On Sat, 23 Nov 1996, Jim Wise wrote:
On Fri, 22 Nov 1996, `Jon Galt' wrote:
What an interesting topic for this list. I really must point out that most wealth in this country is first generation wealth - in other words, most wealth is EARNED, not "handed down".
Please back this statement up. The fact is, contrary to our grand self-image, America has one of the lowest rates of class mobility in the world. Just shy of forty percent of the wealth (in land and capital) in the U.S. is possessed by one percent of the population. This far outstrips, for example, Great Britain, where the top one percent of society holds 18% of the nation's wealth. Continuing down the line, the top 20% of the us population hold more than 80% of the nation's wealth. [Source New York Times, April 17. 1995, p.1]
Yup. I agree with you here - every year Forbes puts out its list of the richest people in America. I'm too lazy to go digging under the coffee table to find the issue, but as I recall, a good number of the people on the list made their money the old-fasioned way - they inherited it. Also - most people inthis country do not have true "wealth" - most are fairly leveraged with mortgages and other loans, so their true net worth is not all that high. The "coupon-clipping" class is mostly "old money." -r.w.