With regard to passing on to one's descendants, here's an interesting excerpt from Kropotkin's The Conquest of Bread:

In virtue of this monstrous system, the son of the worker, on entering life, finds no field which he may till, no machine which he may tend, no mine in which he may dig, without accepting to leave a great part of what he will produce to a master. He must sell his labour for a scant and uncertain wage. His father and his grandfather have toiled to drain this field, to build this mill, to perfect this machine. They gave to the work the full measure of their strength, and what more could they give? But their heir comes into the world poorer than the lowest savage. If he obtains leave to till the fields, it is on condition of surrendering a quarter of the produce to his master, and another quarter to the government and the middlemen. And this tax, levied upon him by the State, the capitalist, the lord of the manor, and the middleman, is always increasing; it rarely leaves him the power to improve his system of culture.

If you can't work you can't pass that on your descendants. The same is not true for capital.

You can pass values and education those are important at that level.

Of course, for the most part they're similar. What the article alludes to is the stratification of social classes. There are the wealthy rich, the professionals, and the working class (Of course there are more​ classes and this is a simplification). Children of the elites tend to stay elite, children of professionals are professionals, and so on. Regardless, vast majority of the people have to work to maintain their lifestyle. It's hard to feel that you made it if not working makes you lose your position.