"Sandals to Sandals in Three Generations"

'Round the world, inherited wealth is hard to preserve, says this article from Intelligent Life, a "lifestyle" quarterly published by The Economist:

The families that preserve their wealth over the generations are rarities. The notion that the first generation makes it, the second husbands it and the third spends it is so widespread that it probably reflects reality. As Peter Leach, a partner at BDO Stoy Hayward, an accountancy firm, and head of its family business centre, points out, "clogs to clogs in three generations"—a northern English saying—has its equivalent in many other languages: Erwerben, Vererben, Verderben (earn it, bequeath it, burn it) in Germany; "from the stables to the stars and back in three generations" in Italy; "from sandals to sandals in three generations" in China.