It’s always the same with rich kids. They tell you, with evident pride, that they’re self-made and earned every bit of it by the sweat of their brows. They didn’t rely on their family’s wealth and just do nothing, they say. They became entrepreneurs and innovators and capitalists and industrialists.
Of course, what they never mention is the huge sum of money they gave themselves to start out with – and this is always there. In many cases it’s so obvious that it’s simply ridiculous to deny it, yet the denial never stops coming. They think they really did build something out of nothing, that they possess talent beyond the ordinary that allowed them to overcome a massive handicap in order to achieve something remarkable. Their lives were hard, they’ll say, certainly not easy!
The reason why they talk like this is because they’re utterly ignorant of what life is like for a working class person. Donald Trump, Elon Musk – they don’t understand and don’t care to understand. Whatever hardships they faced are as nothing compared to the mountainous challenge facing any small business that wants to grow or any ordinary worker who wants a better job. Doors are thrown open for the rich guys, since they have money and connections all inherited. But for the average person, the same doors are shut. The average person will never become an entrepreneur because they have nothing to invest in the business, and even if they somehow scrounged together the money, the chances of success are low. Most businesses fail, after all.
The rich and the poor all have blueprints for what their lives will look like. You don’t get to choose which one applies to you. Your circumstances force you into it. The blueprint for a rich kid’s life looks totally different to the blueprint for a working class person’s life. The circumstances you are born into shape what kind of a career you’re going to have, what recreation you can engage in, what opportunities are available to you, how much pressure you’re under, and so on. Of course, you can make personal choices, but you cannot access opportunities that aren’t available to you, and you can’t spend money you don’t have. There is also the issue of social expectation and desire – a rich kid will never work a poor job, purely because he never has to. And he has a higher sense of social status because that’s what he grew up with. The rich also have different values than the working class. All these things inform what kind of person and life you’ll have.
Do you feel like you’re living someone else’s life? That everything has already been planned out for you? That you aren’t free, even though your government assures you that you are? What ARE you free to do, exactly? Go into debt trying to get housing and an education? Be in perpetual debt to a predatory financial system? You don’t feel in control. It’s always the same – day in and day out, with little to look forward to. That’s exactly the kind of life to which working class people are CONFINED. They didn’t choose it. It imposed itself on them.
Meanwhile, the rich, even if they suffered some initial setbacks, will have a smooth ride all the way, with every problem easily overcome by their deep pockets. If they want to be challenged, they could voluntarily restrict themselves, but in the end, they’re hardly going to fail. The odds are on their side. Connections and money provided by their parents furnish them with everything they need. Their blueprint is all about success and power and money. That’s what they’re after. The poor person’s blueprint is about fighting to keep from sliding further down, just to hold the line, because he has nothing to build upon and nothing to work toward.
Think about that. The basic structure of your life – including what you can and can’t do – is determined well before you ever get a chance to prove yourself or demonstrate how talented you are. That’s the world we live in. A talentless rich kid will always get ahead of a talented poor person who works their ass off. It’s a rigged game. It’s not meritocratic; it’s predatory, parasitic, exploitative.
The only solution to this is one you might already be able to deduce for yourself. Why is it that people can be guaranteed a fantastic life because of whom they were born to? The answer is that they inherit the means of production from their parents. It’s as simple as that. Inheritance must be abolished and everyone’s property and capital taxed upon their death.
Cue the outrage. Even from working class people. They’ll say the government can’t take away their property, they should be able to give it to whomever they want! But don’t you realize that the same principle creates perpetual dynasties of rich families? Why should the family you were born into determine where you go in life? Why shouldn’t that be entirely up to you?
When you defend inheritance, you are in essence saying “fuck you” to those who will inherit nothing and can pass down nothing because of how poor they are. What you are saying is that their lives do not matter and their suffering does not matter, because of whom they were born to. Why should one’s family status matter so much? It’s ridiculous.
Here’s the absolutely CRUCIAL point to grasp. Rights mean a lot more to those with means than those without. If we’re talking about inheritance, it’s much more critical to their success than it is to yours. And it provides a much greater benefit for them than it ever would for you. In fact, inheritance for the rich is a catastrophe for you, and that’s the very reason you should support abolishing inheritance.
After all, these rich kids, if they really are as talented as they claim, they’ll have no trouble making their way in a fair, merit-based world, right? They’re all so damn smart. They brag endlessly about their achievements. So, let’s see them succeed on a level playing field. That’s what this is about. Right now, the playing field is uneven.
The working class and the poor do not deserve to be left in perpetual poverty because their families have no money. They don’t deserve to live a life dictated to them by others who never had to fight for it and never will. And they shouldn’t have to constantly fight to prevent themselves from being crushed under the boot of capital. That’s not how things should be. If you agree, then you must also advocate for the abolishment of inheritance.