While the advantages of coming from wealth – including inheritance – remain, true equality will be centuries away.
When you are born to wealthy parents, in general you will receive:
- better education
- safer neighbourhood
- less exposure to antisocial or criminal behaviour
- less need for antisocial or criminal behaviour
- more financial help from family
- more inheritance
So even if two children are treated totally equally by society, the wealth of their parents can still have a massive effect on their life outcomes.
Yes, the children of wealth can have poor life outcomes, and poor people can achieve greatness. But in general this is not the case.
If we look at the percentage of millionaire families (in the US) by race, we see the following (source: Axios):
- In 2016, 15% of white families were millionaires, up from 7% in 1992
- In the same period, black millionaire families rose from 1% to 2%
Both doubled, but because of the enormous exiting gap, that gap widened.
Out choices are to wait for centuries to pass, or to change the ability for wealth to provide advantage:
- end the ability to store wealth in non-productive (for society) ways
- end inheritances beyond agreed levels
- end better education for those who can afford it
- create communities that mix levels of wealth
And maybe, possibly, end the ability to loan money or gift substantial amounts to family members. We wouldn’t have Donald Trump as US President without the funding he received from his father. We could have someone who was truly “self-made” instead.
