Inheritocracy: Does who your parents are matter more than how hard you work?

The Money Show's Stephen Grootes is joined by Bronwyn Williams, trend translator and future finance specialist at Flux Trends.

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week Stephen Grootes talked to Bronwyn Williams, trend translator and future finance specialist at Flux Trends.

She reviewed Inheritocracy: It's Time to Talk About the Bank of Mum and Dad.

It's written by UK-based best-selling author Eliza Filby, a generational expert.

The book ponders whether meritocracy is failing us, being replaced by a system where the opportunities we're offered by our parents define our progress and wealth.

"Filby's more of a sociologist than an economist. She talks a lot on Instagram about the premise of this book... the idea that your parents matter more than how hard you work."

"It's a very topic because people are feeling the world is like a zero-sum game where either you are a winner or a loser, and for you to win someone else has got to lose."

"A lot of that is to do with the fact that meritocracy isn't living up to its promise for young people. This idea that if you work hard it translates into being able to have a good life, seems to be breaking down."

"We can see this in the US for instance, where more graduates are unemployed than non-graduates. In South Africa, we've still got graduates stuck on social grants because they can't find a place in society."

"The author has gone out to interview people in the UK, but the issues in these conversations are perhaps even more exacerbated in SA given our very unequal past."

"It's being said that this trend in some places is due to the fact that the baby boomer generation is now dying off and all that money they've long been accused of hoarding is finally being distributed, but it's to their children and not the general society."

Bronwyn Williams, Future Finance Specialist - Flux Trends

Description on Amazon:

Many of us grew up believing in a meritocracy, where hard work brings rewards. Go to university, get a job, put in the hours and things will be OK.

That's what we were told – but the reality is that life chances and opportunities are no longer shaped by what we learn or earn but by whether we have access to the Bank of Mum and Dad. We're living in an inheritocracy, where parental support is what matters most – whether that's covering the cost of university, stumping up for a house deposit or helping with childcare. And let's be honest, this isn't something we like to talk about with our friends, families or as a society. It's a modern taboo.

In these pages, generational expert Eliza Filby explores the emergence of this inheritocracy through her own life story, revealing how her family's financial circumstances shaped everything from her education to her dating life, from her career to her class identity. Inheritocracy is a thought-provoking and candid blend of memoir and cultural commentary, told through Eliza's humorous and insightful voice.

With trillions of pounds set to be passed down the generations over the next two decades, a significant divide is emerging between those who can rely on family wealth and those who can't. Inheritocracy offers a fresh, captivating and honest look at our recent past and a future that will be shaped – for better or worse – by family fortunes.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to Williams' review