Beware the new inherited aristocracy
by David Atkins
If you missed it yesterday, go read Digby’s post on the scions of the new aristocracy.
Now watch Paul Krugman on Bill Moyers:
“Those of you who talk about the 1 percent, you don’t really get what’s going on. You’re living in the past. You’re living in the ’80s. You think that Gordon Gekko is the future,” he says, referring to the character in Wall Street, who became a symbol of unrestrained greed.
“[R]ight now, what we’re really talking about is Gordon Gekko’s son or daughter. We’re talking about inherited wealth playing an ever-growing role,” he concludes.
A lot of people don’t understand the significance of this dynastic aristocratic phenomenon. The world has always been more about whom you know than what you know. Inequality trends make it worse. This is happening even in the world of progressive politics. If you want a decent job in political organizing you usually need to know a wealthy someone with an “in”, and you need to be prepared to help write pitches that pull in more money. If you want a decent job in climate change action in California, your best bet is to get connected to billionaire Tom Steyer. If you work to hold government accountable to public transparency, you had best hope to catch Pierre Omidyar’s eye.
But it gets even worse when it comes to the children of wealthy scions. Consider the fact that over 3 million Americans are in the top 1% of incomes making over $364,000 a year. Consider the fact that on average each of them will have around two kids. The math there is tricky for a number of obvious reasons, but let’s put down a conservative estimate of 4 to 5 million children in America whose parents make over $364,000 a year.
Remember that estate taxes have been shredded to minimal levels. Remember also that cash-only sales consitute nearly half of all home purchases. How much real estate wealth is actually going to legitimately change hands, rather than be passed down from one generation to the next? How many spots at America’s universities are being taken and about to be taken by these 4 million trust funders? How many of the unpaid internships that lead to powerful and influential jobs do they have and will they continue to take into the future?
If you do not belong to this lucky subset of Americans, then your best bet for a decent future doesn’t lie in becoming a self-made entrenpreneur. After all, the vast majority of new businesses fail within the first 5 years–and it’s not as if the United States has a safety net that catches risk-taking entrepreneurs. Instead, it has a system that rewards the very few who succeed with untold sums of wealth, usually as a product of having caught the eye of or gone to school with a wealthy angel investor or their kid.
Given the horrible job market for new college grads, the biggest reason to go to college isn’t to find a good career. It’s to find a few rich kids, grab onto them for dear life, and beg them for a job.
It’s Great Expectations, American-style.
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