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Anything's possible. However, in the world we live in, it's more likely than not that someone with money earned it themselves.

ceejayoz 7y ago
Tech's been shifting the balance, but there's still a very substantial portion of the folks with this sort of throwaway money who're sitting on family fortunes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-are-more-self-made-billionaires-in-the-forbes-400-than-ever-before/#3db2fb283369 https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-... > In 2004, we had 59% of the Forbes 400 having made their own fortune, as opposed to 41% who inherited it. But, again, at the extremes we still saw a full one-tenth of the list, or 40 of them, having fully inherited their fortunes and not working to grow it, and only 4.75% of them, or 19, as totally self-made, having battled adversity to reach the top. > Thus, the most encouraging results come from this year’s Forbes 400. For the first time in our data set, we see the number of self-made billionaires who rose from nothing, and overcame various tough obstacles, outpacing those that just sat on their fortunes. A total of 34 billionaires, or 8.5%, scored as 10s, or more than three times as many as in 1984. The number of 100% inherited fortunes as a percentage of the total fell to 7%, with 28 billionaires in the 1 category, compared to 99 back in 1984. There's a higher chance these days someone spending millions on a car is some sort of "job creator", but it's by no means guaranteed. The supercar set may lean more towards Saudi oil wealth sort of folks, as well.
- iancmceachern 7y ago
  This is exactly my point. The great job and wealth creator's (a la Warren Buffet, Gates, etc.) just aren't interested in things like this. The latter in your comments above are the folks buying things like this. There is no real meaningful difference between this and say a Range Rover. We can't, and shouldn't presume to tell other people how to spend their money, but we can talk together as a society to discuss our common priorities and values. That's my point, our priorities as a society seem to be shifting.

ceejayoz 7y ago

Tech's been shifting the balance, but there's still a very substantial portion of the folks with this sort of throwaway money who're sitting on family fortunes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-are-more-self-made-billionaires-in-the-forbes-400-than-ever-before/#3db2fb283369 https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-... > In 2004, we had 59% of the Forbes 400 having made their own fortune, as opposed to 41% who inherited it. But, again, at the extremes we still saw a full one-tenth of the list, or 40 of them, having fully inherited their fortunes and not working to grow it, and only 4.75% of them, or 19, as totally self-made, having battled adversity to reach the top. > Thus, the most encouraging results come from this year’s Forbes 400. For the first time in our data set, we see the number of self-made billionaires who rose from nothing, and overcame various tough obstacles, outpacing those that just sat on their fortunes. A total of 34 billionaires, or 8.5%, scored as 10s, or more than three times as many as in 1984. The number of 100% inherited fortunes as a percentage of the total fell to 7%, with 28 billionaires in the 1 category, compared to 99 back in 1984. There's a higher chance these days someone spending millions on a car is some sort of "job creator", but it's by no means guaranteed. The supercar set may lean more towards Saudi oil wealth sort of folks, as well.

iancmceachern 7y ago
This is exactly my point. The great job and wealth creator's (a la Warren Buffet, Gates, etc.) just aren't interested in things like this. The latter in your comments above are the folks buying things like this. There is no real meaningful difference between this and say a Range Rover. We can't, and shouldn't presume to tell other people how to spend their money, but we can talk together as a society to discuss our common priorities and values. That's my point, our priorities as a society seem to be shifting.