News Release |
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| For Immediate Release June 20, 2000 | |
NCPA Study: Inheritance Has Little To Do With Wealth |
DALLAS (June 26, 2000) - As Congress prepares to debate whether to abolish the estate tax, a new study from the National Center for Policy Analysis (NCPA SM) finds that inheritance is not a significant source of wealth. The study also finds that the U.S. has a very high level of wealth mobility, with poor people becoming rich and rich becoming poor in a short period of time.
"Rags to riches to rags again in three generations, is not an American myth," said Bruce Bartlett, an NCPA senior fellow and the author of the study. "It has been reality for many families."
According to the study, a significant percentage of the largest American fortunes were accumulated in a single generation.
80 percent of millionaires acquire their wealth in a single generation without the benefit of inheritance.Among the top 5 percent of households ranked by wealth, only 8 percent of their wealth came from inheritances.
"Inheritance is the least significant factor in wealth accumulation in America," said Bartlett. "The American wealthy are predominately self-made, like Bill Gates, not scions like the Rockefellers and the Kennedys."
According to Bartlett there is far greater wealth mobility in the U.S. than in Europe. Wealth is also distributed more equally than the rest of the world.
"The beauty of the American economic system is equality of opportunity," said Bartlett. "The American dream is alive and well. A tax on estates is not needed to redistribute wealth."
The study shows that although wealth is distributed unequally, as with incomes, the data indicates that wealth is highly mobile.
Over a ten year period, 60 percent of families in the bottom ten percent of wealth distribution had moved up to a higher tenth - and some all the way up to the top ten percent.Conversely, almost half of those in the top ten percent of wealth had dropped out of that tier after 10 years.
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Sean R. Tuffnell, Dallas, 972/386-6272 Joan Kirby, Washington, 202/220-3082 Internet: http://www.ncpa.org Home | Support Us | All Issues | Social Security Debate Central | Contact Us |