There's a problem with inheritance: It either isolates wealth or it divides wealth.
In one method, you end up where the family patriarch has overwhelming power and passes that to the first son, and the other sons are forced to live under the yoke of the first son or leave and build something from scratch. Eventually the family patriarch becomes overwhelmingly rich and powerful but that's about it.
In another method, if you're one of 6 then you end up with everyone splitting a lifetime of wealth and they get virtually nothing. Any accumulated wealth goes away through a death of a thousand cuts.
The idea of the "self-made man" probably comes from the anglo-saxons. Children are expected to move away and make their own way in the world, and if they happen to inherit something all the better but it's arbitrarily up to the parents how to mete out inheritance. It forces people to go out and expand, and to interact with others. It probably comes from the nature of an island nation that relies on trade and travel for success, and the English previously being highly meritocratic and believing that those who succeed likely deserved it meaning that there would be a focus on building oneself up.
Here's a video from one of my favorite youtubers on a related topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFFwhbVqeU
The big thing is remembering that the world is much bigger than our front lawn. There's all kinds of different ways of being right now in the world, and we can see what the results are of each.
In one method, you end up where the family patriarch has overwhelming power and passes that to the first son, and the other sons are forced to live under the yoke of the first son or leave and build something from scratch. Eventually the family patriarch becomes overwhelmingly rich and powerful but that's about it.
In another method, if you're one of 6 then you end up with everyone splitting a lifetime of wealth and they get virtually nothing. Any accumulated wealth goes away through a death of a thousand cuts.
The idea of the "self-made man" probably comes from the anglo-saxons. Children are expected to move away and make their own way in the world, and if they happen to inherit something all the better but it's arbitrarily up to the parents how to mete out inheritance. It forces people to go out and expand, and to interact with others. It probably comes from the nature of an island nation that relies on trade and travel for success, and the English previously being highly meritocratic and believing that those who succeed likely deserved it meaning that there would be a focus on building oneself up.
Here's a video from one of my favorite youtubers on a related topic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RFFwhbVqeU
The big thing is remembering that the world is much bigger than our front lawn. There's all kinds of different ways of being right now in the world, and we can see what the results are of each.
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