Conversation

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
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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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The whole “families get richer generation by generation until someone squanders the money or gets expropriated” model depends on living in a world where wealth accumulation is possible, though. 19th century novels take it as given; for most human history it wouldn’t be like that.
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That makes sense. Pre-industrial Times, when patronage mattered more than personal resources for art, it would have been more common to skip levels. There are also special conditions like rap and basketball being level-skipping ways out of poverty for black families.