[quote]It appears that it would be quite burdensome to try to offer you the necessary insight to provide you a better understanding of what happens behind the scenes so to speak but needless to say, intergenerational wealth transfers has about as much influence on the socioeconomic ills this particular country suffers (i.e., the US) as Destiny does. That is, they both impact in an immaterial way. There is no such thing as equal opportunity in life. Just like there's no such thing as weapon balance in game with this much diversity. I won't bother explaining to you the more relevant drivers since you're so easily offended. In fact, that's probably one of the biggest contributors to "not getting it" or otherwise being able to properly dissect socioeconomic issues, you've probably fought so hard to avoid offensive information that you've unintentionally dumbed yourself down as a result ('no offense').[/quote] Ah, I see you've run out of argumentative steam, so are resorting to the good old 'My points are right but I can't be bothered explaining why' - classic, and unfortunately for you, requiring a large amount credibility to be accepted (of which you currently have zero, given your continued inability to contribute a single relevant or intelligent point to this discussion). Please stop attempting to rewrite your utterly irrelevant and foolish point about Muslims - it had nothing to do with the discussion and remains offensive. Further, it had nothing to do with socioeconomic issues nor economics in general - you've already admitted the intent of your comment above. It was poorly thought out. I'd suggest that you remove it. On a separate note, if you'd like to properly discuss actual micro/macro socioeconomic issues in the US, I'd be more than happy to hear you out (although this is veering further off topic). I have plenty of experience working with complex longitudinal data sets that include detailed demographic information, and building predictive models from them - and thus a strong awareness of how an individual's characteristics (yes, even the ones that you are labelling as 'controversial') can influence lifetime financial pathways, and need for Government assistance at various points. [quote]You speak as if governments actually represent communities. They are not the community, they are a group of people that have been given absolute control over your life. Good luck with championing "Government" laws to reflect community views. No thanks, I'll stick with championing communities that can govern themselves.[/quote] What you've written here is nothing but personal ideology. You're welcome to hold your own opinion on what a Government should and shouldn't be involved in - and I certainly won't tell you that you're wrong. Irrespective of whether you believe Governments should or should not reflect such views however, in the long term, they do - at least to the extent that the issues are able to gain public momentum (also worth noting here that the ability to generate immense momentum for change has increased exponentially since the internet became widely accessable). You're seeing widespread public debate on these types of issues and in some cases resulting legistative change (e.g. gay marriage) in the US right now. [quote]And I'll just summarize the difference between you and the OP (and me, I might add): you imply that inheritance plays a bigger factor than your own hard work and effort, we think the opposite. We'll just agree to disagree.[/quote] Intergenerational transfers, of which inheritence is a small subset - do play a substantial role in determining the financial successes of individuals - there is no argument on this point. It is a well researched and accepted economic fact. Hard work of course plays a role in success as well - but relative to the starting point. A person from a poor socioeconomic background will generally have to work a lot harder to achieve the same level of weath as somebody born into a moderate socioeconomic background. To put that another way, two people, one from a moderately wealthy background and one from a very wealthy background, who work exactly as hard as one another, will not on average have equal fincancial successes in their lives. For the same amount of work, generally the person from the wealthier background will generate far more weath than the person from the moderate background. You may believe (and are absolutely entitled to do so) that it is [b]acceptable[/b] for individuals to have different levels of opportunity based on their parents wealth, the crux of this entire thread after all is whether this should be accepted or not. That's a very different argument however to claiming that intergenerational transfers plays no significant role (which again, is blatently wrong).