Image Source: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/generational-wealth-build/story?id=85567073
Generational wealth refers to any asset that families pass down to their children and grandchildren, whether in cash, investment funds, stocks and bonds, properties, and even entire companies over time. Another aspect of generational wealth can be measured by family class, community standards, religious and cultural practices. But what does generational wealth mean to me? Thus, this blog post focuses on my opinions about generational wealth and the lack thereof.
Image Source: https://www.history.com/news/second-industrial-revolution-advances
After the “Industrial Revolution,'' most citizens became trade laborers⸺skilled and unskilled workers with duties such as stevedores, clearing timber, and brushes. They removed demolished materials from job sites. Placed and vibrated concrete, landscaping, pipe installation, and material handling for other trades workers and used explosives to create roads and highways. Sometimes destroying buildings and family dwellings depends on how much zoning space is required. Again, taking land and property under “Imminent Domain Laws.”
Families acquired these labor trades to sustain their families. While labor trades allowed numerous families to work in factories and the like, additional skills permitted most others to create entrepreneurship. Following the ”Industrial Revolution,” many parents had hoped their children would learn their trades and use their abilities well enough to carry on the family’s name. Learning a trade was most important, especially for the male children.
Today the view of the world has evolved. The present generation might not be as impressed with the skills of their parents even though those skills have come to include trades, crafts, educational accomplishments, cultural and spiritual traditions. Several Indian Chiefs/Shamans and Pundits from the Hindu religion teach their children spiritual secrets and rituals they hope they will one day practice for financial rewards or as a cultural heritage to protect themselves and their families. Yet, many of their offspring feel that the old way of life cannot sustain their lifestyle.
Parents took the painstaking opportunities to teach their children the skills they needed to provide for the family. They hoped their children would take advantage of perfecting those skills and promote the trade. However, countless parents were disappointed once they learned their children wanted nothing to do with the family trade. Some of the children found that labor trades were beneath their wildest expectations. Other children were ashamed of the family’s work that supported them throughout their life and, as such, wanted no part of it. Furthermore, traditional fathers felt disappointed when the sons they raised to take over the family business stated they, too, wanted no part in labor trades.
I think having a skilled trade is always a plus regardless of academic achievements. Modern children are not very impressed with their parents’ career choices, like farming, domestic, construction, shoe repair, tailoring, etc. They perceive that these low-class jobs are messy and not prestigious. They give the impression that labor jobs are only for people with low educational abilities. Interestingly, some modern children do not realize that in the early days, high schools taught woodworking, electrical, plumbing, and home economics. Tons of high school students were also required to complete internships with various businesses. Being known for the standard of a skilled labor trade was a way of maintaining the family status. It provided a prestigious platform within the village or community.
According to dictionary.com, investment refers to a valuable thing, person, or quality easily transferred to the advantages of its benefactors, where one can reap the financial rewards from the resources to enhance and promote economic equity for the present and future advancements of other generations. A variety of the younger generations see their parents' means of income as degrading and prefer jobs that allow them to mingle with the elite dressed in business attire.
In this modern world of technology, being able to produce a product from start to finish by hand can be a great asset. In the case of ( R) George H. W. Bush and his extended family, Donald Payne Sr. and Jr., and father and son: (D-NJ) Congressmen Donald Payne Sr. and Jr., we see a handful of their children switching gears from business to politics. Noticeably, quite a few parents had little to no formal education and utilized the skills or trades they inherited from their parents.
Image Source: https://anthonys153shoerepair.com/shoe-repair-shops-in-grand-central/
We can agree that everyone has invested in a pair of shoes. Be it for comfort or style, shoes are a necessary part of our wardrobe. At some point, they do wear out. Most of us opt to discard them, while others choose to have them repaired. The skills of a shoe repair person are an asset to our community if we realize the benefits of their service. Regardless of the brand, most shoes today are not built with the integrity to withstand rigorousness days or prolonged use. The material is very much second-rate to what it used to be. Mass production of goods, services, and inexpensive replicas have excluded the need for excellent gifted shoe repair people. However, I think if our purchase is of good quality and something goes wrong, having it fixed by an expert can prove valuable.
Let’s also look at the real estate market. Here, we consider when a homeowner or a family cannot keep up their property payments; in return, the developers come in and quickly scoop it up. That right there is a crucial example of the loss of generational wealth. Even when homeowners try to negotiate with the lenders or with the city due to tax liens, in most cases, the developers will leave families homeless, renovate their homes, and divide them into rental units to rent at an exorbitant price which the majority of people in the poor neighborhoods cannot afford—allowing developers to negotiate with the city for even higher prices. “Generational Wealth” is also lost when a property is seized in drug raids or used to secure bail. A considerable measure of the generational wealth in the poor communities is lost because of the death of the elderly or incarceration—an accomplishment through “Housing and Redevelopment” (Section 8).
Wealth as we know it is created over time, but the transfer of capital can face many challenges if the proper legal structure is not in place. Wills and trusts are some of the instruments that are used to transfer wealth. Additionally, intestate can significantly diminish the attempts to resolve these matters through the court system in the case of untimely death. The process is expensive and lengthy. Because loads of people cannot afford the fees, they walk away in dissolution. Six years after iconic artist “Prince” passed away, a judge in Minnesota determined six of his siblings to be the rightful heirs to his estate.
Image Source: https://www.etonline.com/people/prince
Unfortunately, not every family can withstand the pressure or face the hardship of court fees and the time it takes like this grieving family to receive their inheritance.
People of color have undoubtedly experienced systematic discrimination due to racism. One other instrument used to prevent them from attempting to succeed and derailing their aspirations of accumulating wealth is revealed in my previous blog posts “Bruce’s Beach” and “Black Wall Street” The Bruce’s Beach story shed light on how it took 98 years for the Bruce’s stolen waterfront property to be returned to their heirs. In the “Seneca Village” saga, the courts offered no compensation. Moreover, these cases show us the castration of “Generational Wealth.”
But that is not all. Stay tuned for the continuation of this blog post as I introduce the Indigenous People who suffered emotionally, spiritually, and culturally. All are related to the topic of generational wealth and the lack thereof. And my take on Pope Francis visiting the church dedicated to Our Lady of the Seven Sorrows, where he blessed a banner with the names of the abused children who died in residential schools in Canada, praying in Maskwacis Cemetery. In the meantime, research is brought to the forefront that education still enhances the writing skills of the School of English Studies Department at Kean University in the spirit of change.
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