<story><title>Dying Alone in Japan: The Industry Devoted to What’s Left Behind</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-18/japan-s-lonely-death-industry</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m interested in how shrinking populations may impact generational wealth.&lt;p&gt;In past generations, where it was common for a successful person to have six, seven, or eight heirs, even a large inheritance was quickly dissipated over a few generations.&lt;p&gt;In a shrinking population, the opposite is true.  A single child often inherits the wealth of two working adults.  And childless couples will commonly leave anything remaining to a niece or nephew.  This could have a consolidating effect on wealth distribution.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jdietrich</author><text>Most aristocracies practiced primogeniture to prevent this sort of dilution - the entire estate was inherited by the eldest son. America intentionally abolished primogeniture, precisely to prevent the perpetuation of the aristocracy or the creation of a new one.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Primogeniture&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Primogeniture&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Fee_tail&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Fee_tail&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.jstor.org&amp;#x2F;stable&amp;#x2F;2953276&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.jstor.org&amp;#x2F;stable&amp;#x2F;2953276&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Dying Alone in Japan: The Industry Devoted to What’s Left Behind</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-07-18/japan-s-lonely-death-industry</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>nostromo</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m interested in how shrinking populations may impact generational wealth.&lt;p&gt;In past generations, where it was common for a successful person to have six, seven, or eight heirs, even a large inheritance was quickly dissipated over a few generations.&lt;p&gt;In a shrinking population, the opposite is true.  A single child often inherits the wealth of two working adults.  And childless couples will commonly leave anything remaining to a niece or nephew.  This could have a consolidating effect on wealth distribution.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>spaceflunky</author><text>I see this happening in the US now.&lt;p&gt;For example with homes, when grandparents died in the 80s&amp;#x2F;90s a home was sold at a modest value and split among 3-5 heirs. Which amounted to very little per family after taxes.&lt;p&gt;Nowadays you have millennials set to inherit homes that are overvalued in the $1MM+ range and split among 1-2 heirs. Which can be a life changing sum of money. I personally know of people who feel little pressure in their lives because they know they stand to inherit a $1.5MM home plus whatever else their parents have at some point in their life.</text></comment>