The fading American dream: Trends in absolute income mobility since 1940
I believe this is the inevitable outcome of the following:<p>1. The desire to maximize <i>personal</i> capital and assets.<p>2. An individualistic mindset<p>3. The compounding effects of (1) and (2).<p>With all three, you get the current problem as described in the article. Suppose you removed (3), and somehow you could maximize assets, but upon death (or some other &quot;big&quot; event) all of your assets were given to the community. This would result in wealth not being concentrated. Here I&#x27;m also including the creation of foundations and other &quot;charities&quot;, which in my view are just ways to keep your assets concentrated, and you have some tax advantages of doing so as well.<p>Say you removed (2). Wealth concentration without the desire to personally benefit from it would result inevitably in the helping of others, as a healthy, prosperous world would ultimately benefit you (though, again, its not the goal). After all, what&#x27;s the point of money if it doesn&#x27;t benefit you? You might as well make the world you live in better.<p>Without (1), you naturally would not see the problem described in the article.<p>So, what&#x27;s the TLDR? Basically,<p>1. Create a culture where people don&#x27;t need to be so prosperous themselves.<p>2. Encourage schemes that benefit everyone instead of <i>someone</i>.<p>3. Prevent the concentration of wealth, and all of its pseudo-forms (foundations, real estate, etc.)