In atomic terms, old money has a very short half life and new money even shorter. Fortunes vanish in short order when the earning stops and the spending begins. Considering that we are still organized by families, it is very difficult to keep the earnings going from generation to generation. "Hey, we got more money than I can ever spend!! Why should I work?" Well, because it is knee-buckling the amount of money that can be spent in a lifetime dedicated to spending. A wealty lifestyle, not to be confused with a wealthy life, requires prodigious spending; the ability to spend is how one proves a wealthy lifestyle. "Shirt sleves to shirt sleves in three generations" is hard to avoid - seen it many times.
Say you got a $10,000,000 after tax lump of money. Year in year out you could probably spend 4% without reducing the value of the principle (based on reasonabley low risk investments). That is $400,000 or maybe $200,000 after tax. So, a $1,000,000 house will tap you for, oh, say $125,000 a year and a luxury car will set you back $75,000, so no Purdeys the first year --- no food either!!
Of course there are inner circles. Always have been and always will be. And, yes, money does buy favor.
