My story can be found on page 137 of 'How to Destroy the Middle Class' playbook ....

[ColesCountyDem]

90. As a family, we've never done the 'inherited wealth' thing.

My father was a small-town family practitioner, and my mother was a part-time licensed clinical social worker. While they weren't wealthy, by any means, they were comfortably upper-middle class. My parents, like their parents and grandparents before them, provided well for us from birth through 'career launch', and would also make a loan, if we needed it. The family has never willed their estates to their children, preferring to settle modest amounts on the grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and donating the rest to charity.

My late aunt said that the reason for this family tradition was that they always assumed that their children would have better lives than they themselves had, and it had been true, with the exception of the Great Depression. She was absolute certain that, had my parents been able to foresee the Great Recession, they would have chosen to break with tradition. In her words, "Your mom and dad loved you kids with every fiber of their being, and had they been able to know what the future held, they would have left every dime they had to you-- probably in trust, but still every dime".

ALL of us assumed that things would be better for my generation than it had been for theirs, and it was, until Vandals assaulted the economy, with the prior, active assistance of our Congress.