[geoffbrown2014]

In my lifetime I've seen linearity of the link between 'hard work' and capital formation drastically distorted. Lots of different causes, but the one that strikes me most is also the most recent. Zero interest rate policy. Historically it has taken discipline (hard work?) to build capital to take business risks. While there has always been an unequal distribution of capital and idiot heirs to spend it, currently however, there is a fairly large group of people who has first dibs on nearly free capital that they had little to do with generating. This decouples or reduces the link between capital formation and the type of people who have the work ethic traditionally required to perform this activity. This is a disconnect that I find a fairly radical departure, at least in scale, from the past. I think the effect of this is that the pool of people with the required work ethic, dedication, luck and capacity to out compete incumbents is smaller. I think people are correctly assessing that their chances have been reduced.