7.4d How Wealth Is Maintained Across Generations

Sociologists suggest that upper class families keep their wealth across generations by opportunity hoarding (Tilly, 1998). Opportunity hoarding relies on strategies such as favorable laws and tax policies, closed social networks, and parenting styles to maintain wealth by controlling the resources needed for growth and preservation, and by limiting access to these resources for other groups.

Laws and tax policies are macro-level factors that help transfer wealth from one generation to the next. Closed social networks help keep wealth at the meso level. Finally, studying how parenting varies along social class lines shows opportunity hoarding at the micro-level.