The real horrors and injustice of inheritance

[moorobot]

[ QUOTE ]
Um, is it your claim that 1/2 of Americans have "no wealth at all"? Because if it is, it is patently ridiculous. The majority of Americans have a standard of living higher than Queen Victoria in every way except the capacity to command servants. You have a very narrow and essentially meaningless definition of wealth.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wealth, classically defined, is assets minus debt. Subtract assets from debt, half of americans have zero or less. They owe more than or equal to what they have. Look it up my friend.

Some people have natural and social advantages in the ability to save and accumulate capital. I believe that it is not their fault at all that they have no resources; but it is at least partially not their fault. we can't hold them responsible for bad brute luck in the natural and social lottery, and we can't hold them accountable for their preferences when they were formed under conditions of injustice.

And of course, some can't afford to save, not their fault again.

I also believe capitalism creates an irrational bias towards consumption instead of leisure time or savings in capitalism, largely because of advertising. If advertising doesn't work, why do all these companies use it? When is the last time you saw a commerical or billboard that said 'a new camera is good, but enjoying a decreased workload is better' or one that said 'Don't buy our car! Invest for the future'.

[moorobot]

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Assume that wealth/income correlate well with intelligence (they do). Assume intelligence has some modest genetic component (it does IMHO). It might follow that wealth/income has some modest genetic component. If so, social engineering will not remove the inequity.

Here's something even more troubling. Switch wealth for poverty and intelligence for its opposite. Low intelligence people will have a genetic predisposition toward lower success/poverty. The water is getting deep. Off to bed.

[/ QUOTE ] Studies have demonstrated that wealth/income do not correlate well with intelligence, and, more importantly, intelligence is not one of the main causal factors in this equation. This study I left a link to demonstrates that this is the case.

And, if it was true, I would think it was terrible that just because some people were luckier gentically they had more of the resources required for self-determination,etc. than people who were not as intelligent.

[hmkpoker]

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Studies have demonstrated that wealth/income do not correlate well with intelligence

[/ QUOTE ]

I haven't looked at psych studies in a while, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.

[moorobot]

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each person has semi-perfect control over the expense of their lifestyle

[/ QUOTE ] LOL

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I've told the story before of a girl I dated in grad school who lived well below the "poverty line". She came from a very poor family. She lived in a studio apartment, rode a bicycle and had no car, never went out to eat, did not spend money on frivolous things. She found ways to enjoy doing things that did not cost money. She bought all her clothes at second hand stores. On a grad student stipend of $12k a year she saved over half of her money annually and earned a Ph.D. in computer science. She saved so much money during this time she was able to loan her sister $10,000 as a downpayment on a house. She's now a university professor.

[/ QUOTE ] She had no dependents, and in order to save she had to make sacrifices that others do not even have to consider in order to save. I don't think some should have to make these tough choices while others do not.

And second, while you give one example of a poor person saving, which person is more likely to save: A person who makes $120,000 per year or the one who makes $12,000? Who has more of an ability to save? Which one gets more utility out of consumption, per dollar spent? Come on.

[moorobot]

[ QUOTE ]

Studies have demonstrated that wealth/income do not correlate well with intelligence


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I haven't looked at psych studies in a while, but I'm pretty sure that's not true.

[/ QUOTE ]
read the article that I have a link to in the OP

[FlFishOn]

Are you aware that any possible outcome has been documented by one social 'scientist' or another? On any given day you can expect to see peer reviewed papers claiming A and NOT A. Anyone with university tenure and an agenda can publish most anything in the social sciences.

To suggest intelligence does not correlate well with income is ignoring facts in evidence and common (uncommon here) sense.

[WillMagic]

Bumping good threads, episode II...