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No, only about 10% of billionaires are self made, as in not having inherited wealth or come from wealthy families. And even this is a record high up from a more

No, only about 10% of billionaires are self made, as in not having inherited wealth or come from wealthy families. And even this is a record high up from a more typical 3%. (and remarkably, these are numbers that forbes feels excited about) http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-are-more-self-made-billionaires-in-the-forbes-400-than-ever-before/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-a...

cjlars 10y ago
>In 2004, we had 59% of the Forbes 400 having made their own fortune, as opposed to 41% who inherited it. Quote from your own source...
- jacalata 10y ago
  The article explains that they rank the level of "self-made-ness" out of 10, with 10 being from a poor family with no advantages. Then it says " A total of 34 billionaires, or 8.5%, scored as 10s".
  - Tinyyy 10y ago
    So given 10 possible rankings, it is pretty well distributed then?
    - jacalata 10y ago
      Well distributed for what metric? Their backgrounds clearly don't match the normal population, since the normal population isn't 7% billionaires.