Shenanagans go on at every school, so the "such that it is" comment could apply to any major university and seem a bit misplaced. The admission standards at USC as well as its scholarly output in virtually every field seem to negate your implication that it's not a serious academic institution. (Princeton Review named USC "College of the Year" in 2000)

Fight On.

A very attractive, very rich girl had to pay someone to do her homework? Either all the dudes at USC are gay as hell or this chick is beyond clueless.

A very attractive, very rich girl = very bitchy attitude

she probably thought even a USC Heisman winner is below her.

If there is a law limiting how much rich lucky bastards can pass wealth to their children, then we'd have less spoiled stupid fucks fucking up this world.

She's HOT! I wonder how long before a video of her "humming a tune on the ol' request pole" shows up on the internet.

If there is a law limiting how much rich lucky bastards can pass wealth to their children, then we'd have less spoiled stupid fucks fucking up this world.

I disagree, C Joe. Rich old bastards having airhead, know-nothing children is one of the most important social processes we have.

See, these rich old bastards got rich because they invested something very useful, or were incredibly savvy businessmen, or ran businesses that provided valuable goods and services to people. But these pioneers of business have to die someday.

It seems to be a law of nature that such admirable character traits cannot last more than 3 generations. I don't know why this is, but the children and grand-children of successful self-made people, more often than not, turn out to be totally worthless human beings. Paris Hilton comes to mind.

In any event, this means that vast accumulations of wealth get redistributed over time. The enterprising young lass at USC who got the $20,000, for example.

This process keeps us from having a permanent, hereditary aristocracy. It works just as well (or better) than a government-enforced rule limiting the amount of cash an idiot child can inherit.

It's much better to allow these idiot offspring to be taken to the cleaners by people who are smarter than them. It gives the smart-but-poor something to aim for, and rewards their efforts.

Phinn,

Your argument for the natural redistribution of wealth (without governmental or political intervention of any kind) is the best one that I've seen out there.

People can talk all they want about a "natural aristocracy", but in the end, here, we get a "natural meritocracy" in most cases.

In Britain, we have a saying, prevalent during the Victorian years, which said "Clogs to Clogs in three generations"!

Just goes to show, the Brits got there first!

"Clogs to Clogs" I love it! I have no idea what it means, but it sounds very witty and British.

It really is true -- it sticks in your craw to see the Paris Hiltons and Paige Laurie-Waltons of the world fall ass-backwards into loads of cash, but just give it time.

I grew up in a part of Texas where there were a great many people who represented the third or fourth generation of families that had made boatloads of money in the oil bid'ness. I went to school with a dozen guys whose names ended in a "III" or a "IV."

Suffice it to say that these people, almost to a man, managed to parlay their family fortunes into jobs behind the counter at the town's high-end liquor store and/or repeated stints in rehab.

Be patient. Let the free market do its thing. Phinn's Law of Idiot Offspring will work its magic sooner or later.

"Clogs to Clogs"

Clogs are shoes with wood on the soles. Durable, but cheap and ugly, they a "poor man's" shoe.

Thus the saying.

I've also heard "the first generation builds the fortune, the second maintains it, the third destroys it".

You have the rare exception, but there's something about pampered wealth that takes the edge of someone.