Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 12:23 +0100 (BST) From: m.blackmore at blackmore-sly.co.uk (M.Blackmore)
Are these assets "real" in terms of their liquid or realisable value, or paper assets, e.g. properties on which purchase loans are still outstanding.
I wonder how many people are "asset rich but income poor" in this regard? Quite a few I suspect, looking to the long term (20-30 years) and don't want to trust things to the stock markets, given a "good" property market (like in Oxford in the UK). Such resources will have a significant advantage to the next generation of course - a substantial capital resource available which is the biggest thing that holds back working class/underclass kids (I was underclass - single parent family which dropped out below the welfare net due to insane mother etc). If I'd had even a modest sum things would have been a LOT different in my teens and early 20s... and I wouldn't now be disabled due to injuries in my 40s...
That's why I think the Labour Govt. in the UK is onto something with setting up a state-funded trust fund for all children, in principle anyway. The devil is, of course, in the detail!