Inherited wealth, or what my mother once called “old gold”, comes in quite a few forms. And, things are not always inherited down the bloodlines of kinship. Sometimes, old gold is handed down through positions in family-owned corporations. The position is often “filled” by a good friend of the family which owns controlling stock in the company(s). This is called “cronyism”, one would suspect. Its the “opportunitizing” of someone. Its the obtaining-of a fully-fueled bulldozer that’s already well-aimed and powering-towards set-for-life land. :)

Sure, this person has to fill the position and perform some corporate tasks, but it is sometimes a cushy position with many layers of safety nets and extra chances. Often, the money that provides the position’s “cloud 9 comforts”, doesn’t even come from the “old gold” investments of the corporate founders (founding-family blood-members)… it comes right from the company’s (sometimes hide-gouging…) profits.

So, in this case, the “position” or role is old gold within the company structure, yet the position fillee… is not in any way blood-related to the company founders. But the fillee is “adopted” by the family via the cushy position, and is that a type of inheritence? I don’t know.

I’m just playing with labels and terms here, but… gaining an exalted position in a sturdy family-owned company… probably “feels” like actually being adopted and privy to what feels like bloodline-gold (true kin inheritence).

Ok, I wanted to show a potential gray area of “inherited” wealth… if I may. Best regards!

“Most people in them who are rich made their money the old-fashioned way: They inherited it.”

There’s two problems here if you want to use this as the premise for your argument.

1) You need to define rich. Is it based on a specific level of net worth? Income?
2) You need to provide evidence to support the assertion that most “rich” people (by your definition) inherited their money. Most of the stats I’ve seen suggest just the opposite.

The 2004 Survey of Consumer Finances found that, of the wealthiest one percent of Americans, only 17% of their wealth came from inheritance. Further, a study by the National Center for Policy Analysis found found that only one in nine wealthy Americans gained their wealth via inheritance.

http://www.ncpa.org/pub/st/st289/st289b.html

Don’t get me wrong. I harbor no illusions about capitalism being a strict meritocracy. Capitalism favors those who already have money by its very nature. But the assertion you’re making here is weak at best without any evidence to back it up. In fact, the available evidence would seem to suggest the opposite of your claim.