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More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

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Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#61

Post by bradfitz »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #55

When I was stationed in Germany in my twenties as an American military wife, the Berlin Wall came down and the Two Germanies reunited. An East German aunt went to visit West German relatives, then visited relatives who had immigrated to the US. She said that "Compared to East Germany, everyone in West Germany looks rich. Then you go to the US and everyone looks like on (the nighttime soap) Dallas ." My maternal grand…

> I guess mom made the right decision coming here

Where's here?

Oh, from your Hacker News profile -> Twitter profile (https://twitter.com/doreen_michele) which says "Southwest Coastal Washington".

Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#62

Post by [deleted] »

bradfitz wrote: post #61
DoreenMichele wrote: post #55

When I was stationed in Germany in my twenties as an American military wife, the Berlin Wall came down and the Two Germanies reunited. An East German aunt went to visit West German relatives, then visited relatives who had immigrated to the US. She said that "Compared to East Germany, everyone in West Germany looks rich. Then you go to the US and everyone looks like on (the nighttime soap) Dallas ." My maternal grand…

> I guess mom made the right decision coming here Where's here? Oh, from your Hacker News profile -> Twitter profile ( https://twitter.com/doreen_michele ) which says "Southwest Coastal Washington".

[deleted]

Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#63

Post by TheCoelacanth »

gbacon wrote: post #52
marxwasright wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The rise of passive investment strategies has neatly proved that no skill and little luck is required to grow existing capital in the modern society.

So what are you waiting on?

The initial capital investment. I wasn't just handed it by my parents; I have to save it up from my earned income.

Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#64

Post by yorwba »

jopsen wrote: post #59
isostatic wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you tax income? That's a disincentive to be productive, that's not good - we want people to be productive. Taxing wealth is basically paying a rent to the society that allows that wealth to exist. Your land in manhattan is only worth $10m because society hasn't gone all Syrian. Your copyright holding over your film is only worth anything because we don't let people freely copy it. When the wealth is owned by t…

Interesting idea.. so instead of taxing income, you would tax wealth carried from one year to another... That would massively discourage saving. I'm not sure that's great in the long run. In the short run I'll probably lead to massive growth as every goes to burn their dollars on something :) (Arguably it might be a low tax, might even limited to people with a lot of wealth)

Saving money is already discouraged by inflation. A wealth tax would be functionally equivalent to a fixed inflation rate, just the numerical values would be different.

Since the numbers would be going down instead of the increasing money supply devaluing savings, I guess people wouldn't like it, because losing wealth would actually feel like losing wealth.

Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#65

Post by [deleted] »

laretluval wrote: post #13
nicolashahn wrote: post #6

I was just discussing this as a result of watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-asltUUvcGU in which they discuss the result of the western capitalist system loosely resembling a meritocracy, except in the case of inherited wealth. An exceptionally productive individual can generate billions, but then when he dies the money goes to his heirs which may not have done anything to deserve commanding that m…

> deserve ?? Who gets to determine who deserves what?

[deleted]

Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#67

Post by kiliantics »

gbacon wrote: post #54
kiliantics wrote: post #27

Piketty showed in Capital that most modern work about the trends in economic inequality was flawed. We usually think of the industrial revolution and modern era as periods where power and wealth became much more fairly distributed. However, if you go far back enough into the records, as he did, you can see a clear trend of concentration of wealth even now in the current system. The trend was briefly disrupted by the…

How then is it possible that some four in five American millionaires inherited no more than ten thousand dollars, according to The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley?

A millionaire is hardly wealthy these days. Upper middle class rich, sure. But not "an estate to leave to my heirs" rich.

Someone who got a good middle class start, went into the right career, and had everything work out pretty well (no major financial misfortune or an injury or sick family member) while saving responsibly, can become a millionaire in a few decades today. They can probably afford a nice house, which their kids can carve up to have their own nice middle class start.

This group of people is still insanely privileged but it is nothing on the obnoxious levels of real inherited wealth in the upper crust.

Re: More than half of all private wealth has been inherited in most of Europe

#70

Post by BatterMarkupL »

bradfitz wrote: post #61
DoreenMichele wrote: post #55

When I was stationed in Germany in my twenties as an American military wife, the Berlin Wall came down and the Two Germanies reunited. An East German aunt went to visit West German relatives, then visited relatives who had immigrated to the US. She said that "Compared to East Germany, everyone in West Germany looks rich. Then you go to the US and everyone looks like on (the nighttime soap) Dallas ." My maternal grand…

> I guess mom made the right decision coming here Where's here? Oh, from your Hacker News profile -> Twitter profile ( https://twitter.com/doreen_michele ) which says "Southwest Coastal Washington".

bradfitz: eighteen years later and still too personal.
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