Responding to your quote: Working in finance, I can report that we do not have magic money machines. You could narrow "finance" to mean professional traders wh

Responding to your quote: Working in finance, I can report that we do not have magic money machines. You could narrow "finance" to mean professional traders who do extensive market research and take large risks, sure, they make a lot of money, but they also get wiped out periodically. They're not very different from other entrepreneurs who make a big investment into their area of expertise and takes big risks, often failing many times along the way. That is pretty much the "self-made" story, and one thing I do see working in finance is that most people are way too risk averse for it. That's not a bad thing in aggregate, the conservative majority's instinct for stability is an important buffer against all the breakage the risk takers cause.