Also usually the richer you get, the richer your social circle gets. I remember reading once that almost nobody on facebook has more friends than any of their f

Also usually the richer you get, the richer your social circle gets. I remember reading once that almost nobody on facebook has more friends than any of their friends (meaning, each user on facebook with n friends has at least one friend with >n friends). The same is almost certainly true for wealth, or income. A mid-career software engineer at FAANG might have a greater income than every single person they grew up with. But they probably know middle managers making even more, as well as ex-colleagues who hit it big with a startup. Those middle managers know many people making more than them, all the way up the food chain. Those colleagues at the startups probably know people who had more equity, VCs, etc. with even more money. And this continues on and on.