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> Behind Every Self-Made Millionaire Is a Father with Money Dumb headline, obviously wrong. It may be true for those billionaires but there are many milliona

> Behind Every Self-Made Millionaire Is a Father with Money Dumb headline, obviously wrong. It may be true for those billionaires but there are many millionaires for which this isn't true. I know single-digit millionaires who ran away from home as teenagers and never had anything to do with their parents again.

czechdeveloper 3y ago
You know what is difference between a million and a billion? Approximately a billion.
- brigadier132 3y ago
  So given that, these million dollar loans they received from family to start their businesses really don't amount to much. And Bezos only got $240k.
  - KPGv2 3y ago
    Only 240K. The big thing here isn't that they get loans. It's that they can keep taking risks, knowing they'll be OK if they fail. I can't remember the exact quote, but essentially middle class people have one big shot they can afford to fail at. The children of the wealthy can keep taking them.
    - Thorrez 3y ago
      So basically, poor to billionaire is impossible in 1 generation, but poor to billionaire is possible in 2 generations.
  - whatscooking 3y ago
    Smh, that’s like half a million in todays money for free from his parents…
  - czechdeveloper 3y ago
    To be honest, I do care way more about how horrible work conditions they provide in their companies. Especially to the more vulnerable and low paying positions.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  Yes, there's a huge difference between a billion and a million. That's why the headline talking about billionaires as millionaires is dumb.
- beardyw 3y ago
  Ah, I remember when a billion really was a billion. These paltry thousand millions are chicken feed. "Previously in British English (but not in American English), the word "billion" referred exclusively to a million millions (1,000,000,000,000). However, this is not common anymore, and the word has been used to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000) for several decades." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,000,000,000 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,000,000,000
  - pepa65 3y ago
    billion = million x million [bi] trillion = million x million x million [tri] This is still the case in Dutch for instance, where 1e9 is a "miljard".
1letterunixname 3y ago
It should be apparent that the movement of balance sheets (in the form of income sheets) can be modeled approximately by (discrete and/or discontinuous) partial differential equations. The fundamental principle is rate of change of the balance sheet is relatively proportional to the amount present. Qualitatively, "It takes money to make money." Thus, a homeless person getting from $0 to $1M cannot be had without some range of help of others and a person growing at roughly $100M to $101M shouldn't be as difficult per se. Corollary: If you can count your money, then you're not rich. (Liquid net worth is always an educated guess, varies by kinds of assets and debts, liquidation timeframe, and varies by the day.)
rewmie 3y ago
> It may be true for those billionaires but there are many millionaires for which this isn't true. The term "with money" is subjective and open to interpretation, but I don't think that it means "middle-class" either. Due to inflation, the term "millionaire" today does not convey the same meaning that it did a few years ago. Middle class families with high 5-/low six-digit incomes can aspire to become millionaires by passively saving their salary. This is definitely what "millionaire" means.
- mcpackieh 3y ago
  I agree, but the article was written in 2023 when middle class families can reasonably aspire to become millionaires, so making the headline talking about millionaires being impossibly privileged just seems inexcusably lazy and dishonest to me.

czechdeveloper 3y ago

You know what is difference between a million and a billion? Approximately a billion.

brigadier132 3y ago
So given that, these million dollar loans they received from family to start their businesses really don't amount to much. And Bezos only got $240k.
- KPGv2 3y ago
  Only 240K. The big thing here isn't that they get loans. It's that they can keep taking risks, knowing they'll be OK if they fail. I can't remember the exact quote, but essentially middle class people have one big shot they can afford to fail at. The children of the wealthy can keep taking them.
  - Thorrez 3y ago
    So basically, poor to billionaire is impossible in 1 generation, but poor to billionaire is possible in 2 generations.
- whatscooking 3y ago
  Smh, that’s like half a million in todays money for free from his parents…
- czechdeveloper 3y ago
  To be honest, I do care way more about how horrible work conditions they provide in their companies. Especially to the more vulnerable and low paying positions.
mcpackieh 3y ago
Yes, there's a huge difference between a billion and a million. That's why the headline talking about billionaires as millionaires is dumb.
beardyw 3y ago
Ah, I remember when a billion really was a billion. These paltry thousand millions are chicken feed. "Previously in British English (but not in American English), the word "billion" referred exclusively to a million millions (1,000,000,000,000). However, this is not common anymore, and the word has been used to mean one thousand million (1,000,000,000) for several decades." https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,000,000,000 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1,000,000,000
- pepa65 3y ago
  billion = million x million [bi] trillion = million x million x million [tri] This is still the case in Dutch for instance, where 1e9 is a "miljard".

1letterunixname 3y ago

It should be apparent that the movement of balance sheets (in the form of income sheets) can be modeled approximately by (discrete and/or discontinuous) partial differential equations. The fundamental principle is rate of change of the balance sheet is relatively proportional to the amount present. Qualitatively, "It takes money to make money." Thus, a homeless person getting from $0 to $1M cannot be had without some range of help of others and a person growing at roughly $100M to $101M shouldn't be as difficult per se. Corollary: If you can count your money, then you're not rich. (Liquid net worth is always an educated guess, varies by kinds of assets and debts, liquidation timeframe, and varies by the day.)

rewmie 3y ago

> It may be true for those billionaires but there are many millionaires for which this isn't true. The term "with money" is subjective and open to interpretation, but I don't think that it means "middle-class" either. Due to inflation, the term "millionaire" today does not convey the same meaning that it did a few years ago. Middle class families with high 5-/low six-digit incomes can aspire to become millionaires by passively saving their salary. This is definitely what "millionaire" means.

mcpackieh 3y ago
I agree, but the article was written in 2023 when middle class families can reasonably aspire to become millionaires, so making the headline talking about millionaires being impossibly privileged just seems inexcusably lazy and dishonest to me.