Stereotypes of the Rich

Many of the stereotypes about wealthy families are generated, or at least perpetuated, by silly Hollywood versions of the rich, where all the children are spoiled trust-fund babies, all the parents are emotionally stunted, all the lives are lived in dreary splendor. But, after all, we can't really blame Hollywood for this. Most of us are pretty boring, normal families, whereas dysfunctional families, like it or not, make for far more interesting viewing. If Tolstoy were alive today he might have written, “All happy families are bad sitcom material.”

But even among the wealthy themselves, who should know better, there is a sense that their families face higher odds of being happy and productive. To be sure, the challenges facing wealthy families who aspire to happiness—that is, all wealthy families—are different from those of other families, in the same way that the challenges facing welfare families are different from those facing middle-class families. But the actual outcomes, as noted above, are about the same.