My assumption would be that working-class saving (even among the highest-paid) is for retirement, not to leave an estate. The hope is that the kids won't have to support the parents, not that the parents will leave something. If they do, it's an unanticipated widnfall.
Carrol
On 8/3/2011 2:49 PM, Jordan Hayes wrote:
> SA writes:
>
>> 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.
>
> I've always heard that it was related to a disproportionate
> participation in investment (including residential real estate). So yes,
> savings-rate was higher; but the whites were putting money into houses
> and stocks -- with typically larger returns. So the rate of
> wealth-growth was lower with blacks.
>
> /jordan
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