Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Is it too soon to be talking 2020?

What is it called when a person makes a bunch of money as a result of inheritance? Is that good ol’ earning it the hard way capitalism that anybody can do if they just put their mind to it?

I’ve always dreamed of a life of getting rich by fixing lawnmowers.

:shrug: it's called getting an inheritance. In his case, it's getting $5K a year for the next 5 years, which is going to help him get out of debt and start saving up a down payment.

But I would say that he (or you, or I) "earned" it no more or less than we "earned" a country free of civil war to grow up in, an education system, rule of law, lessons in thrift and savings, good work ethics, or anything else that provides us a benefit now that our parents, grandparents, and ancestors passed on to us.


It's not a bad way to do it. A recent study of American millionaires came back with some interesting data - the three most common occupations were Accountant, Engineer, and Teacher.

For some that's true. For others it is not. It is the others I speak of, not brilliant and successful X-ennials such as yourself. I would suggest that someone like you would succeed no matter the odds. Someone like me on the other hand gets by no matter what, but never really finds success. Lesser men and women stumble along the way.

What of them? Do we simply leave them behind? Casualties to be expected for those who would succeed?

What you seem to be saying is that things are fine the way they are. All we need is a Republican president, a strong military, and a weak government and we're good to go into the next century.

I disagree with that.

Hey - Flattery will get you noeverywhere, buddy

But, while brilliance can make you m/billions if you are the Particular Right Kind of brilliant, generally, it's not superior IQ that makes one wealthy, but superior discipline.


I think most of those are suffering not because they lack the opportunity, but because they lack a plan and will to apply it. I do financial counseling for free on the side - few people come to me because they've got six figure incomes and don't know what to do with it all. Usually it's the people that you are describing; those who feel they are barely hanging on, on the margins, etc. I've worked with folks who technically made less than minimum wage, and with folks whose monthly minimum payments were greater than their monthly take-home pay. I've not yet come across a hopeless case.

The basic principles aren't rocket science - they're actually pretty simple: get out of and avoid debt, live on less than you make, save and invest over your entire working life.

I'm working with one couple right now with three kids on a single income of $20/ hour, with a mortgage, medical, and credit card debt. We've spent the last couple of months or so meeting regularly to go over how to structure certain things (what kind of life insurance do each of you need? How do we structure getting out of debt?). He's 32, she's 28. Even if he never gets a raise (and he will, he's a good worker), they'll probably be (inflation-adjusted) millionaires by their mid 60s. That's not exactly F You Money, but it is something that will allow them to retire in comfort when they get to that point. That's a pretty typical result. Application of wise principles and prudence over time produces bounty. :shrug:



I think you may be projecting onto me. Much of our society today is literally better than anyone has experienced at any time in human history. That is not the same as Everything Is Fine The Way It Is. Some of the worst things that we have and do isn't linked to economics, but, we definitely have created an unsustainable public fiscal nightmare. When we are no longer able to pay out promised benefits in real terms... its gonna get ugly .

I also think that the way we currently try to help the poor actually often harms them, sometimes deeply. That's terrible policy, and those programs should be upended and reorganized recognizing their unintended consequences and adjusting for them (Full Disclosure: I really think we should replace our current regime of transfer-payments to a single Negative Income Tax of -50% on all monies not earned below 200% of the poverty line). That we punish low-income workers for getting married or earning a raise is insane.

There are other scenario's for which one's ability to grow is and will remain strongly limited. Severe Disability. Death of the single-income-earner in a household. But for the vast, vast majority of Americans, opportunity is wider open than at any other time in human history, and is achievable.

As far as technology goes, yes, as far as the wealthy having and enjoying luxuries far beyond the means of the common man, no. That's always been the case. I agree that never in the history of man have so many had so much. But look around, young fellah, was it worth what it cost? Your grandchildren will see American cities crumble into the sea.
You might see Miami and New Orleans abandoned in your lifetime. We are in the middle of an extinction event and are ourselves on the path to extinction. All that so many could have so much and believe that they actually deserved all of it and more more more!

We screamin' full speed down a dead end street and no one is willing to apply the brakes.

My read is that Capitalism depends upon externalization of as much of the cost as you can get away with! It is devoid of ethics, consideration, heart, or soul. Them things is weaknesses for chumps who know that dying with millions in the bank is the one and only true prize.

And the diehard money-makers likes it just fine thataway...

Eh. While it's always possible, every single post-industrial semi-Malthusian humanity-destroying-nightmare (Race Suicide! Global Cooling! Mass Starvation! Holes in Ozone Frying Us All! Deforestation! Global Warming! General Change!) has proven incapable to its claims. My grandchildren are more likely to have lives that are even more advanced from my own than my life is removed from my Grandparents growing up in the Depression.

Mind you, I am still paranoid. I own guns, am starting to build up ammo, and am looking to get out of my "neighborhood" and onto "land" away from people where I can build my own little food supply, local renewable energy, etc. But, unfortunately, the Apocalypse is pretty unlikely

Apocalypse? Thot you was opposed to hyperbole. It's more like frogs in a pot of water. Or maybe we are like a slow-motion plague of locusts. But you're right, we probably won't see McCarthy's Road - that will be your kids' or grandkids' unique experience. Externalizing the costs, and whatnot.

A free market Capitalism ideologue and a science denier, too?

Crikey! No wonder I can't seem to get you to discuss anything with an open mind.

I would consider the extinction of the Human Species - which is what he claimed was coming - to be something worth describing in that manner, yes .


Probably not.


Probably because you are not used to talking with people who have significantly different priors, and thus confuse "comes to the same conclusions I do" with "has an open mind"

You know, there's no reason to go nuts on the self-reliance path. No reason to buy land where you can graze cattle and grow wheat. But it would be smart to get out of HOA-land suburbia so you can plant a vegetable garden, have some chickens, and put in some solar panels. I think a few big dogs are better than having guns and ammo. Better to scare off burglars than to have to shoot them. The legal hassles are insane, if you do.

Just making a few wise decisions and sticking to them is really all you need to do for financial security. Learn to get by with what you can afford, instead of every shiny new googaw on TV. Same for college for kids. Don't spend your retirement savings on some expensive school, when there are much cheaper options. With the right degree from a state school, they can do fine.

As for inheritance, there are some huge tax loopholes in there: Inheritance of capital assets can be never-taxed, which is nothing but welfare for the rich. Bring back the inheritance tax or tax it for capital gains at death. That would make a huge difference in the wealth imbalance in America.