In a PBS News Hour special report on the increasing economic hardship faced by many Americans, economist and SFI Professor Sam Bowles explains why inequalities passed from generation to generation through wealth inheritance are problematic.
Watch the video (9 minutes).
His remarks build on his research into the emergence of social organization and property rights in human populations.
"America is distinct in the extent to which inequality is inherited from generation to generation," Bowles says. "The kids of rich parents have a strong tendency to be rich, and the kids of poor parents are very, very likely to be poor. That's one of the things which I think Americans find most shocking. That's a huge discrepancy from what we think of as the land of opportunity."
Later in the interview he discusses the social organizational mechanisms necessary to maintain a system of property rights, and their costs.
"For every three workers in America that's producing something, there is one worker who's just keeping the lid on. These are the private security personnel. These are the police officers. These are the prison guards. These are the armed forces. These are the people whose job it is just basically to maintain the society's property rights and its -- its social organization."
Watch the 9-minute video (March 24, 2011)
More about Bowles's research