>>>>>Inherited wealth Marcia.
>>>>>
>>>>>So what? When you die, do you want to leave anything you might have left to your children? Or would you prefer to give it to the government? If so, I am sure that you can do so in your will.
>>>>
>>>>thats not really the point though is it. As you've said many times you've worked hard for what you have so its yours. Someone inheriting it hasn't worked for it so possibly their "right" to it isn't quite as clear cut.
>>>
>>>But the money Marcia earned is the "right" of your children, right? That is, she works hard all her life to leave wealth to her children; you spent all your time in a pub with no care for your children (not you personally; as a hyperbole). And, according to you, instead of leaving money to her children she should leave it to the government so that it would distribute it to your children or some other people's children.
>>
>>That's not what Nick was saying. Marcia made the assertion that the people who have great wealth earned. He pointed that that was not necessarily true. Some people with great wealth inherited it. Some of those people also work hard and some of them are Paris Hilton.
>>
>>Tamar
>
>Then the question is; do you have a problem that children of wealthy (even Paris Hilton) have all this wealth? I don't. And I don't care how they spend it. I care much more that the government giveaways to poor keeps them poor and creates generations of dependents.

I care that people keep talking about how these folks have earned their wealth when large numbers of them haven't. I care that it's harder and harder for someone to move up from being poor.

As for "government giveaways" keeping people poor, that's not what the research says. Check the fourth section of this table:

http://www.statisticbrain.com/welfare-statistics/

Fewer than 20% of welfare (AFDC) recipients are on it for more than 5 years. Roughly a third are a year or less, nearly half for 1-5 years.

I can't easily find the same info for food stamps (SNAP), but this page has a lot of other interesting information about SNAP, including this:

76% of SNAP households included a child, an elderly person, or a disabled person. These vulnerable households receive 83% of all SNAP benefits.

Tamar