The Chinese equivalent of this would be from peasant shoes to peasant shoes in three generations, the Italian is from peasant shoes to peasant shoes, and in Scotland the father buys, the son builds, the grandchild sells and his son begs. In Sweden it is förvärva, ärva, fördärva (build, inherit, destroy).
Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations posits how generational wealth is destroyed over three generations. The first generation knows great suffering so works hard to escape it. The second generation sees the work put in by the first generation and takes care of it, but the third generation sees it as a given, takes it for granted, and often squanders it.
These days you have ‘nepo babies’ children of famous people who ride the coattails of their famous parents, without great talent or drive. Poor Brooklyn Beckham is often named as an example of this. As are some of the Rausings, the heirs to the Tetrapak fortune. Playboys often have hardworking grandparents.
According to the Family Business Institute, only 30% of family businesses survive beyond the founder’s generation. Only 12% make it to the third generation, and a paltry 3% persevere into the fourth.
I cannot help but wonder if the present state of our world is partly because people have forgotten how hard our older generations worked to rebuild after the World Wars. Forgotten how much solidarity it took to create the 8 hour day and the five-day week. Forgotten how many people fought and died for rights we take for granted. Forgotten how fragile democracy is. If we forget things like the Holocaust and the second World War, we WILL be doomed to repeat them.
Here are awful examples of that. These were – I kid you not – fashion and housewares with images of Auschwitz on them for sale on Redbubble. Someone actually thinks Nazi death camps are fashion-worthy?
There is a theory (often criticised) called The Strauss-Howe generational theory. It posits that history repeats itself in roughly 80-year cycles, with each cycle encompassing four generations and four “turnings” (High, Awakening, Unraveling, Crisis). Each turning lasts about 20 years.
High: A period of optimism and growth.
Awakening: A time of social unrest and questioning.
Unraveling: A period of social decay and decline.
Crisis: A major societal crisis, such as war or political upheaval.
Of course there are exceptions to the three-generations curse. Anita Roddick of The Body Shop left everything to charity when she died. She said she had taught her children to support themselves and they did not need her money. The children agreed. Drew Barrymore is probably more famous than her parents and grandparents.
But looking at developments in the world, I am wondering if we are not in the ‘to shirtsleeves‘ part of that equation. Elon Musk is an accelerationist, which I find very scary. According to Wikipedia, accelerationism refers to the idea of intentionally intensifying existing processes of social change, technological development, and economic growth, with the goal of destabilizing current systems and facilitating radical transformation. So you basically destroy the existing system in order to build a new one. Accelerationists often look fondly to the economic growth and progress that happened after the end of the second world war. Maybe that is why Elon Musk is having so many children – repopulation after he has caused total system collapse?