NOT ENOUGH POLITICAL POWER TO EXTRACT GRAFT? Why Can’t You and I Get Rich Quick?

It’s true, of course, that most well-off people come from at least reasonably well-off parents. But while some of that may be embedded socioeconomic privilege, it may also be due to heritable traits that promote wealth, just as a propensity toward alcoholism or a short time horizon does the opposite. To his credit, Freddie admits this: “Now, because I’m me, I would point out that because academic ability is heritable and academic ability is moderately to strongly correlated with financial success, it wouldn’t be correct in a simplistic sense to suggest that this means that the persistence of family wealth is random or independent of the ability of the individual.”

But it’s also true — and increasingly so, I’d say — that society is run largely for the benefit of the upper quintile, if not the upper decile, and all sorts of policies both reflect and reinforce that. Indeed, pushback against that, and the over-the-top reaction thereto, is the hallmark of Trump-era politics.