The Democratic Party is its Own Worst Enemy
With friends like these, Democratic voters don’t need Donald Trump.
There is an old saying in America: “From shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations.” In Japan, there is a similar saying: “Rice paddy to rice paddy in three generations.” An almost identical sentiment is expressed in England, “Clogs to clogs in three generations.”
The Scots are more explicit: “The father buys, the son builds, the grandchild sells, and his son begs.” The Chinese, even more so: “Wealth never survives three generations.”
The meaning, lamented by wealthy families the world over, is that what one generation works so hard to build is almost always gone in three generations. No matter what wealthy families try to do to prevent this- complicated wealth planning, legal trusts, long-term investments- the curse is hard to break.
The few families you can probably think of who have managed to hold onto vast wealth after three generations- the Rothschilds, the House of Windsor- represent the tiny percentage of exceptions that prove the rule.
This doesn’t stop wealthy families from trying to preserve wealth for future generations of their progeny, of course.
It is this same desire for wealth propagation that causes large companies to engage in similar strategies to…