Doug Henwood wrote:
>
> Alexandre Fenelon wrote:
>
> >1-How much of wealth (in USA, but also in other industrialized countries)
> >is the result of inheritance? I think Doug already quoted something like
> >70%?
>
> I reviewed the available evidence in Wall Street (and there's not
> much), and in the U.S. it looks like 50-75% is the result of direct
> inheritance or the appreciation of inherited funds. But it's very
> hard to tell, since the best source of info is estate tax returns,
> and, as the saying goes, estate taxes are almost voluntary. (I.e.,
> anyone who can afford a good laywer can evade them.)
>
Seems pretty impossible to estimate. Besides direct inheritance or appreciation, there is the matter of what one might call the "launching pad" of wealth. For example, if I recall correctly, John D. Rockefeller, Sr. came from a substantial farming and grain-dealing family going back two or three generations, so in a sense even his wealth (or that of Bill Gates) has an aroma of inheritance about it.
Carrol
> Doug
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