In the \u201cgreat wealth transfer,\u201d currently occurring between older Americans and their heirs, we\u2019re witnessing the largest inheritance ever given by one generation to the next: $72 trillion dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But because of the massive disparity between the world\u2019s wealthiest and the world\u2019s poorest peoples, this unprecedented transfer will likely increase economic inequality, widen the wealth gap, and worsen the social strains it causes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Baha\u2019is, that\u2019s the wrong outcome. Instead, as the Baha\u2019i teachings clearly point out, the law of God in this day demands that neither excessive wealth nor excessive poverty should exist. In his book Some Answered Questions<\/em>, Abdu\u2019l-Baha<\/a> said<\/a>: <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2026 the root cause of these difficulties lies in the law of nature that governs present-day civilization, for it results in a handful of people accumulating vast fortunes that far exceed their needs, while the greater number remain naked, destitute, and helpless.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n RELATED: Beginning Our Conversation about Death: Write Your Will!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Unfortunately, in our modern global economy, the old saying \u201cThe rich get richer, and the poor get poorer\u201d seems to accurately describe today\u2019s reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many prominent economists have actually begun to pay much more attention lately to the underlying structures beneath this truism, concluding that the ongoing accumulation of capital by the very wealthy \u2014 especially when transferred from one generation to the next \u2014 tends to create a greater and greater gap between the rich and the poor. Thomas Piketty, the well-known French economist, author, and the Co-Director of the World Inequality Lab, described that phenomenon in his book \u201cCapital in the 21st<\/sup> Century\u201d:<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the rate of return on capital significantly exceeds the growth rate of the economy (as it did through much of history until the nineteenth century and as is likely to be the case again in the twenty-first century), then it logically follows that inherited wealth grows faster than output and income.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n In other words, when we concentrate inherited wealth in the hands of one small upper economic class of people \u2014 which has definitely happened in today\u2019s world of the super-rich \u2014 and the investment and interest returns on that large accumulation of capital remain high, the wealth becomes self-perpetuating, building dynasties that benefit the few at the expense of the many.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So the rich get richer \u2014 much richer \u2014 and we end up with a society dominated by the economic and political power of those who inherit enormous wealth and use it to influence the course of history and perpetuate their economic dominance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s wrong with that? If you\u2019re wealthy, it\u2019s more likely than not that you inherited much of your capital, and just having all that inherited wealth serves as a disincentive to work productively. But more importantly, concentrating wealth in the hands of a few, according to the Baha\u2019i teachings, can produce a monopoly on wealth controlled by a limited number of people, which then creates fundamental inequality in society. Abdu\u2019l-Baha, in Some Answered Questions<\/em>, described<\/a> this condition as \u201cat once contrary to justice, to humanity, and to fairness<\/strong>:\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus you can observe, on the one hand, a single person who has amassed a fortune, made an entire country his personal colony, acquired immense wealth, and secured an unceasing flow of gains and profits, and, on the other, a hundred thousand helpless souls \u2014 weak, powerless, and wanting even a mouthful of bread. There is neither equality here nor benevolence. Observe how, as a result, general peace and happiness have become so wanting, and the welfare of humanity so undermined, that the lives of a vast multitude have been rendered fruitless! For all the wealth, power, commerce, and industry are concentrated in the hands of a few individuals, while all others toil under the burden of endless hardships and difficulties, are bereft of advantages and benefits, and remain deprived of comfort and peace. One must therefore enact such laws and regulations as will moderate the excessive fortunes of the few and meet the basic needs of the myriad millions of the poor, that a degree of moderation may be achieved.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n So rather than selecting a few close relatives as heirs and burdening them with tremendous wealth and the trying tests it inevitably imposes, the Baha\u2019i policy recommends a wider, voluntary distribution among many. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, when a person dies without leaving a will, Baha\u2019i law says the value of the remaining assets should be divided in certain proportions among seven classes of inheritors \u2014 children, wife or husband, father, mother, brothers, sisters, and teachers. In the absence of one or more of these classes, the share which would belong to them goes to the public treasury, to be expended on the poor, the orphans, and the widows, or on useful public works. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
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