post by 7thaccount »

verisimi wrote: post #94
mushufasa wrote: post #17

This is the conclusion of Thomas Picketty's 2013 book, "Capital in the 21st Century." 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. The book was very provocative in economist circles, but even the c…

He must surely be an embedded character with such a prestigious background, promoted in the media, talks at the WEF, etc. Whatever he is proposing will be milk toast to the billionaires - a lighting rod to direct peoples' frustration to somewhere that won't cause any harm to those billionaires. Institutions: Paris School of Economics School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences London School of Economics Massac…

Are you referring to Piketty's work and folks like Krugman going on interviews to talk about it?
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