Social Mobility: And Its Enemies (Pelican Books)

by Lee Elliot Major

Yet Stanford University Professor Cristobal Young concludes that far from fleeing higher taxes, financial elites are surprisingly reluctant to leave home. Young found that 84 per cent of the world’s wealthiest individuals, as listed in Forbes magazine, still live in the country of their birth. Most billionaires live where they were born or where their careers first blossomed. Only 5 per cent moved abroad after making their fortunes. Famous billionaires such as Richard Branson who relocate to tropical tax havens are the exception not the rule. ‘The British elite live in Britain, the Chinese elite live in China, and the American elite live in America,’ says Young. Global financial elites are more likely to die than to move to a different country. Analysing 45 million US tax returns, Young found that America’s millionaires are half as likely as the poorest residents to move away from their home state. Family and social roots become more important than financial savings for the wealthy. The rich act as ‘embedded elites’ rather than ‘transitory millionaires’.3