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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

#91

Post by logicchains »

wycs wrote: post #86
ekianjo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant part: > If a parent's income had no effect on a child's opportunity for future upward mobility, approximately 20% of poor children who started in the bottom quintile (in the bottom 20% of the US range of incomes) would remain there as poor adults. At the other end of income spectrum, if children were born into wealthy families in the top 20%, only 20% would stay in that top income category if their mobility…

This would all be true if we were all genetically identical. However psychometrics has proven and now cognitive genomics is confirming that valuable mental characteristics have very large genetic components. Intelligence is the capacity to achieve your goals. Intelligence is highly heritable. A goal of most people is to become wealthy. So people who acquire wealth tend to be much more intelligent than average, as wea…

This idea was explored over a century ago in H. G. Wells' classic "The Time Machine" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Time_Machine), in which over time humanity split into two distinct species by the process you describe.

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

#92

Post by amateurpolymath »

wycs wrote: post #86
ekianjo wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Relevant part: > If a parent's income had no effect on a child's opportunity for future upward mobility, approximately 20% of poor children who started in the bottom quintile (in the bottom 20% of the US range of incomes) would remain there as poor adults. At the other end of income spectrum, if children were born into wealthy families in the top 20%, only 20% would stay in that top income category if their mobility…

This would all be true if we were all genetically identical. However psychometrics has proven and now cognitive genomics is confirming that valuable mental characteristics have very large genetic components. Intelligence is the capacity to achieve your goals. Intelligence is highly heritable. A goal of most people is to become wealthy. So people who acquire wealth tend to be much more intelligent than average, as wea…

> Intelligence is the capacity to achieve your goals. Intelligence is highly heritable. A goal of most people is to become wealthy. So people who acquire wealth tend to be much more intelligent than average, as wealth is graded on a curve

That is an impressive syllogism you've got there.

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

#94

Post by closeparen »

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 median-income household owning a median-priced house and making the standard 15% 401k contribution will clear "millionaire" by retirement age, easily.

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

#95

Post by tikhonj »

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?

I haven't looked at the data, but my guess would be that it's the difference between weighing based on individuals (number of individual millionaires) vs total wealth. The latter is going to be dominated by the richest part of the distribution.

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

#96

Post by closeparen »

julian_1 wrote: post #30
MisterBastahrd wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The income by the inheritor was never earned. Hence it's perfectly logical to tax it.

So you would be in favor of taxing someone's social security or charitable receipts - since the benefits are not earned ?

Taxing a transfer payment is an accounting fiction equivalent to simply providing a larger benefit. (Social Security, by the way, is simply deferred earnings. You may be thinking of Medicare or disability?)

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

#98

Post by stale2002 »

MisterBastahrd wrote: post #28
julian_1 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the tax system treats unearned income and wealth more favourably than earned income. The income was taxed when it was earned. What reason is there to tax it twice? > how you feel about in increase in unearned income flowing to the wealthy I guess. Or about how you feel about the government's use of it's citizen's resources. Why should wealth earned by the breadwinner of the family, not remain with the family? It's…

The income by the inheritor was never earned. Hence it's perfectly logical to tax it.

Yes it was. It was earned by the person who made the money.

Would you rather all the wealthy people in the world just blow all their money on yachts or something?

Because that is the alternative. Why bother saving money if it is all just going to be confiscated when you die. Instead you should just blow it all on ridiculous things that help nobody but yourself in the immediate time frame.

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

#99

Post by ericd »

learnstats2 wrote: post #19
laretluval wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I suggest it is not difficult to find a better determinator than parental wealth.

Are you a parent? I'm not sure you understand what you're playing with here.
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