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Rich parents generally have rich children. Let's take a look at Bill Gates' luck. He was at a private high school which was only of a few in the world that had

by socrates1998 8y ago

Rich parents generally have rich children. Let's take a look at Bill Gates' luck. He was at a private high school which was only of a few in the world that had access to super-ish computer. Not only that, he was given control access to do whatever he wanted. Sure, he was talented, but if he hadn't been at that EXACT high school at that EXACT time, he wouldn't be a billionaire. Billionaires need a shit of ton of things to go right and ALL their decisions need to work out almost perfectly. Even when they "lose" something, if you became a billionaire, you found a much better opportunity right after you "lost" something. The fact is the number one predictor of a person's income, health and net worth is their parents income. How do you explain that the extremely high correlation of parental income and children income?

nailer 8y ago
You've just said it can be both luck and talent. This is exactly what the comment you're responding to says. The parents income doesn't just magically create wealthy kids: money runs out. In the US, wealth controls the child's access to good education, and parental wealth may also result from good genetics (intelligence) or culture around wealth and investment. An example: friend of mine isn't particularly intelligent, but she's wealthy because she knew the law of 72 and said no when offered a credit card (with compound interest like all credit cards) before her frontal cortex developed. Most young adults would say yes and immediately enter financial slavery.
- socrates1998 8y ago
  Just because someone is talented and lucky, it doesn't justify them making $100 billion while others die from lack of basic health care. Parental income is the highest predictor of a person's income. Nothing you have said counters this argument. If you have any stats or data that counter it, then please provide them.
  - nailer 8y ago
    You are assuming someone making 100 billion is related to others dying from lack of health care. It would be entirely possible for both to happen: an actual competitive health care market in the US reducing costs to closer to the rest of the first world and the government paying those costs via taxes (pretty close to what people in the US pay now).

nailer 8y ago

You've just said it can be both luck and talent. This is exactly what the comment you're responding to says. The parents income doesn't just magically create wealthy kids: money runs out. In the US, wealth controls the child's access to good education, and parental wealth may also result from good genetics (intelligence) or culture around wealth and investment. An example: friend of mine isn't particularly intelligent, but she's wealthy because she knew the law of 72 and said no when offered a credit card (with compound interest like all credit cards) before her frontal cortex developed. Most young adults would say yes and immediately enter financial slavery.

socrates1998 8y ago
Just because someone is talented and lucky, it doesn't justify them making $100 billion while others die from lack of basic health care. Parental income is the highest predictor of a person's income. Nothing you have said counters this argument. If you have any stats or data that counter it, then please provide them.
- nailer 8y ago
  You are assuming someone making 100 billion is related to others dying from lack of health care. It would be entirely possible for both to happen: an actual competitive health care market in the US reducing costs to closer to the rest of the first world and the government paying those costs via taxes (pretty close to what people in the US pay now).