We all know that people with high-income parents have an advantage over people with low-income parents. But what I just realized is that there’s *also* a practical difference between people who could ever inherit or borrow money from a grandparent or cousin, and people who can’t.
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My childhood was affluent; but I’m a first-generation immigrant not a second-generation one. There’s a difference between being 0, 1, 2, or more generations away from poverty or genocide starting your family’s wealth back to zero. Each constrains your risk tolerance differently.
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0: Darwinian survival in collapsed civilization
1: low education service/small business out of ashes, send kid to college
2: educated middle class professional bourgie
3: minke entrepreneurial success
4: artist snowflake trustee Marxist who contributes to collapse of civilization
I skipped number 2 for number 3 and I sure hope my kid(s) don't go for number 4. Now to figure out how...
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I think my parents skipped 1 for 2, which made them more 1-like in some ways than you'd expect given their professions.
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Theory: your parents will understand & encourage their kids moving to the next stage but not skipping a stage. Parents in “Darwinian survival” circumstances will be bewildered by their kid wanting to go to college (see: Winter’s Bone)
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Immigrant struggling-small-business types will totally want to send their kids to college but will be horrified if their kids drop out to start a business and won’t see that as a realistic way to make a living;
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Unless you take your family achievements for granted or civilization has truly collapsed for you, you will probably try to pick up the strategies of the two previous generations as well as you can.



