5 ms·

I suspect majority of the people who are technically "rich" as you put it have either inherited wealth or opportunity in life, and though they cloud it with epi

I suspect majority of the people who are technically "rich" as you put it have either inherited wealth or opportunity in life, and though they cloud it with epic stories of hard work, they started out ahead of the game, and with money to burn. There are very few "rags to riches" stories these days, and little reward and interest in ideas from normal people. The prospect of gaining financial stability [through even magnificent short term gains] is decreasing daily in the US. just look at foreclosures to see that people who though their lives were successful had the success rug pulled out from under them. We need to stop supporting mega-companies and bring development and even retail back to the mom&pop era. Your privacy is threatened BECAUSE Google has become a giant company, if small businesses ran individual development projects, they wouldn't have enough time to worry about collecting personal data on every human in the world. We are turning into a lottery society, and the ideal of being able to be successful is as much a myth as Santa Claus, even with hard work. Net neutrality and measures that mega companies will take to suppress competition will kill the possibilities for common folk to succeed even deeper into the "unobtainable/impossible" category. Get used to failed dreams... Sorry to be so grim.

5teev 16y ago
There's a lot of truth to this, but you'll soon be shouted down by the very people you describe. Successful people--however they got there--only like to attribute it to their own very hard work.
- m_myers 16y ago
  And now any disagreement can be immediately disqualified without further argument. Well done.
  - winternett 16y ago
    I said nothing about wealth/opportunity inheritors being lazy. Many work hard and aren't bad people. I was commenting about the dream of success and how its skewed to tell people that they can do whatever they want, and that they can create a start up that will succeed on ideas and marketing alone... There is much more at work in this society than whats written on paper, especially if you're reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.
- forgottenpaswrd 16y ago
  What should they do it different? You know what? If you are american you got lucky to spend 5x more resources than anyone in the first world, energy, petrol, plastics, TVs, computers, cars, whatever. If you think about it, that is not fair!! Travel around and look at how other people lives. And the number will become 10x,20x if you compare yourself to the majority (over the 3000billion people). You are not smarter than them, more educated or culture(the majority of Americans only speak one language, give me a break)... just lucky. So you are rich!!, today, now. Just because you were born in the right place. It seems that YOU want them to attribute their wealth(people richer than you) to luck, witch is a enormous fallacy, is not true, they are not lazy bastards like your prejudices want it to be(so YOUR mind could have an excuse for not working). It is totally ok for someone to be proud of their work.
- winternett 16y ago
  Agreed, so many hide behind the veil of hard work and its a lie, most got to their successful points in life based on the wealth opportunity provided by finances or friends. Society needs to begin to look at and understand wealth in this manner. Dynasties always manage to preserve wealth in the world because of their inner-associations, rules, plans and initiations and they rarely recruit total outsiders.Its no tin-foil hat conspiracy, its reality. Opportunity in life is just as beneficial as inherited wealth. You can work for years in an industry and never gain upward mobility because of a lack of personal connections that foster your growth and the insider information and support that you get from those sources, such as being fraternity brothers with a CEO, or knowing/mentoring with someone who has deeper political or financial influence since you were a child, or by having a rich mommy and daddy. Its so much about who you know, and how you start. There have been several people with lots of money who failed by trying to buy their way into high society, without first making friends, we have all witnessed many brilliant meltdowns from Paris Hilton and others who didn't get the memo. We need to start looking into wealth and financial stability and creating opportunities for the best ideas to succeed, not just the ideas with the best marketing campaigns. Mom and Pop is where we need to go, in terms of our future business and development outlook support to end the threats to net neutrality and shoddy/arbitrarily wrong/and unethical big businesses dominating our social landscape...
  - rick888 16y ago
    "Mom and Pop is where we need to go, in terms of our future business and development outlook support to end the threats to net neutrality and shoddy/arbitrarily wrong/and unethical big businesses dominating our social landscape..." Many mom and pop shops turn into big businesses. Are we going to also have a law that prevents a business from growing to a certain size? I also don't think I want a mom and pop store running something like cable. I don't think they would be able to keep up with service calls/support
forgottenpaswrd 16y ago
"I suspect majority of the people who are technically "rich" as you put it have either inherited wealth or opportunity in life" If you listen to "The millionaire next door" you will find +80% of the rich in America got their money working hard, are on their fifties, savers, and don't look rich(don't need to spend too much for living). I could confirm that on Spain. I have known many rich people here, their children... that is another history, dad and mom use to not want their children to work as hard as they did.This is universal.(I have seen parents who had very little money spend on their children enormous quantities of money). I agree big companies are getting too big, the excuse was the synergies. I don't like it(I consider the government the biggest company of all). They become mammoths that are to sustain at the expense of everyone else(too big to fail).Look at GM, they declare profit of 1,5B$ from the 50B$ they got, GM does money in the financial market with your money, not making cars!!
- neilk 16y ago
  People are quoting "The Millionaire Next Door" on HN? This community has gone to hell.
vannevar 16y ago
Your suspicion is correct: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/04/b1579981.html http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/04/b1579981.html The vast majority of the wealthy started off that way, and the higher up the chain they start, the easier it is to move even higher, which is why wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated in our society.
cynicalkane 16y ago
The data I've seen suggest that the ability to make wealth is passed from generation to generation, but wealth itself usually isn't. Genetics, environment, and upbringing are all more valuable than a trust fund, which shouldn't be a surprise at all. As for hard work, it is a great way to make money as long as you're smart about what you work on.

5teev 16y ago

There's a lot of truth to this, but you'll soon be shouted down by the very people you describe. Successful people--however they got there--only like to attribute it to their own very hard work.

m_myers 16y ago
And now any disagreement can be immediately disqualified without further argument. Well done.
- winternett 16y ago
  I said nothing about wealth/opportunity inheritors being lazy. Many work hard and aren't bad people. I was commenting about the dream of success and how its skewed to tell people that they can do whatever they want, and that they can create a start up that will succeed on ideas and marketing alone... There is much more at work in this society than whats written on paper, especially if you're reading Rich Dad Poor Dad.
forgottenpaswrd 16y ago
What should they do it different? You know what? If you are american you got lucky to spend 5x more resources than anyone in the first world, energy, petrol, plastics, TVs, computers, cars, whatever. If you think about it, that is not fair!! Travel around and look at how other people lives. And the number will become 10x,20x if you compare yourself to the majority (over the 3000billion people). You are not smarter than them, more educated or culture(the majority of Americans only speak one language, give me a break)... just lucky. So you are rich!!, today, now. Just because you were born in the right place. It seems that YOU want them to attribute their wealth(people richer than you) to luck, witch is a enormous fallacy, is not true, they are not lazy bastards like your prejudices want it to be(so YOUR mind could have an excuse for not working). It is totally ok for someone to be proud of their work.
winternett 16y ago
Agreed, so many hide behind the veil of hard work and its a lie, most got to their successful points in life based on the wealth opportunity provided by finances or friends. Society needs to begin to look at and understand wealth in this manner. Dynasties always manage to preserve wealth in the world because of their inner-associations, rules, plans and initiations and they rarely recruit total outsiders.Its no tin-foil hat conspiracy, its reality. Opportunity in life is just as beneficial as inherited wealth. You can work for years in an industry and never gain upward mobility because of a lack of personal connections that foster your growth and the insider information and support that you get from those sources, such as being fraternity brothers with a CEO, or knowing/mentoring with someone who has deeper political or financial influence since you were a child, or by having a rich mommy and daddy. Its so much about who you know, and how you start. There have been several people with lots of money who failed by trying to buy their way into high society, without first making friends, we have all witnessed many brilliant meltdowns from Paris Hilton and others who didn't get the memo. We need to start looking into wealth and financial stability and creating opportunities for the best ideas to succeed, not just the ideas with the best marketing campaigns. Mom and Pop is where we need to go, in terms of our future business and development outlook support to end the threats to net neutrality and shoddy/arbitrarily wrong/and unethical big businesses dominating our social landscape...
- rick888 16y ago
  "Mom and Pop is where we need to go, in terms of our future business and development outlook support to end the threats to net neutrality and shoddy/arbitrarily wrong/and unethical big businesses dominating our social landscape..." Many mom and pop shops turn into big businesses. Are we going to also have a law that prevents a business from growing to a certain size? I also don't think I want a mom and pop store running something like cable. I don't think they would be able to keep up with service calls/support

forgottenpaswrd 16y ago

"I suspect majority of the people who are technically "rich" as you put it have either inherited wealth or opportunity in life" If you listen to "The millionaire next door" you will find +80% of the rich in America got their money working hard, are on their fifties, savers, and don't look rich(don't need to spend too much for living). I could confirm that on Spain. I have known many rich people here, their children... that is another history, dad and mom use to not want their children to work as hard as they did.This is universal.(I have seen parents who had very little money spend on their children enormous quantities of money). I agree big companies are getting too big, the excuse was the synergies. I don't like it(I consider the government the biggest company of all). They become mammoths that are to sustain at the expense of everyone else(too big to fail).Look at GM, they declare profit of 1,5B$ from the 50B$ they got, GM does money in the financial market with your money, not making cars!!

neilk 16y ago
People are quoting "The Millionaire Next Door" on HN? This community has gone to hell.

vannevar 16y ago

Your suspicion is correct: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/04/b1579981.html http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2006/04/b1579981.html The vast majority of the wealthy started off that way, and the higher up the chain they start, the easier it is to move even higher, which is why wealth is becoming increasingly concentrated in our society.

cynicalkane 16y ago

The data I've seen suggest that the ability to make wealth is passed from generation to generation, but wealth itself usually isn't. Genetics, environment, and upbringing are all more valuable than a trust fund, which shouldn't be a surprise at all. As for hard work, it is a great way to make money as long as you're smart about what you work on.