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> In the 2013 list, approximately 40 percent of Sweden’s billionaires are self-made while 60 percent inherited their wealth. In the United States, by contrast,

> In the 2013 list, approximately 40 percent of Sweden’s billionaires are self-made while 60 percent inherited their wealth. In the United States, by contrast, 70 percent of billionaires are self-made while around 30 percent inherited their wealth. Once we exclude inherited wealth, the United States has around 1 self-made billionaire per million inhabitants compared to 0.6 for Sweden. https://www.nationalreview.com/the-agenda/guest-post-tino-sanandaji-swedish-billionaires-reihan-salam/ https://www.nationalreview.com/the-agenda/guest-post-tino-sa...

whimsicalism 5y ago
50% of all wealth in the United States is inherited by the top 5% wealthiest families. 60% of all wealth in the United States is inherited.
- mannerheim 5y ago
  Not particularly relevant. A significant chunk of that inherited wealth comes in the form of housing. The US has a total wealth of $105t, $36.2t of that is housing, which then ends up getting inherited by homeowners' children. We're talking about how billionaires make their wealth as a proxy for entrepreneurship. It makes no sense to talk about how many billionaires Sweden has as a measure for their entrepreneurship if most of them inherited their wealth.
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    > > 50% of all wealth in the United States is inherited by the top 5% wealthiest families. > Not particularly relevant. A significant chunk of that inherited wealth comes in the form of housing. The US has a total wealth of $105t, $36.2t of that is housing, which then ends up getting inherited by homeowners' children. Feels utterly relevant; what's irrelevant is your fact that much of US wealth is bound up in housing: The top 5% wealthiest families are hardly likely to live in 50% of all housing.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  Gates/Allen/Bezos/Jobs/Ellison/Google/Netflix/etc did not inherit their wealth.
  - whimsicalism 5y ago
    Of the top 15, 5 inherited. You are right that billionaires are less likely to have inherited wealth.
    - goodpoint 5y ago
      ...but they are still extremely likely to come from families with very strong political connections. Wealth is the byproduct.

whimsicalism 5y ago

50% of all wealth in the United States is inherited by the top 5% wealthiest families. 60% of all wealth in the United States is inherited.

mannerheim 5y ago
Not particularly relevant. A significant chunk of that inherited wealth comes in the form of housing. The US has a total wealth of $105t, $36.2t of that is housing, which then ends up getting inherited by homeowners' children. We're talking about how billionaires make their wealth as a proxy for entrepreneurship. It makes no sense to talk about how many billionaires Sweden has as a measure for their entrepreneurship if most of them inherited their wealth.
- CRConrad 5y ago
  > > 50% of all wealth in the United States is inherited by the top 5% wealthiest families. > Not particularly relevant. A significant chunk of that inherited wealth comes in the form of housing. The US has a total wealth of $105t, $36.2t of that is housing, which then ends up getting inherited by homeowners' children. Feels utterly relevant; what's irrelevant is your fact that much of US wealth is bound up in housing: The top 5% wealthiest families are hardly likely to live in 50% of all housing.
WalterBright 5y ago
Gates/Allen/Bezos/Jobs/Ellison/Google/Netflix/etc did not inherit their wealth.
- whimsicalism 5y ago
  Of the top 15, 5 inherited. You are right that billionaires are less likely to have inherited wealth.
  - goodpoint 5y ago
    ...but they are still extremely likely to come from families with very strong political connections. Wealth is the byproduct.