Yesterday’s post on my imperial platform gave rise to comment about the sticky issue of generational wealth.
My take on the old money issue largely aligns with Devon Stack‘s. Our rulers’ unprecedented power is the legacy of vast generational wealth their forefathers accumulated decades–even centuries–ago. Their inheritance gives them a nigh-insurmountable advantage in terms of cultural and political influence. This is why, for example, no one has succeeded in creating a viable alternative to any of the Big Tech platforms.
Imagine time as a 500 k marathon track where each kilometer represents one year. It’s a relay race where each runner passes the baton to his kid, who gets to start at the point where his dad finished.
For the sake of argument, let’s say that all our ancestors started on the same line 500 km/years back from us. Due to differences in natural ability, training, and dumb luck, some of the racers pulled ahead. But the others still had a chance to catch up if they pushed themselves. But the math says that at least some of front runners’ kids would maintain their fathers’ lead, and in some cases expand it.
Eventually, some of the 3rd and 4th generation runners way out front would run over the horizon from those trailing behind. A number of them would realize that no one would know if they cheated. So, some of them would indulge the temptation to stop running on foot and hop in golf carts. Their already wide lead, which a runner farther back might have been able to overcome with supreme effort, would double. And when no chance existed of anyone discovering their cheating, the golf cart drivers would switch to sports cars, then bullet trains, then supersonic jets.
What are the odds that the succeeding generations who never had to train, but got to ride out the race on the Concord, are as fit as their ancestors who started running?
This is why we see such gross mismanagement in every sector of commerce. Our rulers have inherited an almost omnipotent machine, but they no longer remember how it works. They have degenerated into a cargo cult that tries to appease the machine with blood rituals and sacrifices.
The machine is incredibly resilient–it was built to be–but one day it will stop. We must make ready for that moment.
In the meantime, don’t give money to people who hate you.
