Obama '08?

There are less of them?

Sure, if you lower the bar.

With that much money spent, they should all be living in mansions and being sported around in stretch limos.

When you nitpick to that extent Parados, I just sigh and accept it that you are again missing the entire point.

Rich people are rich for a reason, same as poor people are poor for a reason.

Quote:

Rich people are rich for a reason, same as poor people are poor for a reason.

Usually, because of the money their parents had. It's actually the same reason.

I love the 'poor people deserve to be poor' attitude, it's so classic conservatism of you!

Cycloptichorn

Usually, because of the money their parents had. It's actually the same reason.

Cycloptichorn

Which ones are wealthy because their parents were? I would guess a few of the Walton's, but I would still call them new money as Dad just recently became super-wealthy.

WP Greet Box icon
X
Welcome Googler! If you find this page useful, you might want to subscribe to the RSS feed for updates on this topic.
You were searching forPosts relating to "how many wealthy people have simply inherited their wealth?". See posts relating to your search »« Hide related posts

Most Wealthy Individuals Earned, Not Inherited, Their Wealth

By Flexo on Friday, April 18, 2008 in People

When I first read The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas Stanley and William Danko, it didn’t inspire me. It’s not that I disagreed with the authors, but I found the book uninteresting. It was one of the first financial books I read after beginning Consumerism Commentary, and it came highly recommended from readers here and participants in The Motley Fool’s community.

Without getting too much into my problems with the book, I will say that the idea that a “millionaire” is more likely to be your local business owner rather than someone born into a family of money was new to me.

Recently, PNC Wealth Management conducted a survey of people with more than $500,000 free to invest as they like, a fair definition of “wealthy,” and possibly “millionaire” once you begin including home equity and other assets. Only 6% of those surveyed earned their money from inheritance alone. 69% earned their wealth mostly by trading time and effort for money, or by “working.”

Here are some interesting statistics I pulled from an article discussing the survey results.

* 36% of earners and 27% of heirs are concerned about an economic recession.
* 77% of earners and 67% of heirs believe they have a lot of control of their financial future.
* 39% of earners and 21% of heirs are moderate or risky investors.
* 75% of earners and 50% of heirs have less stress thanks to their wealth.
* 51% of earners and 33% of heirs believe their wealth has led to increases of happiness.
* Heirs are twice as likely to believe that their wealth causes more problems that it solves.
* 37% of earners and 25% of heirs believe that luck played a major role in their financial success.

For me, the choice is clear. There is only one option if I want to find myself with $500,000 of investible assets: earn rather than inherit.

So I'm not exactly speaking from a vacuum here either.

I gather you are in favor of even bigger tax benefits for the rich. Their income and wealth are already wildly disparate to that of the masses in the country, but this is not sufficient for you. Don't be surprised when people rise up against the plutocracy as they did in Cuba, Venezuela, Russia, etc.

There are many heirs with fabulous income and wealth. Look up the Rockefellers, Mellons, Waltons, Hiltons, Kennedys, Bushes, et al.

Let's say that tomorrow, all the money in the US was evenly divided between every man, woman and child. That every single person had the exact same amount of money, how long will it be before the people that were rich yesterday were once again rich and the people that were poor yesterday would be poor again? I'd give it less then 5 years.

Rich people are rich for a reason, same as poor people are poor for a reason. Sure, not all people will have the same exact reason, but they will find themselves in the zone they know. No amount of education or shifting of dollars from the rich to the poor will change that. The poor people will spend their money, play their console games on their new big screen TV's while drinking and smoking their money away while the rich will save it and work their butts off becoming wealthy again.

This is why I am against wealth distribution in any form. Most people have no idea what to do with their money. They waste it like it means nothing to them. It just doesn't work.