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Re:New data show that joining the 1% remains unsettlingly he... by conductr on Saturday February 04, 2017 @02:05AM (#13566020)
On the other side, if you were to achieve dynastical levels of wealth, should you be prevented from passing it down? Should your descendants centuries in the future be forced to prove they deserve their position as a 1%er?

I think % is a flawed metric. Your measuring your position compared to the rest of society as a gauge for "getting ahead in life" when you should measure yourself to yourself at different points in time.

Re:New data show that joining the 1% remains unsettlingly he... by dragonwriter on Saturday February 04, 2017 @11:57AM (#13567682)
> On the other side, if you were to achieve dynastical levels of wealth, should you be prevented from passing it down?

Absolutely; to the extent that there a person has natural property interests, they don't extend beyond the end of their life; the ability to direct the disposition of property beyond that point makes sense as a legal privilege only to the extent that model on which that privilege is granted has social utility. It's clear that some rights here are probably desirable, but not unlimited, and beyond a point the inequality that results has considerable externalized disutility.

> I think % is a flawed metric. Your measuring your position compared to the rest of society as a gauge

Whatever you think people should value, it's empirically quite clear that relative deprivation -- compare to contemporaries as well as compared to one's own former state -- is a source of significant disutility consistently, across cultures.

It's also clear that, ceteris paribus, increasing concentration of wealth decreases the amount of progress people on the lower end of the scale can make against their own past state as well as against those on the upper end.

Re:New data show that joining the 1% remains unsettlingly he... by tormeh on Saturday February 04, 2017 @11:45AM (#13567609)
This crap is infuriating. Wealth. Is. Relative. It's your ability to buy other people's time. Nobody wants to get rich so that they can have a bigger fridge. The middle-upper class has essentially all materialistic wealth they could ever use. They want the prestige and spare time you get when you're rich.
Re:New data show that joining the 1% remains unsettlingly he... by taeric on Saturday February 04, 2017 @03:36PM (#13568896)
I'm not sure where it should land. However, I do think there is ample evidence that anything which widens the gap between individuals increases instability.

So, should you be able to increase the ability for your "dynasty" to do better? Yes. Of course, increasing society at large accomplishes this more effectively than just giving them more money. Good stewards of a society typically have it better in the long run than greedy stewards.