> I work with four black men. At lunch the other day, they were telling
> me that, among their friends (most of whom are also black), most
> people didn't believe in setting aside "wealth" in the form of your
> house or savings and passing it on to your children. The idea is that
> life is short, you never know what tomorrow will bring, and you might
> as well spend it while you got it.
If that's a general phenomenon, it sounds like it might be relatively recent development. Back in the 60's, Milton Friedman noted that blacks systematically had higher saving rates than whites (after taking their income level into account). He attributed it to an attempt to cope with the effects of discrimination, or something to that effect.
SA