[PaulDavisThe1st]

> If that were true, we would expect strict inheritance laws discouraging wealth transfer. But we've never seen that in the United States.

The legal mechanism for this has been the inheritance tax, which has existed more or less since the founding of the republic. Historically, it served as a substantial reducer of inter-generational wealth transfer. However, over the last 5 or 6 decades, objections by the rich to moving the thresholds to keep up with inflation and/or typical wealth levels among the top quintile etc. and/or rates for this tax have made it much less effective in this role.

[iammisc]

But inheritance taxes have existed pretty much everywhere, so that's hardly some unique characteristic that can be used to indicate a supposed American disdain for intergenerational wealth.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

The 2nd half of this link has some fairly extensive quotes from Madison, Jefferson and Washington on the idea of inherited wealth.

https://andrewtobias.com/jefferson-madison-and-washington-on...

I think you'll find that this was a very different take on it than the one held by those in power back in England at the time.