Alan: In 762 B.C. you had direct lineal ancestors living somewhere on earth. Ever wonder who they were?
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Your ancestors, your fate. "[M]y colleagues and I estimate that 50 to 60 percent of variation in overall status is determined by your lineage. The fortunes of high-status families inexorably fall, and those of low-status families rise, toward the average -- what social scientists call "regression to the mean" -- but the process can take 10 to 15 generations (300 to 450 years), much longer than most social scientists have estimated in the past. We came to these conclusions after examining reams of data on surnames, a surprisingly strong indicator of social status, in eight countries -- Chile, China, England, India, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and the United States -- going back centuries. Across all of them, rare or distinctive surnames associated with elite families many generations ago are still disproportionately represented among today's elites." Gregory Clark in The New York Times.
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