2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Do you know a really rich person? [View all]JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)is particularly noticeable.
If a person is a CEO, he or she probably actually works and has gained the esteem of co-workers. Probably a relatively good, reliable person.
Several generations later, the whole family thing decays.
Theodore Roosevelt inherited wealth from his father. He was fine. His son overthrew the elected head of Iran -- a stupid, short-sighted thing to do.
And we see that over and over in history.
The trust fund kids I know are in many cases very unhappy and just plain decadent.
But I also know rich people who work hard and are great. They are in the minority, but they exist.
It's a mixed bag.
But once you get corporate wealth, then there is a lack of humanity by definition, and problems, serious ones for society, arise. It isn't just a matter of the personality of the individuals but rather of the purposes of the corporate form. We could change that reality by changing our laws. Corporations should serve us. As it is they kind of have by law a very inhuman value system.
Corporate law needs to be changed. It wasn't always as bad as it is now, as devoid of human instructions based on human values about how corporations should be formed and what they should do.