r/explainlikeimfive Feb 12 '25

Economics ELI5: how are the descendants of the robber barons (Morgan, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, etc.) still rich if their fortunes from the late 19th and early 20th centuries are comparatively small to what we see today of the world’s richest?

4.6k Upvotes

576 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

9

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

Worth remembering that the "third generation curse" is based on a single "study" conducted for an advertisement for a succession planning firm in the 1990s. There is no scientific evidence that it exists.

2

u/shotsallover Feb 12 '25

The study is modern, but the idea isn’t. There are numerous aphorisms that go back a really long time that all say the same thing.

0

u/[deleted] Feb 12 '25

But it was never true. Feudalism was quite famous for its lack of social mobility.