Comment on Open thread, Oct. 03 - Oct. 09, 2016

Fri, 07 Oct 2016 20:23:11 GMT

Sorry, doesn't hold. Some more convincing studies examined the outcomes of Georgia land lotteries which were effectively a randomized controlled trial where the "intervention arm" got a valuable piece of land (by winning the lottery) and the "control arm" didn't get anything. See e.g. this and other studies.

Interesting.

In regard to the scenario (person A and person B) I gave above, I'm not sure your study refutes what I'm saying. Wealth can be squandered, sure. But wealth, along with a solid education, a well-developed relevant skill in the marketplace, a well-established social and professional network, and a family with a good reputation can be much more persistent.

The opportunity to have enough money to live and have free time plus a good basis for how to live and use that wealth can be sustained over generations.

I am who I am, in part, because of who my parents are. They taught me, for better or for worse, how to handle money; how to relate to people; how to study, work, play, etc. And my parents are who they are, in part, because of their parents. And so on. Generations of my family incubated the new generation's growth into their own efforts to create sustainable wealth. Perhaps this is some of what you mean when you say...

Culture, on the other hand, persists across generations relatively well.

Can you give me some examples of what you mean by "culture persists across generations"?

By the way, while slavery was ended 150 year ago, segregation remained in force until after the WW2 and so is a much more recent phenomenon, within living memory.

Absolutely. And racism still persists and has an effect even today.

Discuss