Of the 137 people who became billionaires in the 12 months to this April, 53 inherited a combined $150.8bn (£119bn) from their family, the report by UBS found. This exceeds the combined $140.7bn created by “84 new self-made” billionaires over the same period.
How much of that $140 billion depends upon the $150 billion being allowed to happen for its creation?
As we all know, incentives matter.
An incentive for humans is the ability to make our childrens’ lives between better and pluperfect. One motivation for becoming rich is that desire to found a dynasty.
So, how much of the entreprenurial activity – the main beneficiaries of which are us out here as consumers – is dependent upon being able to pass on vast wodges to the kids?
Clearly, it’s some and equally clearly it’s not all. But how much? For that’s the level at which you could nick that wealth off rich folk without harming consumers.
Also aren’t “the rich” more likely to spend their money on services (or at least stuff where there’s less physical content per £), whereas “the poor” are more likely to buy stuff, which if he’s really worried about the environment is worse?
It’s a pity that Bernie “no-one needs to be a billionaire” Sanders doesn’t have his own State he can practice on just to see if his ideas works.
And prove once again, under every natural experiment from College Football to the Salary Cap, that the owners we’ve already got get richer.
So the amount that was inherited was roughly the same as the newly-created portion (closer than a 48/52% split), and the majority of new billionaires were self-made. Also, there are 137 new billionaires.
Gotta love a bit of spin, eh?
So there’s a Laffer curve for IHT just like for income tax. Amazin’.
But on reflection it may be different. People with children have about 2.3, well over replacement rate. The population crash is caused by the folk who never have any. This means they would bequeath their wealth to more distant relatives, whom they might not even know. Therefore they would tolerate, or even vote for higher IHT.
Last time I looked, only two of the twenty richest men in the world had inherited their wealth.
Whereas of the twenty richest women, only one had not.
And she was a CCP-linked “Hong Kong businesswoman”
So when a Lefty next tells you that most people inherit their wealth, you can tell them “Only the women”
@Ivor, when you say “inherited”, does that include “from their ex-husbands”?