Anyone have any thoughts on this Twitter thread about the persistence of status? (hexbear.net)

submitted 6 months ago by HeavenAndEarth@hexbear.net to c/chapotraphouse@hexbear.net

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Full Twitter thread unrolled -> https://en.rattibha.com/thread/1792267464258048408

This person basically uses a bunch of graphs to argue that status of elite groups persist under even the most extreme cases. For example, the elites targeted in the PRC and the Soviet Union bounced back in elite status after a generation or two, how many elite southern planter families regained their status after the Civil War, how formally interned Japanese Americans reached the same homeownership rate as the non-interned Japanese Americans after a decade, etc.

But then they suggest that

So status persists throughout history even in the most extreme scenarios. What explains this? Genes play a major role. Consider how status persists when the status is accurized purely through chance.

Is this really a reasonable conclusion to draw? I saw one tweet criticizing this, saying

this information is very interesting, but it's nonsense to think this implies genetics/talent/effort causes success. i see this as evidence that social/human capital is persistent and important for economic development, so inequality on this dimension breeds economic inequality https://x.com/leonveliezer/status/1792413175301935124

Which seems like a good objection to me.

What do you all think?

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[-] SoyViking@hexbear.net 14 points 6 months ago

To the extent this is even try, there are a few straightforward explanations why elite status is inherited that doesn't involve eugenics and similar disingenuous pseudoscience:

Elites are hoarding wealth, especially in uncertain times. They might lose their formal positions and their land and their factories but they still have the ability to stash some gold coins away unnoticed. This hoard helps them get ahead in the future.
Elites have access to better education. In turn this means they are able to provide their children with better education, giving them a head start. Even in the best most well-founded educational system, students from homes with high education have an easier time than students from homes that are lacking education. The education gap also makes the labour of former elites interesting to the new regime who might otherwise have a hard time finding skilled officers, specialists, etc. This creates a base for them rising up and achieving eller status in the new system.
Elites knows other elites. When given the chance they have connections to people at home and abroad who are better connected and richer than common people, giving them the ability to get ahead.

[-] Maoo@hexbear.net 3 points 6 months ago

Elites also have a better understanding of the strategy for becoming and staying elite and they will teach their children to go on that path. Get education, save wealth, put it into owning businesses and screwing people over as needed on the way there.

Capitalism was not abolished over those years. Landlordism largely was, but otherwise there were just one-time corrective measures and some systems put into place to regulate the extremes. The underlying capitalist system developed in place and the corrective measures became less heavy-handed.