1996-11-25 - Re: wealth and property rights

Header Data

From: Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
To: Jon Galt <jongalt@pinn.net>
Message Hash: 5a129165cca676b6e6dab8a6c85523f8c49cbf9c6544634f4d6fd40f657b3b26
Message ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.961125154224.10423A-100000@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
Reply To: <MAPI.Id.0016.006f6e67616c74203030303730303037@MAPI.to.RFC822>
UTC Datetime: 1996-11-25 21:54:59 UTC
Raw Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 13:54:59 -0800 (PST)

Raw message

From: Rabid Wombat <wombat@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 13:54:59 -0800 (PST)
To: Jon Galt <jongalt@pinn.net>
Subject: Re: wealth and property rights
In-Reply-To: <MAPI.Id.0016.006f6e67616c74203030303730303037@MAPI.to.RFC822>
Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.91.961125154224.10423A-100000@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


> > Yup. I agree with you here - every year Forbes puts out its list of the
> > richest people in America. I'm too lazy to go digging under the coffee 
> > table to find the issue, but as I recall, a good number of the people on
> > the list made their money the old-fasioned way - they inherited it.
> >
> > Also - most people inthis country do not have true "wealth" - most are
> > fairly leveraged with mortgages and other loans, so their true net worth
> > is not all that high.
> >
> > The "coupon-clipping" class is mostly "old money."
> 
> Well since so many people are commenting on it, I'd better explain.  I have
> heard a number of times that of all the millionaires in this country, the vast
> majority of them are first-generation millionaires.  I'll certainly admit that
> that's different than saying most of the wealth is first-generation wealth.  And
> sorry, but I can't give a specific source.
> 

I have no doubt that the above is correct - but a million ($) just isn't
what it used to be. Even if all the "millionaires" are 1st generation
wealth, the million+ -aires certainly aren't. 

-r.w.






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