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Popular culture hints at the growing importance of inheritance.
流行文化暗示了遗产继承的重要性日益增加。
“Succession”, a TV series, focuses on the wranglings of a set of siblings who hope to gain control of their father’s media empire.
电视剧《继承之战》聚焦于一群兄弟姐妹之间的争斗，他们希望获得对父亲的媒体帝国的控制权。
“Crazy Rich Asians” follows the trials and tribulations of a woman marrying into a Singaporean dynasty.
《摘金奇缘》讲述了一个女人嫁入新加坡豪门的考验和磨难。
Popular fiction, from “The Nest” by Cynthia d’Aprix Sweeney to John Lanchester’s “Capital”, deals with the questions raised when people inherit vast sums.
从辛西娅·达普里克斯·斯威尼的《鸟巢》到约翰·兰彻斯特的《资本论》，流行小说探讨了人们继承巨额财富时所引发的问题。
In the latter, a character receives a house in London: “The equation was too plain and too depressing.
在小说《资本论》中，一个人物继承了伦敦的一栋房子：“这个数学等式极其简单、极其让人悲伤。
In the debit column, she had lost her mother; in the credit column, she now had a gigantic pile of cash.”
在借项栏中，她失去了母亲；在存项栏中，她现在有了一大笔现金。”
The rise of the inheritocracy reflects three factors: increasing wealth, changing demography and slower economic growth.
遗产继承的增长反映了三个因素：财富的增加、人口结构的变化、经济增长的放缓。
After the first and second world wars, the value of wealth, relative to national income, collapsed.
在第一次和第二次世界大战之后，相对于国民收入的财富价值崩溃了。
Many of Europe’s buildings were destroyed.
欧洲的许多建筑都被摧毁。
High inflation eroded the value of cash and government bonds.
高通胀使现金和政府债券贬值。
Politicians developed a taste for heavy wealth taxes and nationalisation.
政客们对高额财富税和国有化产生了兴趣。
Many wealthy families, including the Vanderbilts, squandered their fortunes.
许多富豪家族，包括范德比尔特家族，都把财富挥霍一空。
Since then housing, in particular, has become more valuable, partly owing to restrictive planning policies, which constrain supply.
自那以后，住房变得更有价值，部分原因是限制性规划政策限制了住房供应。
The value of buildings owned by Britons has risen from just over ?1trn (130% of GDP) in the mid-1990s to just under ?7trn (270% of GDP) in recent years.
英国人拥有的建筑物价值已从20世纪90年代中期的略高于1万亿英镑（占GDP的130%）上升到近年来的略低于7万亿英镑（占GDP的270%）。
Wealth taxes are out of favour, stockmarkets have performed fantastically, while inflation, at least until recently, has been low.
财富税不受欢迎，股市表现出色，而至少直到最近，通货膨胀一直处于低位。
Because of the rise of wealth managers and index funds, the rich have become better at avoiding the fate of the Vanderbilts.
由于财富经理人和指数基金的兴起，富人变得更加擅长规避范德比尔特家族的命运。
The second factor is demography.
第二个因素是人口结构。
Baby-boomers have soaked up wealth, having come of age just at the point when house prices and stockmarkets started soaring.
婴儿潮一代积累了大量财富，他们成年时，房价和股市刚刚开始飙升。
Germans aged over 65, who make up a fifth of the population, own a third of the country’s wealth.
德国65岁以上的人口占总人口的五分之一，却拥有全国三分之一的财富。
American baby-boomers, also a fifth of their country’s population, own half of its net wealth, or $82trn.
美国婴儿潮一代也占全国总人口的五分之一，却拥有总净财富的一半，即82万亿美元。
Now the boomers are starting to die, leaving large estates to their heirs.
现在婴儿潮一代开始去世，将大量遗产留给了他们的继承人。
Economic growth is the third factor.
经济增长是第三个因素。
In 2014 Thomas Piketty of the Paris School of Economics and Gabriel Zucman, then of the London School of Economics, presented evidence that slow-growing countries accumulate more wealth, measured in relation to national income.
2014年，巴黎经济学院的托马斯·皮凯蒂和当时在伦敦经济学院的加布里埃尔·祖克曼提供了证据，表明经济增长缓慢的国家积累了更多财富，以相对于国民收入的标准衡量。
People add to savings at a fairly consistent rate, but GDP rises less quickly.
人们以相当稳定的速度增加储蓄，但国内生产总值的增长速度却较慢。
In recent years, owing to weak growth in both populations and productivity, rich-world GDP growth has slowed markedly.
近年来，由于人口和生产力增长乏力，富裕国家的国内生产总值增长明显放缓。
According to our data, the fastest-growing countries, such as America and Ireland, appear to be less afflicted by inheritocracy compared with the slowest, such as Germany and Italy.
根据本刊数据，增长最快的国家（如美国和爱尔兰）似乎不像增长最慢的国家（如德国和意大利）那样受到继承财富的影响那么大。
The inheritance boom may, in turn, reinforce the trend towards slower economic growth.
遗产热潮可能继而加剧经济增长放缓的趋势。
Just as in Honoré de Balzac’s time, the best way to get rich is increasingly not to work hard, but to marry well.
正如奥诺雷·德·巴尔扎克时代一样，变富的最佳途径越来越不是努力工作，而是嫁/娶得好。
“You will need to suffer ten years of misery…and lick the courthouse floor with your tongue,” says a character in “Père Goriot”, as he lectures another about how only an idiot would choose a salary over an inheritance.
“你得受十年的苦……还要舔法院的地板。”《高老头》中的一个人物说道，他教训另一个人，说只有白痴才会选择工资而不是遗产。
In the 21st century, the incomes of the top 1% of French inheritors are once again higher than those of the top 1% of workers.
在21世纪，法国最富有的1%的继承人的收入再次高于最富有的1%的工作者的收入。
The economic implications may be big.
这带来的经济影响可能是巨大的。
If people focus on matchmaking, rather than starting a company, innovation will suffer.
如果人们关注的是牵红线，而不是办公司，那么创新就会受到影响。
Already, across the rich world, entrepreneurship is in long-term decline.
在富裕国家中，创业精神已经长期处于衰退状态了。
