How did the wealthiest Britons get so rich?: Comment

Conclusion

It has been argued here that while the Siegfried and Roberts analysis of the wealthiest Britons is interesting, it is flawed in several respects. First, it failed to incorporate correctly the concept of economic rents to fortunes built on personal talents. Second, it failed to recognize explicitly that 25 fortunes, or fully 12.5% of all fortunes, resulted from real estate and other investments that were based on nothing more than lucky speculation. Finally, the authors were surprised to find so many fortunes generated in competitive industries, when in fact, this should be an expected outcome. A different reading of these data suggests that many British fortunes resulted from lucky speculation just as would be expected by Thurow, Scherer and Ross, and many other economists.