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Finance & economics
财经版块
Wealth transfer
财富转移
The bequest boom
遗产热潮
To get rich, forget about your career. Today an inheritance is what matters.
要想变富，别想职业发展了，如今继承才是最重要的。
“A single man of large fortune; four or five thousand a year. What a fine thing for our girls!”
“有钱的单身汉，一年四五千镑的收入，我们的姑娘们真是有福气！”
In “Pride and Prejudice” Jane Austen did not have to explain to the 19th-century reader what Mr Bingley’s “four or five thousand a year” meant, or why it excited Mrs Bennet.
在《傲慢与偏见》中，简·奥斯汀不必向19世纪的读者解释宾利先生的“每年四五千英镑”的收入意味着什么，也不必解释为什么这让班纳特太太兴奋不已。
It was obvious. Mr Bingley was an heir.
情况很明显。宾利先生是一位继承人。
And the surest way to get rich was not by working hard but by marrying the right person.
而最可靠的变富途径不是努力工作，而是与合适的人结婚。
Fast-forward to today, and rich countries are starting to look like Austen’s world.
快进到如今，富裕国家开始看起来像奥斯汀笔下的世界。
In ways that will upend the economy and society, inheritance is back.
遗产再度回归，并将颠覆经济和社会。
Government statistical offices publish almost no data on inheritances, since their surveys are ill-equipped to track huge, one-off payments.
政府统计部门几乎不公布关于遗产的数据，因为他们的调查方法不适合追踪巨额的一次性付款。
So The Economist has gathered academic estimates on the annual “inheritance flow”—the value of what people pass on to heirs in art, cash, properties and the like—for a range of countries.
因此本刊收集了在一系列国家中，关于年度“遗产流”的学术估计，遗产流即人们传给继承人的艺术品、现金、财产等的价值。
In 1900 inheritances were worth over 20% of GDP in some countries, as people passed on vast stock portfolios and estates.
在1900年，一些国家的遗产价值超过了GDP的20%，因为人们传递了大量的股票投资组合和房地产。
The value of inheritances then fell in the 20th century, before more recently roaring back.
在20世纪，遗产的价值下降，然后近年来又大幅回升。
By the end of the 2010s inheritances were worth, on average, 10% of GDP.
到2010年代末，遗产的平均价值占GDP的10%。
This year people across the rich world will inherit on the order of $6trn.
今年，富裕国家的人们将继承约6万亿美元的遗产。
In many countries the share of wealth that comes from inheritance is also rising.
在许多国家，来自继承的财富比例也在上升。
UBS, a bank, suggests that in 2023 53 people became billionaires by inheriting money, not far short of the 84 who did so by working.
瑞银银行表示，2023年有53人通过继承财富成为亿万富翁，而通过工作成为亿万富翁的有84人，二者相去不远。
As a share of national output, annual French inheritances have doubled since the 1960s.
作为国家产出的一部分，法国每年的遗产自20世纪60年代以来翻了一番。
Germany’s have almost tripled since the 1970s.
德国的遗产自20世纪70年代以来几乎增加了两倍。
In Britain they are twice as important, relative to earnings, for those born in the 1980s as for the generation before.
在英国，对于20世纪80年代出生的人来说，遗产相对于收入的重要性是前一代人的两倍。
Inheritances in Italy are now worth more than 15% of GDP—enough, perhaps, to get the modern Mrs Bennet to ship her daughters to parties in the palazzi of Rome.
现在意大利的遗产价值超过国内生产总值的15%——也许足以让现代的班纳特夫人把女儿们送去罗马的豪宅里参加聚会。
Only Ireland seems to buck the trend of becoming an inheritocracy: there, at least, bequests are modest and have not grown much in recent years.
似乎只有爱尔兰在反抗成为世袭社会的趋势：至少爱尔兰的遗产价值不多，近年来也没有增加多少。
In America today, for every $100 employers pay a year in wages, the dead leave behind $20.
在如今的美国，雇主每年每支付100美元的工资，逝者就留下20美元。
And such figures, striking though they are, understate the shift to an inheritocracy.
而且这些数字虽然引人注目，却低估了社会向世袭制的转变。
The average family size has fallen sharply in recent years.
近年来，平均家庭人数急剧下降。
A given inheritance is therefore spread over fewer people.
因此给定的遗产会在更少的人之间分配。
Using British data, we estimate that in recent decades falling birth rates have raised the amount going to the average heir by some ?60,000 ($75,000), or 24%.
本刊利用英国的数据估计，近几十年来，出生率的下降使平均每人继承的遗产增加了约6万英镑（约合7.5万美元），增幅为24%。
Having a brother or sister might be nice, but they come at a price.
有个兄弟姐妹或许不错，但这是有代价的。
Falling inheritance taxes also increase the share of a bequest that an heir can keep.
遗产税的降低也增加了继承人可以保留的遗产份额。
In the early 20th century, revenues from death duties accounted for a sizeable chunk of the total tax take in America and Britain.
在20世纪初，遗产税收入在美国和英国的总税收中占了相当大的一部分。
But in the latter part of the century, politicians turned against the taxes.
但在20世纪后半期，政客们转而反对这些税收。
Some were swayed by lobbying.
一些政客被游说动摇了。
Others feared that, in a globalised world, taxes on wealth would prompt rich folk to up sticks.
其他政客担心，在全球化的世界里，对财富征税会促使富人离开本国。
Today death duties account for well under 1% of government revenues across rich countries.
如今在富裕国家，遗产税占政府收入的比例远低于1%。
Several places, including Australia, Canada, India, Norway and Russia, have abolished them entirely.
在包括澳大利亚、加拿大、印度、挪威和俄罗斯等地，遗产税已经完全被废除。
Many in America would sorely like their government to do the same.
许多美国人非常希望美国政府也能这样做。
More than 20 American states binned their wealth-transfer taxes between 1976 and 2000.
在1976年至2000年间，超过20个美国州废除了财富转移税。
