Chinese proverb “Wealth does not last beyond three generations” The first generation grew up poor, as adults they strove, lived frugally and built wealth. The second generation saw the wealth being built and understood how hard it was. They continued to build but enjoyed a higher lifestyle. The third generation grew up rich, never understood how that wealth was built. They take it for granted, live lavishly until all the money is gone.
The version I've heard was, "from shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations." (Shirtsleeves I think referring to those protective coverings clerical workers and such used to wear in the late 1800s/early 1900s that went up to mid upper arm.)
The Dutch Government in recent years bought several high value paintings from the Rothshield family for our national art gallary for a total of over 100 million dollars. Paintings that were first just hanging in a person's bedroom in his secondary home in Paris. I would say this shows that they are not exactly short for money!
The Rothschild's fortune is still very much intact, only split up in anonymous shares of basically every bank and corporation in the world. Those 200 year old contracts are still very much intact.
I think you guys are right. I think they reach a certain point and gain a certain level of power, they just hide. Who cares if they invested the fortune as if none of them ever got a job or built something? Cmon.
We don’t need to speculate because we have real world examples. I stick with three: 1) The Saudi Family oil princes. We know they are BEYOND rich but no one has actually looked at their books. Official or otherwise. 2) Muammar Gaddafi. This story is a few years old but they are uncovering some of his plunder that he stockpiled and he may be one of the richest men who has ever lived based off of the assets. 3) Drug cartels. For obvious reasons, mainly they deal in cash as it’s harder to track.
Ditto. It doesn't seem like it "disappeared", or the families in question in this video aren't the best examples to claim that the fortunes disappear. And you're right, if I were a Rockfeller descendant in this age, flaunting money would be the last thing I'd do, since A: I already have more than enough for another 10 generations B: All the stuff, estates, influence etc are already bought C: The funds are structured properly - all I have left to do is just enjoy life and not screw it up, keep low profile, which, most likely, they have done for last decades and will for decades to come. Same as Rotschilds - who can actually claim what they own and do at these times where the most precious commodity is privacy, which they can afford.
@@buzzvuzz I can tell you one thing the Rothschilds own. The right to provide wine at every state event around the world. It's the worst wine but that's not important as it rarely gets drunk.
"3. Hard to follow" basically means those family fortunes did not disappear, but are hidden so well in the foundation of our economy that they now ARE the economy. And remember, Forbes list is just an "as far as we know" kinda thing.
@@denisl2760 No. They dont pay Forbes lmao. If you look up the Forbes list, you will see that 99% of the people on there are people running a public company, where you easily trace the amount of shares and thus make a wealth out of it (even it they are all heavily overvalued, because if one of those would start selling the shares would crash to a rubble) or its the second or third generation of a wealthy guy where its public how much they got. The Rothschilds, Rockefeller etc, they dont have a company tied to their name (i mean, rockefeller had standard oil but we all know the fate), there is simply no way of knowing so they dont have to pay anybody.
Yes, but no exactly the forbes list is the creation of, funded by these powerfull families. With an intend to sow confusion, and such, because now any normie can take five seconds and say look here's a source that proves me right 'the forbes list', and it would take ecesive time to find any counter proof. Only to have said proof denied because its not a ligitamite source in the eyes of that person.
Funny, in the UK today the people descended from the old Anglo-Norman families are still wealthier on average than the Brits descended from the commoners the Anglo-Normans ruled over.
Met a girl in Denver, Co, USA. Her name was Rothschild. For her 19th birthday her father gave her a sky scraper. I know this because we remodeled the top floor pent house for her. Crazy how much money people have. And you never really hear of these people
Because our nobility class has learned from the past. Capitalism is a system that replaced "the divine right of kings" with "the meritocracy" and the entire state protects the privacy and safety of our lords, so they can continue the exploitation unimpeded.
My mom works for the financial wing of a company thats entire job is managing wealthy heirs. None of them have direct control its like a company, they all vote on what the trust should do and for the most part the trust just provides them each with what they need to live a comfortable life without making a scene. Trust fund baby is a term for a reason. Depending on the size of the trust it can cover just specific expenses like health or education or be more broad and cover housing, living expenses, major purchases (cars, boats) etc. For the descendents it like having the worlds best scholarship just for being a _insert last name here_.
What is the name of the company? I would love to do more research on things like this because Finance is my major and I want to learn about the different sectors.
It can also be applied to the "Billionare's pledge" going around now. Dono you fortune to 501c(3) non-profit so it isn't subject to inheritence tax, decendents get a seat on some board to decide how the money is spent for a nice sum, the donated money gets them a seat on another board for a little amount.
@@pratikpatel1690 I believe most major banks have a branch for it, at least for those who want to set up money for their family even if it's not in the billions. Although in Canada, they've been a lot more strict on taking money out, requiring the higher taxes to be paid, even if someone is taking out money for a dependent, it uses the higher rate. So while I'm not sure about the US, I'd imagine taxes play a part, especially if it's anything like here with taxes to take out money, and then sales tax on top of that. It is certainly interesting to learn about.
I pretty much LOLed. Andrew Carnage! This is nice example of how Andrew Carnegie's fortune dissapeared, when even a guy who makes videos about money killed his name.
My family is by no means wealthy, but I've spent the last 11yrs of my life watching my parents piss away the amazing inheritance my grandpa left for us. Its infuriating and heartbreaking seeing people with no value for money be put in charge of it....let alone the existential horror of knowing I'll never have very much in my life. Best you can do really is come to terms with situation and live as reasonably as you can so you dont suffer.
@@bryanthegoat9593 LOL you've clearly missed the point of, well everything, but maybe dont throw weirdo around when you're clearly lacking in the self-awareness dept buddy. I have a roof over my head due to MY hard work, and I have a family who has regularly been a roadblock to my happiness and success in life, so why don't you be grateful and I'll keep on being realistic and self sufficient k?
@@jimkd8234 I chose to reply, what part of what I wrote was ridicule pray tell? I said they missed the point, are we really calling that ridicule these days as opposed to the b.s. they wrote to me?
@@redrustyhill2 I'd say its its their obliviousness more than anything. My dad is greedy, fine, I cant fix that, but my dad also thinks that the fantastical life he lives is due to HIS "hard work", which it isnt. I've known tons of boomers, and that seems to be the common thread, they can never fathom why us younger generations dont simply have as much as they do...it's almost like putting the elderly in charge of financial institutions and govts isn't a brilliant idea when they have such a skewed world view?
What I got from this video: 1. Money makes more money over time 2. In order for your money not to be affected by inflation, you have to turn it into an asset
Second part is not neceserly true. But do not think money as money(something you use to trade) instead think it as a currency. A currency will circulate meaning modern "money" needs to move not stay staionary. So don't think it as turning money into assets(most assets will not apreciate in value, so you need assets that will create value on their own), instead think as using more money. This is why your first point stands true. More money means you can buy more therefore, you can buy more thinks that will create additional value. And remember that inflation works differently from the country a to b because their currecy equals something different.(For that you can thank the US for breaking out of the gold worth of a money)
One of the simplest of all things to understand, which could easily be taught in schools, is the effect of compound growth - eg 7% growth may not sound much, but 7% per year for ten years doubles your investment. Which is why one of the oldest pieces of investment advice is “It isn’t TIMING the markets, it’s TIME IN the markets”.
Also money isn't always easily accessible or obvious. Like my friend in high school, her dad's side owned a old manor with plenty of land but it would be very diffucult to sell. In practice her dad was a middle class programmer. Her mom was a poor cleaner, so my friend had to work to pay her own school books and bus tickets. It must have been weird to be basically both rich and poor.
@@edheldude I'm sure there are some people who would want it, but it would probably take longer than an average house sale, just because there are less people who can afford it. Also the government estimates what the house is worth and that's taken in account in inheritance taxes for example. Even if you can't get anyone except the government to buy it. Oh, and he owned a sailing boat. To a poor person like me, anyone who owns a boat is rich. Or just casually gives his child 200 euros when it isn't even a birthday or anything.
Imagine giving motivational speeches to people when your born into being a billionaire. "you can do it, you can be born a billionaire if you just believe. Everyone can do it."
Several American politians & wealthy folks.have literally given that same advice. "Just get a small, million-dollar.loan from your parents, then you can be a self-made made billionaire like me!"
@@HowMoneyWorks No worries. I was just listening to the Bill Simmons podcast, and a guest seriously mispronounced "Echelon" as "ekelon". Happens to everyone.
Reasons why people won't invest right now: Crypto crashing, Record inflation, Bear market fears, Rising interest rates, Housing bubble talk , but maybe, these are reasons to invest now.
After it all crashes then you invest. Get the stuff no one wants for dirt cheap. Then your losses are minimal if things don’t pick up. Everyday as food goes up your money is worth less. It’s good now to have a lot of precious metals on hand. The value is skyrocketing.
These days the best way to come into the market space is patience and seeking guidance when necessary, due to my line of work i can’t handle my portfolio so i just copy the trades of ''Stephanie Priscilla Bonillo''', a brokerage advisor i saw on Bloomberg business news. It’s been smooth since then. I have saved myself from all the hassle that chaotic market causes
Damn bro, need a loan? 5% compound daily, legs may be broken upon late repayment, terms and conditions apply, non essential organs accepted as collateral.
This is one of the reasons why wealthy and powerful families in the distant past would move the majority of assets to the oldest or to an individual in the family capable of maintaining the "main" branch of the family. While other offspring may still benefit from the main branch these become cadet branches that often try to earn for themselves a place at the table with their siblings or cousins as their benefactors.
Sorry but judging by my own personal experience and comments in this comment section…older people aren’t always good with money…at all. I’m the only person in my family who knows how to manage wealth and not burn it all and go into overdraft and debt to pay for basic expenses.
It's also worth mentioning that it's only relatively recently that broad-based low-fee index funds have been a thing. You couldn't just dump all your money into SPY in 1920 and get the S&P 500 return. You either built a diversified portfolio yourself (which cost you a lot in commissions and fees - thus lagging the broader index by a few percent) or you took a lot of idiosyncratic risk with a non-diversified portfolio (which you still paid lots of commissions and fees on compared to today). This matters more to ordinary people than to billionaires but it's an important thing to keep in mind any time anyone uses the S&P 500 as a metric. For most of history getting "market" returns was difficult.
...because the women get married and change their names, and while their children will be incredibly rich as well, they don't have the "known name" and get forgotten?
Yea. In some countries tho if you don't have a son you can have the son in law change into your family name so you can keep your name going on. In some cultures they don't have family name but they have tribe name
No, because while his wealth was 3% of GDP, that's just putting it in terms of a yearly output. His wealth was based on the value of his shares of companies he owned. Plus other assets. The GDP is complied from the total value of spending. To say 3% of GDP is to say her could spend another 3% of the GDP, only the federal government compares in terms of single payer effecting the output of the nation on a large scale. Having a lot of wealth doesn't mean having a lot of cash. Most of it is tied up in assets.
@@joshlanders I don't understand the purpose of your answer. I'm just stating that they came up with the 450 billion figure by adjusting for gdp and not just inflation. I'm not saying this is the right way to do things, but it's how you get that figure
The Rockefeller family is still absurdly rich. The money didn't evaporate, it is managed by a conglomerate of companies on their behalf. So the fortune did "disappear"... from sight, as the video title says, but not in a sense that we could strike out their name from the wealthy list like the thumbnail shows. The Wikipedia article on the Rockefeller family does a good job at explaining the family's current comfortable situation.
Isn't it funny how our nobility has learned from the past. You don't want people to KNOW You're leeching off their hard work. Capitalism is perfect for that.
The accountant in me would say that you need to look at expenses and withdrawals as to why these family fortunes did not last. Those are the 2 primary "destroyers" of wealth. If you do not continue to "generate" more wealth than is being "destroyed", then eventually you are left with the prospect of bankruptcy and all of your assets disappearing to pay off your liabilities.
The toughest part about wealth is that it is impossible to make sure your children have the same mindset as you. If they behave like NFL / NBA athletes, then all the money in the world will vanish in the blink of an eye
Makes sense. My mom told me that my grandma tolde her that people that think they're rich always want to live the life of 2 dollars when they just earn one.
(I know this a joke don't woosh me) I believe cryogenics weren't around at least publicly until Disney died. They came out with it in the media a few months after he died, but Disney like embracing the future, so theory came out that he knew about before cryogenics went public.....course Think it was in science media before this so previous attempts could have been made.
At 7:37 you made a good point. I’ve never even thought about that. What if we reach somewhat of a cap to technological innovation within the next few decades. We’ve gotten so used to innovation and advancement at such a fast rate in our lifetimes and the last few generations, that it’s really easy to forget how slow advancement was before.
There are more people tinkering with more things than ever before. There is no ceiling to innovation, and for the foreseeable future it is only going to become more faster. There are limits to resources. That puts a ceiling on the size the economy can grow to. And of course there is a difference between technological (and scientific and artistic) innovation, and business "innovation".
@@davidwuhrer6704 Not if innovation finds a way to create infinite resources, which most of us should expect. As scientists create drinkable books and faster ways to grow key nutrients, the future is everyone having clean drinking water and food security. Lack of need changes the purpose of everything.
@@Mark-ye9pi Drinkable books? There is enough food to feed the world twice, the problem is distribution. However, global warming may change that. There are technological solutions to continued food and water safety, but the question is how quickly the economy can change. The hard limit is always energy. There are plans to take humanity beyond the Type I on the Kardazhev scale, but the technology is not completely developed yet.
There is no cap to innovation. It has been much slower lately because the main sponsors (national governments) adopted policies of favoring funding of incremental, lower-risk innovations. Once one of them starts heavily funding blue-sky research again, the innovation engine will accelerate its workings.
Being successful don’t happen by magic Success is dependent on the action or steps you take to achieve it. Show me a man who doesn't have an investment and I will tell you how soon he'll go broke Investment is building a safe haven for the future: with the right choice of investment that has at least 1% minimum risk and with an Expert guidance, profit and interest should be 💯 guaranteed.
@@evelynnguyen1041 True!! NOBODY BECOMES A MILLIONAIRE OR BILLIONAIRE BY WORKING FOR OTHERS AND DEPENDING ON THEM, GOOD INVESTMENT BRINGS MILLIONS OF DOLLARS AND CONSISTENCY BRINGS BILLIONS. THE MARKET IS ALL ABOUT CRYPTO NOW YOU MIGHT WANT TO LOOK INTO IT
@@eduardomarquee551 True, there is never any culture of wealth gathering or wealth creation to keep multiplying your finance that lack an investment value. This means, if you have to plan you must be an investor. that's why Investing in crypto stands to be the best
@@eduardomarquee551 Nice!! The only credible law of increase is investment because money not invested has no future. I make huge profits on my crypto investment since i started trading fx with Mr Kelvin Maorgan, his trading strategies are top notch.
@@jeffbenton6183 Although there were already mention of them in the 13th century, they only really grew in in influence in the late 15th century, which is already the Renaissance
There are 2 branches of the Parnell family, that were passing wealth down for 150 years, which ended on both branches with the last paultry inheritances of about $66,000 in about the year 2000 (and a few smaller ones 1980-2000), the english side, nipped that in the bud about 1980, by donating.. It proved to be somewhat of a curse, as shown by the years 1960-1980, as most of the ones alive during those years, were just waiting for their money, while their parents spent it, and they got fairly little. The English side faired a little better, after one lady donated land, to a girls school, and people realized the money was gone, perhaps 1970's.
I'm not planning on giving all my money to my kids when I die. If I stay on track for the next 20yrs and keep current pace it should be in the 9 figure range. My business thrives on buying assets from people who inherit and perform poorly. That is much more the norm than big generational wealth, and I don't want my kids to manage money poorly and fail to thrive in life over it.
Sounds like you forgot logic, you're just giving it away to someone who will do exactly what you avoided. Better give it to your son who actually relates to you and probably the only one who would love you considering what kind of person you are according to this message.
The family fortunes didn't disappear, they just were converted into corporate fortunes. It's not what you own, it's what you _CONTROL!_ The top .0001% understand that _when_ their financial system collapses, they will be whacked, just like in the French Revolution. Some of the publicly richest people have not yet learned that making yourself appear middle class is paramount to generational family wealth survival.
also, they have so much money-power that they can just pay to not be exposed... I can't remember the last time I saw someone talk about a rockefeller.. they have way much more power than musk and bezos yet no one talks about it
@@locutos8397 Economics Explained did a good video on it. These "old-money" families have interests everywhere, from real-estate to finance, to oil to railroads. They have very little "paper money", or money that'll show up on lists.
One of the Heirs of the Ford Motor Company , a distant great grand children said in an interview that she just could not live on less than 12 million dollars a month. That is so sad to hear.
@@Ibrahim-vx5kq The truly wealth do not buy things. If your truly wealth, you have several if not dozens of homes spread out over the Country or World. Those are large homes. More like Estates and those require lots of staff to maintain. I once meet a woman I was doing work for who said she spent 25 thousand dollars a month just to maintain her home, and she was far from wealthy. Imagine if you had dozens of multimillion dollar homes,, private planes and boats. A private jet cost over 10 million dollars and cost 10 thousand dollars an hour to fly and that much more a month to maintain. Don't forget lawyers and accountants to manage all that wealth. It runs in the millions of dollars per year. One really nice dinner party may cost 1/2 a million dollars to host. The wealth live on a different plane of existance then average people.
@@johnd4348 $25k per month just on one home is wealthy as fuck lol. "Far from wealthy"? That's like saying if I bench 600 lbs I'm far from being strong because there are a few people that can bench 700 lbs.
@Mihail Parshin Spending $25k/month on just housing is not middle class. That's $300k/year, if you estimate that she spends one third of her budget on housing then she'd be spending roughly $900k/year. Net worth of someone like that is easily $10 million or more.
@Mihail Parshin Spend millions every day? There's like 100 people in the world could do that. You're saying everyone who's not a billionaire is not wealthy? That's like saying if you're not 7 feet tall you're short.
Dude, absolutely NONE of the family names mentioned have lost any of their wealth. The only thing that changed was the last names of the heirs. Plus it is private wealth, hence why you never hear their names in modern media outlets.
@@epicaunleashed8764 they can’t count it because it’s privately held wealth. The best average estimate you can get would be to add up the total current value of all the Standard Oil subsidiaries. Today those subsidiaries are called Exxon, BP, Citgo, Texaco, Shell, Hess...I think you’re getting my point at what all companies they are majority stakeholders in but you’ll never hear about it. The Rockefeller’s even cashed in off the twin towers falling. One of the younger Rockefeller sons admitted to cashing out on the towers falling on tape.
@@capiche2759 not at all. What do I benefit from that lying about it. The Vanderbilt castle I’ve been to a few times as well since I grew up on the east coast as well. The Waldorfs/Astons, Rockefeller’s, Vanderbilt, Warburg, Carnegie, and the majority of those families are still active in world affairs today under the guise of “philanthropy” and “vaccines”.
I've visited a lot of national trust and historical houses over the years. I noticed wealth very seldom stays in a family for more than a few generations. I looked into it and the data seems to support that claim. Three main reasons; 1. Taxes 2. being born into a rich family means you are too comfortable and haven't learned to hustle so you end up pissing it up the wall. 3. Well it's tough to keep picking winners. Markets and businesses are volatile. Staying top dog is difficult. You have to know things others don't on so many fronts and be lucky. That only lasts so long.
@@pedroohm5115 taxes, children and inheritance is not to mention weddings, funerals, and divorces. The government usually takes about half every time you die your ex spouse wanders off with about half, and if you get remarried, you can really get screwed. Multiple children is the shortest way to diminish generational wealth because you’re $100 million. The government takes half and $50 million get split between two kids to lose half and then have to split it between the two kids and before you know it that nest egg is gone.
@@Matt-yg8ub that's common rich wealth not the jew families and a few others, their wealth just grows larger by generation but they hide it very well. This people don't pay taxes. And they work like mafias, there's always the head of the family usually the older male.
Great fortunes are also lost through concentration in one asset class. For example, close to 100% of Jack Ma's wealth is in Alibaba.. Alibaba may not last for 500 years. Most of today's billionaires owe their fortune to ownership in one particular company, and that company will sooner or later go bankrupt. A laughably small percentage of companies survive even 100 years.
Short answer to video: first generation struggles like hell, second generation either makes a little headway or gets lucky and capitalizes on it and makes something for themselves and their children, third generation makes it a little better but mostly maintains, fourth generation screws it all up due to a life full of decadence and luxury, with no sacrifices or struggles ever being known to them.
i'm the 18 generation for my family fortunes, im chinese btw, we have one important rule in our family for generations, by the time we pass away, we must make sure our wealth is 2 times more than what we were given, btw we split our fortunes equally when me and my siblings reach 30 of age. Besides, i was raised with one thing in mind, money is just a tool and never be obsess with it. Maybe that why it lasted for generations, even though i have my own portion of fortune but i barely even use it as my own job pays enough for me to live comfortably.
If you invested the wealth in S&P 500 you would have 10x more, adjusted for inflation, in 100 years. So 2x should be simple. Assuming 30 years between generations, 18 generations would be 540 years ago. If your ancestor started with 1,000 and its was doubled each generation, you should have a fortune of atleast 131m (assuming 3% inflation over 540 years, it would be 8m in todays value, and a real seed amount of 62.) If they started with 10m you would have 1.3 trillion.
I'm sorry that I'm late to the party, but your video does bag an interesting question. while Rockefellers wealth was often given away for things like libraries and parks and colleges, instead of to his direct descendants to keep them wealthy, how much wealth did his donations end up creating? while his direct descendants did not profit from the money that was donated, other people in society did and were able to go on and make their own livelihoods and possibly even fortunes thanks to the money that he donated. so while the donations certainly did not make his own family wealthy, they may well have made a whole bunch of other families wealthy instead.
Donating to charity is a tax shelter for the rich. They generally donate it to a charity that they’ve set up so that they keep the money and save the tax. That’s the kind of shell game that the common man can’t take part in.
What do you mean? Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook etc pay their valuable employees VERY well. My dad works for Microsoft and gets paid $220k/yr and same when he worked at Amazon. However, that's only their VALUABLE employees, meaning those who actually have skills beyond a high school diploma and basic English.
Don't be that weird selfish dad. Life is hard enough already. If you have money and have children make sure to leave them well off before you leave this rock so if you can contribute financially *don't think just do it before another economic collapse happens that whipes out more jobs etc what has been experienced 2 times already within the last 12 years*
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A friend of a friend is a retired personal assistant to a Rockefeller. Let’s put it this way she lives (retired) in a super wealthy penthouse in NYC and she has a live in maid and personal assistant of her own.
The wealth of families like these become the landscape. Their wealth is so great, it can only be measured by countries or if you like to count pennies, measured in humans owned.
I feel like it should be mentioned that you said they donated a lot of their fortunes and also you said a lot of their fortunes were eaten up by taxes and capital gains. However if you donate all that money it lowers the taxes you have to pay allowing them to keep more of the money. Also many of the charities are of their design or they choose what the charities do with the money anyway
@Luís Andrade not if you create a tax shelter charity like this poster is saying. politicians do it, business people do it and athletes do it. (Your name) Institute of Whatever. They're not actual charities that do anything but dodge taxes, like the Clinton Foundation.
@Luís Andrade For example: If you want to invest in land, Make a charity like Bill & Malinda Gates foundation. Donate $, and get tax deductions for donating to the charity. Say your charity wants to help agriculture development. Buy farm land not taxed. Profits from land used to buy more land untaxed, or pay charity President (you) a wage.
@Luís Andrade I never said that B&M F are bad/evil. I'm just saying its literally on the Bill & Malinda Gates Foundation website that they are about agricultural development. You just need to fulfil a basic charitable benefit. So you *could* buy the land and hire locals to farm it. You could then give food (the charity benefit) and sell extras. The land value then increases, giving the owners profit. You could also say the farms offset global warming by absorbing CO2 as charitable benefit. You could then sell carbon credits for more profit. There are countless ways to do it. You could donate the land, to the charity for farming, but sell the air rights for profit then pay yourself a wage. These are just examples of the many ways you *could* abuse the system (I'm not saying B&MG specifically do, just that they could, and others could just as easy). They also have a goal of promoting sanitation and hygiene. So one thing they do is research their "reinvented toilet" (Free Research & Development + tax deductable). You then could make a subsidiery that produces these toilets, and sell them to yourself. Or build the toilets for $5 then donate them claiming they are worth $15, giving you a $15 tax write off for a cost of $5 (its what ppl do with art all the time). You could also donate money to political candidates and in exchange have them pass legislation for you that lowers costs, taxes, changes zoning laws, eases requirement, etc the benefits of which could easily outway the money you donated (aka profit). Plus you get to write off the contributions from your taxes. There are also cases like the "Cancer Fund of America" which only gives "2.5% of its donations to support the families of cancer victims and fund cancer research". So charities don't actually need to be that charitable in the first place. There are clearly plenty of ways to hide money, and to get profits from charities. Its just a more elaborate form of 'astroturfing,' but with tax benefits. Some charities are good, like "Water" and some are just tax havens.
@Luís Andrade They don't distribute "profits", but they do pay the employees that work for charities. Charities with over $500 million in total expenses report a median pay of $422,578 for their CEOs. If you run the charity, you (to a limited degree) determine the pay. The "Cancer Fund of America" as mentioned only uses 2.5% of their donations for the advertised cause. Most of the other money goes towards James Reynolds, whom runs it. This blatant misallocation of funds IS legal, and is not defined as profit. However it does distribute wealth to the CEO. People can make money off charities, but thats not the main point. You don't need to profit in order to hide your money. Like with the Clinton foundation, its not important if its "your money" or the "charity's money"; whats important is who controls what is done with the money. If you want your money to do something, then you can make a charity to accomplish that task. This means you choose what happens to your "donated" money, ultimatly maintaining control of it, while also getting tax write offs. The more money you make as a person, the more valuable tax deductions are since you get into a higher tax bracket. Thus (back to the main point) family fortunes wouldn't be picked away into nothingness by donations and taxes (as the video suggests), because the donations offset the taxes. The rich are just better at hiding their money than they used to. They can put it in private places making it impossible for the public to track. So we don't really know how rich people are. Look up the "panama papers," if you want to see how numerous ultra wealthy families hide their money in tax havens. These dinasties arn't dieing, they're just quieter. Donating to charities doesn't harm their wealth as much as people think it does.
the generation born into money doesn't feel the hunger . they often indulge in altruistic things or pursuits that could not support themselves with. to create wealth requires a level of entrepreneurship that is not that common. what percent of people create a business that goes big say over 10 million vs just getting by or being an employee.? look at trumps kids. when he is gone will they increase the wealth or decrease it? what about the grandkids? sorry i used trump as i think he is terrible businessman but his name comes to mind. what about bill gates kids or bezos kids?
@@HowMoneyWorks not knowing how to pronounce things is actually a sign of being well read compared to your peers. It means you're being exposed to ideas that aren't being spoken about in your immediate social groups
@@jasoneel76 Patterns are a bit suspect in English. No number of patterns will help you learn "psyche" or "rough" or "et cetera" or "melange" if you don't already know how to pronounce some of the letters in it in the language convention each follows. Knowing nothing else, I can analogize reasonably from trough to rough, but not from fraught to draught. Personally, I know I often embarrass myself by trying to apply Latin pronunciation to a word from Greek, and vice versa. But yeah, it's a little pretentious. Reason being it's not well-readed-ness itself, but literacy _plus_ not-actually-talking-to-people. Which, y'know, is no special shame, but being shy does not by itself make you a genius. As a shy moron, I should know.
Successful people don't become that way overnight. What most people see at a glance- wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life..
The average life span was still heavily skewed by child mortality at that point in time. If you lived past your childhood chances were, you were gonna make it to 60 easily and even 70 quite often, of course a hundred is still crazy but not as crazy as you might think.
The only thing this video missed was that the vast majority of his peak wealth was on paper after his company was (legally) broken up into many pieces.
Rockefeller fortune did not disappear, you ever buy gas at chevron,or texaco.I have worked at Chevron headquarters in San Ramon,the place has a dozen buildings and is quite impressive,one office even has a replica of an oil Derrick made of solid gold a few feet high.
My grandmother was rich and left behind about $700k in 2000 after a few years in a very good nursing home. That money was put to good use, but immediately gone. Cousins in college (doing well), my dad had some comfort at the end of his life, all the grandkids got a few bucks. I hope I can leave something behind - cash and a house - but can't see it being worth more than the help I give while alive - financial and not.
Yh the fortunes haven't just disappeared. The only reason we know of rothchild is because he was the richest. The Forbes richest list doesn't even show anyone not in the top 500 people. You could be 501 and no one would know of you. People underestimate the amount of wealth in the world when you add assets into the list. The is no single man who is a trillionaire but there are many many companies who control well more than this in assets. I worked for an insurance company that would insure 1 type of asset, buildings. I'd work on an accounts where companies had trillions in building assets alone. It was a simple minimum wage job but it made me realise the insurmountable wealth in the world. I also believe there are people who are rich enough to be on the top Forbes list but manage their wealth in such a way to make them appear less wealthy i.e. royalty. The wealth has already been accumulated so its impossible to track. It's thought that the British queen is actually the wealthiest people alive today but it's impossible to track and of course she would never outright say that because of the colonial connotations.
Only the last names changed, the money is still in the family. As any family tree that has money, it gets bigger, maybe a bit diluted but it’s definitely not gone.
6:30 Ehh, most regular people's significant property comes down to a house and a car, both of which are registered with the government. Unless you're suggesting we need to know how many sodas someone has in their fridge to estimate their estate. Also, 'charity' for the most part is a tax dodge. Who are they giving their money to? Themselves. To foundations they own, which only give a tiny minimum away, usually to lobby to have their taxes decreased and ours raised. If I pass money from my right hand to my left that doesn't make me a philanthropist.
☝️This! The same goes for bonds, shares and other assets. If i had to disclose my assets for the rich and the super-rich to do the same, thats sounds like small price to pay for more transparency and less corruption
@@Pqndchannel Why is that? Carnegie died only 2 years after charitable donations became tax deductible. Rockefeller spent the later part of his life on philanthropy because he wanted to be remembered for more than oil. They were certainly better people than Gates/Besos/Zuckerberg etc.
@@Pqndchannel take a US history course and learn that these men set the example of giving to charities after they make fortunes. Carnegie wrote the Gospel of Wealth where he wanted more rich people to give more. He gave away more than 44 billion dollars in todays money and most towns in America have a Carnegie library, there’s 2,500 of them
Ending is intriguing because this ever more powerful 'Charitocracy' thing is becoming a major social and financial topic we need guys like 'How Money Works' to dig through and infographic us with. Recently I was in Laos and the longer I was there the more I saw into the levels and levels of NGOism, Charitocracy bureaucracy and yes indeed, in fact, as I began living and touching among it - thousands of people who run charities, non-profits, then the powerful elite 'NGOs' and they all do it for.. themselves. They are the mini-Rockefellers and the little Upper-Middle bourgeoise. In some cases, its just a dozen people who've pretty much found a way to have a very comfortable 'Holiday outpost job' or really call it a very early retirement lifestyle. For some others, there are big shots, the money people, the BMW class who got a real sweet cash operation going and they seem to have all kinds of businesses going on alongside the 'NGO'. Climate this, environment that, coffee beans, a lot of the magic word 'sustainable', all kinds of charity and all kinds of human rights something-somethings. Lots and lots of money for some. I cannot say I've ever seen any real difference for villagers, it's as polluted as ever, its as 'climate changed' as ever, I don't know where these 'rights for 3rd world girls only!' are happening but I can tell you this: That culture has developed and is increasingly developing a severe case of 'hand out syndrome' where they are quickly learning that the way the economy works is you find a foreigner and hold out your hand and ask for money then take that money home and squirrel it away. That, they understand, must be how it works. I have seen some clever poor people who innovated for a need, a market 'demand' and filled it. Some european charity people also saw that and found a way to get a ton of money brought over to pay some other villagers to assemble the same things and with european 'cant fail' funding they quickly drove the original innovators out of business. It's horrible.
You should check Thoms Piketty's work on accumulation of wealth accros historical time. Until the industrial revolution, the return rate of capital (mostly land) was from 2% to 5% max per year, and very stable.
Just as well since it's a sham. They just set up Charitable Trusts park half their money in them and donate the amount that works out to how much they get back in deductions so the taxpayers are actually the ones doing the charitable work.
None of their fortunes have been lost though, they have just dissapeared if you get my drift, these people still run the show, you're in fact living through it right now.
@Roberto Vidal Garcia No, its you're world view that provides the simple answers and inferences about other people. You are literally living through the largest conspiracy ever pulled off, yet. We live in a world controlled by powerful people, do they control the whole world or every person in power, no, they do not but it is on a scale large enough to create world changing events.
If you understand anything about people you would understand how ridiculous you sound. You actually believe that there are global conspiracies ? Brothers fight brothers over small piece of fortune and you think countries all agree to band together to fool people for no reason ?? All of their fortunes have been more or less lost the value of money changes over time and their power is almost non existent.
As an evil business consultant, I was approached with a request to do the Goldfinger. I said “you want to debase the USD so that it loses 95% of its value? I think you’ll find someone beat you to that.”
If my family was super rich i would live a decent life just from the interest of that wealth quite easily. I would also try to add to that family wealth by making my own contributions so my kids can also live nicely as well. If ur daily expenses are covered for by interest all ur other income can be invested. People don't comprehend the power of compounding
None of these families lost their fortune they learned that publicly being seen as people who lost hundreds of billions is a whole lot safer than being known as people worth trillions
My spouse and I are adding a variety of stocks/ETF to my present holdings for the long term, We've set aside $250k to start following inflation-indexed bonds and stocks of companies with solid cash flows, I believe it is a good time to capitalise on the market for long-term gains, but it wouldn't hurt to know means of actualising short term profit.
@Nickolas Alphonso I'm sure the idea of a coach might sound generic or controversial to a few, but new study by investopedia found that demand for portfolio-coaches sky-rocketed by over 41.8% since the pandemic and based on firsthand encounter, I can say for certain their skillsets are topnotch, I've raised over $500k from an initially stagnant reserve of $150K all within 14months
There are two things to keep in mind: 1. Wealth measurement is highly inflated it's mostly valuation of companies that could be irrelevant anytime. the real wealth is gold and silver and other previous metals. 2. Richness is how much cash or currency you've in hand and that's why I always say Arab oil dynasties are the richest in the world not American investors/entrepreneurs
I’m struggling to understand how my family’s fortune from around 200 years ago disappeared. I believe it was to do with taxation, life insurance policies that didn’t pay out in the event of suicide, and not having enough money after a few generations to keep up the estate and huge house my family once owned that’s since been turned into a hotel.
Wealth gets distributed among the descendents & heirs too at each generational cycle. Say you start with the equivalent of $200 million wealth today in the 1820s. The wealth gets divided up to the sons (and maybe daughters), and other relatives upon death of the asset holder. And then, each generation sees the division of remaining wealth among the ever increasing numbers of heirs. Come current year, each living descendant probably has a tiny fraction of that remaining wealth of their ancestor. Business failures, divorces, frivolous spending, squabbles over money, inflation etc. would also affect the amount of remaining wealth. Big estates also become more expensive to maintain over the generations, as labour costs increase, maintenence costs increase, and yes, land taxes.
There's a nice book dealing with old family money, called "1 billion dollar" (1 trillion dollar for uhmaricuns) by Frank Schätzing. Absolutely worth reading!
Sounds great when put into quotes. Not really in the context of history. Prosperous countries, where people lived easier lives, tended to have stronger militaries and economies (see the Romans & the USA). Tough situations can create lunatics in a country (see Hitler & the Nazis), whose improvements they made were quickly destroyed by their own ambition, pride, and cruelty i.e. not the kind of strong men that you need. It is not being strong or weak that matters. It is about being wise or being foolish when it matters.
@@linhdanghoang2504 daniel was actually quoting ibn khaldun, a great historian. Ibn khaldun believes the vicious cycle in history that hard times create strong people, strong people create good times, good times create hard times, and hard times create strong people again.
@@chaosouroboros4848 Then I guess the historian had some basis for his assessment. However, he might have had intepretations that depend on a specific definition of good and bad times (both are very general and vague terms). Ibn Khaldun also lived in 14th century and was limited to a certain scope. A lot of events has happened since then globally to provide counter examples.
Wealth can grow in low GDP growth environments, too. Especially in the Renaissance era, a wealthy family could lend money and compound the interest or invest in farming. Especially the well commented families managed to benefit from whatever came up.... and the Renaissance did see some innovation (cf. Da Vinci, Leonardo).
Keep in mind that loans were extremely risky in an economy that doesn't hold borrowers accountable. Ie. Kings repudiate debts, ruining banks. It has happened quite often in history.
@@guyman1570 In those times, delinquent borrowers could end up in prison just for defaulting on debt. "Doesn't hold borrowers accountable" - not really....
@@notroll1279 Those kind of debts are easily burdened by bankers. No, I'm talking about the *ROYAL* sums of millions upon millions being repudiated by monarchs. Who would have any ability to imprison one of them when a massive war debt goes unpaid? It wasn't until late 19th century that larger debts were finally enforceable by the banking industry. Prior to that... it would be extremely risky being a lender for large loans.
@@guyman1570 It would have been risky to lend a monarch money without anything like a collateral - but often, lenders were granted certain trading rights, tax exemptions or other privileges making a loan worthwile for lenders. There was always the risk that the borrowing monarch might go under... but many lenders just hedged their bets by doint business with opposing parties.
@@notroll1279 tell that to the bank of Fuggers and the bank of Medici 😂 You're right, sometimes they won't be sunk by a dequilent king, but sometimes they will, though.
The money doesn't disappear, it's just locked up in the family estate, including real estate. Most of them run average jobs doing what they want and look after the estate in one way or another, while have extensive legal documentation with regards to inheritance and other things. I know an Austrian count who's an airplane mechanics - he could use the family fortune to buy a fighter jet and fly it himself but won't since that's bankrupt his family. He instead only uses his own earned money to buy stuff for himself - the family estate is used to upkeep properties like his mansion and associates grounds, as well as other investments.
A lot of German immigrants changed their names (spelling and pronounciation) when coming to the US. You don't know how they asked to be addressed once there.
I mean, if I was rich or getting a huge inheritance from my Parents, I wouldn't want that information to be public at all. Why tell the whole world how much Money you have. Sure, most People are good People, but there are still many People out there who will come at your Money like sharks. There are People who will pretend to be your friend, pretend to love you, be nice to you just because you're rich, and try to finesse you out of your own Money. Just lay low, live in a good House, buy the things you wanted to buy, and enjoy life. You don't have to worry about bills, rent, mortgage, car loans, credit card loans, student loans, grocery, utilities, daily necessities, or anything else. The only thing you have to worry about is how to not go broke now that you're so rich, and how to raise your children with good values and morals without spoiling the sh*t out of them.
You forgot the City Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank. I think it was in 1914 that Aldrich started to create these from an insurance company that was a Rockefeller company.
@Roberto Vidal Garcia There is a level of wealth that becomes self-sustaining. Example at 1B put into a financial vehicle that returns 8% year on year will produce 80 million dollars.
@Roberto Vidal Garcia This isn't about lottery winners. Multi generational wealth have trusts and whole financial teams that set up babies born into those families for life.
@@pnguyen45 As someone who trades for a living, I can tell you that 90% of people fail at it because of discipline... Basically, i'm saying, yes you are right theoretically.. but in real life, discipline is not easy to find.. .
bruh i went to middle school with a Rockefeller, kid is stacked with cash, he has like multiple small planes at his ranch in the pacific northwest or something edit: it was a junior boarding school in Massachusetts
My older sister told me that Anderson Cooper is one of the last living descendants of the Vanderbilts, which were the ones that got rich by the railroad industry and around that time they were considered "new money" by the elites back then. I never knew that about him because he doesn't seem to give off the vibe that he was born into a super wealthy family, but then again the "old money" elites kind of viewed the Vanderbilts like the Beverly Hill Billies by today's standards. So I guess it makes sense that whatever wealth he did get might be miniscule compared to what his ancestor had back then.
I think obscenely wealthy old money families just have an insane amount of non-fungible assets, and might not be entirely sure of how much all of it is worth.
I don't think it's fair to say that family fortunes 'disappear'....they are just hidden (point #3). If you delve even toe-deep into family offices you'll see that most of them have their initial wealth arising sometime in the 19th C. That is not 'fortunes disappearing'.