America's Idiot Rich

[HiPointDem]

45. That's the myth. "Rags to rags in three generations." That's what we're supposed to believe.

Last edited Tue May 8, 2012, 05:06 AM - Edit history (1)

But there are families which have been trust-fund babies for 6 generations or more. And they're still on top.

To wit:

Joseph Morgan, b. 1780, founded AETNA insurance
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Junius Morgan, b. 1813, founded JS Morgan & Co.
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Mary Lyman Morgan, b. 1844 (sister of JP Morgan) married WH Burns, a Morgan partner
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Mary Burns, b. 1873, married a Viscount Harcourt (a brit)
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Doris Harcourt, b. 1900, married Sir Alex Francis St. Vincent Baring, 6th Baron Ashburton (of the Barings Bank family)
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John Francis Harcourt Baring, 7th Baron Ashburton, born 1928, is still living. He's a British merchant banker and former chairman of British Petroleum (BP). Baring also sat on the boards of Jaguar Cars, Dunlop Rubber and Royal Insurance.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Baring,_7th_Baron_Ashburton


Most junius morgan descendants similarly situated. Doris Harcourt's brother William (b. 1908) was an Executive Director of the IMF.


Their heirs can be drug addicts and complete wastrels. Doesn't matter in the least because the money's so big.

Billy Mellon Hitchcock had weekly trust fund disbursements of $15,000 in his 20s, plus a cushy job in the financial industry. That's 3/4 of a million from the trust fund money alone.

They can live on their TF cash their entire lives, or they can sober up & step back into their privileged positions -- unlike poor/middle class drug addicts and wastrels, who find that even a short stint at that kind of them has far-reaching consequences. Even more true today in the era of the total surveillance state, credit checks, etc.

I once met an almost complete wastrel who was about 3 generations removed from big money, though not top tier. His father had been a wastrel too. Even at that remove he lived for about 30 years without having a job, and before that the jobs he had were spotty and pedestrian.