Wealth…. When you think of Wealth what do you envision? Many assume wealth is owning a sports car, wearing designer clothes, living in a huge house, and taking scenic vacations. However, many also assume that it’s impossible to move up in America nowadays. With crippling student loans, exploitive companies hiring unpaid interns for “work experience”, and the rising cost of living, it can seem hard to break even, much less get rich. Unfortunately, this is becoming increasingly true. My firm, the Lewand Advisors Corporation, has conducted a massive study and come to the same conclusion. While we are fond of citing the myth of rags to riches, the truth is that the majority of wealthy people come from money. Our statistics overwhelmingly support this claim. As Miles Corak states in A Great Nation if you are Born Rich, “a child born into the top 10 percent has a one-in-four chance of staying there. Conversely, children from regular households have only a one-in-seven chance of becoming wealthy themselves, and almost 10 percent fall to the very bottom.” Clearly, being born into money puts one in a much better position to succeed. Now you might be wondering, why? Why do these rich kids do better in life? They don’t just have more expensive clothes, and a cool car; they have higher SAT scores, they live longer lives, they” attend more prestigious colleges, and they have better jobs. So if they are healthier wealthier, and wiser (Ben Franklin allusion), what are they in fact doing with their money to make them become what society would consider to be better people? The answer, in short, is everything you could possible imagine. As mentioned before, the SAT is called out by many critics for being a test that only rich students can excel at.
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This test has in fact, been nicknamed the “Student Affluency Test” As you can see from the slide, it is evident that these critics are not at all wrong. However, the reasoning for the higher scores was in fact not due to tutoring, which only raises a kids score an average of “8-15 points”, but according to the Wall Street Journal “it’s that Family wealth allows parents to locate in neighborhoods with better schools (or spring for private schools). Parents who are themselves college educated tend to make more money, and since today’s high school seniors were born in the mid-1990s, many of the wealthiest and best-educated parents themselves came of age when the tests were of crucial importance. When the SAT is crucial to college, college is crucial to income, and income is crucial to SAT scores, a mutually reinforcing cycle develops.“ This cycle is becoming harder and harder to break. One only has to examine two colleges from neighboring states to understand the implicit effects of the SAT. Ramapo college in New Jersey has an average sat score of barley over 1100, while the extremely selective Colgate University in New York has an average sat of about 1360. The difference is that many graduate Colgate making upwards of six figures a year, while many Ramapo grads still don't have jobs six months out of school. It’s astonishing, the amount of disparity there is in American society. And we are not just talking about SAT scores. It was recently said that “being wealthy is the best health care plan in the United States”, a statement that confirms that wealthy people in the US live longer than the rest of us. Of course, money gives one better access to health care, but it also leads to a life with less stress, fewer problems, and even better sleeping habits. Over time, these factors make a huge difference in the quality of one’s life, so much so that people with money live substantially longer than people in poverty. For example, in a recent study published by two professors from Princeton titled income wealth and health, the researchers found that it was not unusual for a wealthy person to live up to six years longer than their impoverished counterpart. These are six years that could have been used “break the mold” but were instead effectively stolen from the middle class since they didn’t have the same advantages along the way enjoyed
This test has in fact, been nicknamed the “Student Affluency Test” As you can see from the slide, it is evident that these critics are not at all wrong. However, the reasoning for the higher scores was in fact not due to tutoring, which only raises a kids score an average of “8-15 points”, but according to the Wall Street Journal “it’s that Family wealth allows parents to locate in neighborhoods with better schools (or spring for private schools). Parents who are themselves college educated tend to make more money, and since today’s high school seniors were born in the mid-1990s, many of the wealthiest and best-educated parents themselves came of age when the tests were of crucial importance. When the SAT is crucial to college, college is crucial to income, and income is crucial to SAT scores, a mutually reinforcing cycle develops.“ This cycle is becoming harder and harder to break. One only has to examine two colleges from neighboring states to understand the implicit effects of the SAT. Ramapo college in New Jersey has an average sat score of barley over 1100, while the extremely selective Colgate University in New York has an average sat of about 1360. The difference is that many graduate Colgate making upwards of six figures a year, while many Ramapo grads still don't have jobs six months out of school. It’s astonishing, the amount of disparity there is in American society. And we are not just talking about SAT scores. It was recently said that “being wealthy is the best health care plan in the United States”, a statement that confirms that wealthy people in the US live longer than the rest of us. Of course, money gives one better access to health care, but it also leads to a life with less stress, fewer problems, and even better sleeping habits. Over time, these factors make a huge difference in the quality of one’s life, so much so that people with money live substantially longer than people in poverty. For example, in a recent study published by two professors from Princeton titled income wealth and health, the researchers found that it was not unusual for a wealthy person to live up to six years longer than their impoverished counterpart. These are six years that could have been used “break the mold” but were instead effectively stolen from the middle class since they didn’t have the same advantages along the way enjoyed