(University of Oregon Law School, 2010) Strand, Palma Joy
Following the thread of inheritance law, I started with current
wealth inequality, which—after falling from its twentieth century
peak in the 1920s to a low point around 1980—has increased steadily
in recent decades. Further exploration led to the particularly acute
wealth disparities between Black and White households as well as
studies documenting the effect of inheritance in perpetuating those
disparities. This is an issue of immediate urgency: The wave of
racialized wealth owned by the parents of the baby boom generation
is currently washing over the baby boomers in an enormous
intergenerational transfer of wealth. Without intervention, the wealth distribution going forward will be at least as racially skewed
as it is at present.
