American Entropy

Rich Cohen
Huffington Post

The great problem of the age is inherited wealth, and the great danger is the sons and grandsons of the super-rich. We have become a nation of dynasties -- political dynasties, newspaper dynasties, sports franchise dynasties, Hollywood dynasties, literary dynasties. What's more, these dynasties were often founded in the boom after the Second World War, which means they are in their second or third or fourth generations, which are far weaker than the founding generation. You see this in financial scandals where children use money from the company as if it were their own, in institutions that buckle when first put under pressure: newspapers, military, government. The fact is, you do not know the strength of an institution until it is tested; until then it is living on its reputation. In every generation every business is a new business and every nation is a new nation. The name and flag and cities are all the same, but the people are all different. You cannot know their character until they are tested. Which is to say, if you want to understand modern America you have to understand the geometry of inherited wealth -- the way that great fortunes dissipate over time.

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In the past, it has been the genius of America to reinvent itself every few decades. You turn around and the Roosevelts and the Goulds are gone and in their place are a whole new class of families. (Think of Bill Murray talking to the kids at the prep school in Rushmore: "You were born rich, and you're going to stay rich. But here's my advice to the rest of you: take dead aim on the rich boys. Get them in the crosshairs. And take them down.") We've often been led by new men with new names -- a nation of little brothers, self-invented characters who, as it says in the Tom Petty song, know how to Lose.

But things have changed. In the last few decades, because laws have allowed them to do it, the grandsons and great-grandsons of a bunch of self made men have pulled the ladder up behind them. And now we're stuck with a never-retiring third generation. ...

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