&gt; The old rich were families whose wealth passed down or perpetuated through generations specifically because they taught their kids the discipline needed to build and keep wealth.<p>No, the old rich were families whose wealth was secured by long-established bonds of connection with other old-rich families who constituted the ruling class and dominated politics and business and acted together, for protection of their mutual interest, as a tribe jealously defending against outsiders, the new rich were those who had secured money but not yet been admitted to the ruling tribe.<p>(This is still the case, though &quot;old rich&quot; and &quot;new rich&quot; aren&#x27;t particularly popular terms for it; if your family has connections where, e.g., the Saudi royals will bail out your failing enterprises for the value of maintaining a useful network, and you wealthy establishment donors will pour fortunes into your brothers campaign for office for the same reason <i>despite being willing to say that they think the whole thing is a waste as long as they can be anonymous while doing so</i>, what your parents have given to you is <i>connections</i> more than <i>discipline</i>.)