Populist Reform of the Democratic Party

I said replace "patrimonial wealth" with "inherited family wealth." I did not say replace an entire section of Picketty's book with the term "inherited family wealth."

It has created what we call the "middle class" -- Tom Picketty's phrase "patrimonial middle class" is more precise, since we mean working people and small businessmen who have enough wealth to retire on and assist the kids.

By your own words, "patrimonial middle class" was not a widely-used and recognized term, like "middle class" alone. Rather, "patrimonial middle class" was a totally arbitrary term coined by Picketty, which he (or you?) defined to mean "working people and small businessmen who have enough wealth to retire on and assist the kids."

His arbitrary neologism and the definition of it are both male-centered, which does not reflect the reality of modern society. If anyone is going to choose a term arbitrarily and then define it, choosing a term and a definition that are not sexist is not that hard.

And, wtf, don't any small business people work? Why distinguish "working people" from small business people? And where does someone with a medical or legal practice fall? Are they covered by "patrimonial middle class" or not?

Moreover, does the term he coined include people who have enough to pass down to the kids after retirement because they themselves inherited family money, though not necessarily big bucks? Does his term really mean only anyone who has enough money to pass down to the kids after a comfortable retirement, regardless of how they acquired it? You've given me no way to know that. If that is all it means, the definition is off the mark.

If I know the answers to the questions I asked above, I can probably come up with a less sexist term and maybe a clearer definition, too.

There does seem to be a trade-off between gender-neutral language and clear writing,

Disagree. As I said, women own more than half the wealth in the US. They also own lots of small businesses and hold down a lot of jobs. Sometimes they are the only earners or owners of wealth in the nuclear family. Why should a term like "patrimonial middle class," which evokes wealth earned by and belonging to men, be considered more clear than a term that is more inclusive of female earners and female owners of wealth?

And, as my questions above indicate, I am not sure the term that you borrowed from Picketty is all that clear to someone who has not read the book.