[kansface]

The richest families in the US are certainly not the richest ones from 1950 let alone 1427. The largest companies by market cap are Apple, MS, Google, Amazon, and FB... None of those businesses existed a generation ago let alone the technology that powers them or even their business models. At least some of the founders of those companies are immigrants. There is no reasonable extrapolation from wealthy families in Florence to "disruption is just a chimera to fool the gullible" in SV.

[bjourne]

The three richest families in the US are (according to a simple Google search) the Waltons, Kochs, and the Mars. These three families were already in the 1950 very wealthy. I don't know enough to say whether they were among the richest, but for sure they weren't poor.