4 ms·

Even the legit examples are bullshit, I hate the term self-made (b|m)illionaire because almost all of them came from some kind of privilege that enabled it, and

Even the legit examples are bullshit, I hate the term self-made (b|m)illionaire because almost all of them came from some kind of privilege that enabled it, and lucky circumstances that precipitate their rise. Take these Atlassian blokes who like to tell the story of starting a company on $20k of credit card debt and a dream to make a living wage without working for someone else. That story doesn't mention they came from rich white families who got them into prestigious high schools and gave them all kinds of networking advantages. It doesn't mention that unlike most of us they could take their $20k debt risk because they already had charmed lives with fallback options that most of us don't have. Self made wealth is almost always a product of an entire community.

deleted 8y ago
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keiferski 8y ago
This sort of attitude is really nonsensical. It's the sort of extremism that seems to say: you're only self-made if you grew up in a cave, made your own clothes from animals that you yourself hunted, taught yourself language and built your business while working 80 hours a week as a [worst-job-here]. In other words: a dangerous level of holier-than-thou self-righteousness. The reality is that wealth and "privilege" are a scale: no matter who you are in the world, there are both people above and below you, in terms of advantages.
- gambiting 8y ago
  >>you're only self-made is you grew up in a cave, made your own clothes from animals that you yourself hunted, and built your business while working 80 hours a week as a [worst-job-here]. Even then someone would say that it was still done from a position of privilege because you had a place to sleep, animals to hunt, and how dare you say you are self made - you at least had a job unlike many people in this fine country! To me, "self-made" means being able to take the opportunities within the environment that you live in and make the best out of them. Yes, that usually means that you get some opportunities that other people don't get - but equally, there are opportunities that you don't get either. You can be a "self-made" white son of a billionaire. Or a "self-made" immigrant of colour. Alternatively, we can stop using the term "self-made" entirely and pretend that it doesn't exist. That's also a solution.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

keiferski 8y ago

This sort of attitude is really nonsensical. It's the sort of extremism that seems to say: you're only self-made if you grew up in a cave, made your own clothes from animals that you yourself hunted, taught yourself language and built your business while working 80 hours a week as a [worst-job-here]. In other words: a dangerous level of holier-than-thou self-righteousness. The reality is that wealth and "privilege" are a scale: no matter who you are in the world, there are both people above and below you, in terms of advantages.

gambiting 8y ago
>>you're only self-made is you grew up in a cave, made your own clothes from animals that you yourself hunted, and built your business while working 80 hours a week as a [worst-job-here]. Even then someone would say that it was still done from a position of privilege because you had a place to sleep, animals to hunt, and how dare you say you are self made - you at least had a job unlike many people in this fine country! To me, "self-made" means being able to take the opportunities within the environment that you live in and make the best out of them. Yes, that usually means that you get some opportunities that other people don't get - but equally, there are opportunities that you don't get either. You can be a "self-made" white son of a billionaire. Or a "self-made" immigrant of colour. Alternatively, we can stop using the term "self-made" entirely and pretend that it doesn't exist. That's also a solution.