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Comment by dollarsanddata | Hacker News Reader

I wish the author explored land ownership as a potential reason for the wealth disparity. Most people have a lot of their wealth locked up in land value by middle age so it's a major component of a lot of these "net worth" numbers. The the overwhelming majority of white families in the 1950s and 1960s bought cheap land in suburbs that is now worth obscene amounts of money. Even after you divide by the number of kids most of those people had it's still a substantial chunk of change to kick-start the next generation's wealth building.

I would also argue that "intellectual property" is also a major reason for wealth disparity ("intellectual property" is the wrong term, but basically it's knowledge that is "kept in the family" and passed down with each generation). My parents do not own land worth "obscene amounts of money" nor did I get my finances "kick started" by big allowances or inheritances. However, just having parents who:

- encouraged me to take education/my future seriously

- could easily help/tutor with any homework I had since both parents have graduate-level education

- could answer any questions I had about life in general (investing, career, college, etc.) with quality advice rooted in experience

Has helped me immensely to become self-reliant. And now that I've built up my own "intellectual property" I can pass it to my kids.

A lot of black people stuck in poverty don't have those three basic things. My next door neighbors are impoverished African Americans. Single mom household; the mom dropped out of school. Her son (11) dropped out of middle school. He comes over a lot for snacks, and seems completely unconcerned about his future and the trajectory he is on (he seems to think he'll be able to just get rich using Twitch/YouTube). Very depressing to think about, but I do what I can to try to encourage/motivate him to invest in reading, school, etc.

Throw in a little, "your land is now desirable so instead of paying you a higher rate for it we'll increase your taxes until you are forced to sell."

Because older families are wealthier and immigrants who just came to the United States (people of color) is the cause of the gap. Not the race itself (Indian, Japanese etc..)

I don't think that's accurate for the biggest gap (black Americans vs. white Americans.) Here's a study local to Boston, but it's not unique to Boston. [0] Relevant highlight from a summary: [1]

>The household median net worth was $247,500 for whites; $8 for US blacks (the lowest of all five cities); $12,000 for Caribbean blacks;

Note that Caribbean blacks (immigrants) have a much higher net worth than US blacks.

[0] https://www.bostonfed.org/publications/one-time-pubs/color-o...

[1] https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/12/11/that-was-typo-t...

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