5 ms·

The wealthy parents of "self made" billionaires

34 points by amin 3y ago

hilux 3y ago
[Changing my original comment, since I've been informed that snark is not cool on HN. My mistake.] It's observably true that many high-profile founders and execs, especially in the US, come from well-off families. What's the lesson to draw from this? IMHO even if "my parents never gave ME a cent" is true (as it is for me, btw), how do I help myself by dwelling on that? We could increase taxes to provide better education and social services and increase opportunity for all (a la Finland), but is that a popular sentiment in the tech community?
- reaperman 3y ago
  Please review the HN commenting guidelines. I don't disagree with you, but this isn't appropriate for a HN comment.
- hnaccount141 3y ago
  The myth of the rags-to-riches, by-their-bootstraps entrepreneur is foundational to so much political philosophy in the US. It informs popular opinion on a wide range of public policy. Building a more accurate understanding of the nature of wealth and class mobility allows individuals to make more informed decisions both in their personal lives and at the ballot box.
amin 3y ago
Of course parents who are wealthy, well connected and highly educated are able to give huge advantages to their children, and that’s okay. It also makes things like Y-Combinator even more important, as it gives people with drive access to funding, connections, the right advise etc. I submitted this post because the word “self made” is stretched and overused to the point where people forget important context.
- coldtea 3y ago
  >Of course parents who are wealthy, well connected and highly educated are able to give huge advantages to their children, and that’s okay That's OK? That's quite a controversial statement.
  - tekla 3y ago
    Yes, we should make parents investing in their children illegal. At birth, children will hidden from the eyes of the parents and transferred to the community. The child will be part of the community and the community will provide for all equally. They will be rotated out on a weekly basis amongst couples to be raised and nurtured temporarily, so every child will have the closest possible exact same upbringing. Those who grow tall too fast will have weights put on them, those who show intellectual aptitude will be given booze to slow their development. Then one day a child escapes, runs through the corn fields to freedom, and immediately gets run over by a AI controlled John Deere harvester, for the children are fast, but the harvester is faster.
    - vivekd 3y ago
      I think maybe a reverse interpretation might be more charitable - like it's too bad that there are many people who don't have access to that investment and opportunity due to their birth. Although my take is I disagree with both points - yes maybe connections and status may allow some people to be successful, and extreme poverty can hinder success. But on average I don't know how much that matters. I think someone like geohot could be successful without any network or without anyone's help. He has an attitude that's geared for curiousity and making a contribution
    - coldtea 3y ago
      >Yes, we should make parents investing in their children illegal. Agred, we should make the artificial boosting of prospects for some kids and handicapping of others based on their respective's parent's wealth illegal. >Those who grow tall too fast will have weights put on them, those who show intellectual aptitude will be given booze to slow their development. And those sliding on slippery slopes would have to wear high-friction fabrics to be made to slide slower. Or perhaps natural talents and throwing money to boost some children's life prospects while others are left behind (from no quality or action of their own) are not the same thing. Who would have thought?
RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y ago
> In reality Bezos's mommy and daddy gave him $245,573 to stop Amazon from failing in 1995. Actually, it is not that out of reach that a person who is a professional such as an engineer or a doctor or lawyer to have $250,000 to be able to give to an adult child. And it is possible for a poor person to encourage their children to study and become a doctor or engineer (see for example the Asian immigrant communities). Thus a person who comes to the US poor, could have a billionaire grandchild. And no other country offers this kind of opportunity at scale the way America does which is why so many people from all over the world endeavor to come here.
- TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
  I think the $200k-300k Bezos got was also most of this parent’s life savings. It was their retirement fund they gambled on their son’s company. The rest of the money (excluding his own savings) he got the old fashion way, begging VCs and other investors.
  - CraigRo 3y ago
    I'm pretty sure they invested it, and have fine exceptionally well from it
- icosa 3y ago
  As a reference, $245,573 in 1995 is like $495,962 in 2023.
  - amin 3y ago
    And $245,573 in the S&P 500 in 1995 would be worth over $2.2 million today. This is because asset price inflation has grown at much higher rates that consumer prices (CPI).
- coldtea 3y ago
  >And it is possible for a poor person to encourage their children to study and become a doctor or engineer (see for example the Asian immigrant communities). The Asian immigrant communities benefit from a much more stable environment than other immigrant or domestic communities have (and less systemic racism and exclusion). The same is not the case for the black or latino communities for example. And even if the child of poor immigrant community (Asian or whatever) studies hard to become a doctor or engineer, they'd still have to do it under less opportunities, with less connections, more sacrifices, in worse school districts, with less access to tutors, with more stressful family environment (even less nutricion, more need to move, in more dangerous neighborhoods), etc than the child from a upper middle class or rich family. That's the injustice and lack of meritocracy.
progne 3y ago
To inherit a small fortune and just not lose it is admirable. Yet this person is mocking Bezos for turning a quite small fortune into one of the largest on the planet. As if it doesn't count if he didn't start from scratch. Privilege does not erase accomplishment.
- JohnFen 3y ago
  > Privilege does not erase accomplishment. It doesn't, that's true, but it does make it less impressive.
  - caminante 3y ago
    I don't know. If you gave me 1 million, I'm going to bet against myself creating a trillion dollar company. If you gave a bunch of smart people 1 million, I'd bet against 99.9% of them replicating Bezos' success. Pre-family investment, Bezos was already a super investor at a HF.
    - JohnFen 3y ago
      All else being equal, doing it with less assistance is more impressive than doing it with more assistance.
      - caminante 3y ago
        "More impressive" Sure, technically, but you know that's vague and dismissive of Bezos' outperformance. My point stands that there are plenty of other people out there that get similar wealth boosts and can't replicate Bezos.
- amin 3y ago
  >“this person is mocking Bezos for turning a quite small fortune into one of the largest on the planet” No, he didn’t do that all. He’s just providing context about the early beginnings of Amazon that allowed Bezos to built this. Bezos deserves credit for what he built but let’s not act as if he came from the gutter.
vivekd 3y ago
Maybe there are other factors besides just money. Like the fact that wealthy parents can afford invest more time into their kids, they have less financial stress so can focus more on parenting. Also having a successful person literally raise you from birth would probably contain a lot of lessons about sucess I think assertions like this miss alot because they automatically assume the wealthy parents helped them financially. It seems to feel of sort of idolizing of money, thinking money can solve most problems and achieve a great many things. I think that's a popular but flawed belief. As someone who started a moderately successful business in the past, I don't think just having money to pour into a startup is as important or as deciding a factor as people think
- kderbyma 3y ago
  'billionaire'... idolizing money? nah...
- codegrappler 3y ago
  I would argue that “investing in your kids” is a middle class point of view. If you’re upper middle class or upper class you have nannies and au pairs helping you raise your children. Your relationship with your children has much more of an air of convenience than a middle class family.
meowtimemania 3y ago
I feel like the tweet author is of the belief that there is no such thing as extraordinary ability, only extraordinary privilege, and that nothing can be done to change one's lot in life. Miguel Bezos (Jeff Bezos's father) was a refugee from Cuba. Miguel came to the USA empty handed, got a scholarship to university, worked at Exxon for 32 years, invested in his son's (jeff bezos's) startup and became a billionaire because of that investment.
- smrtinsert 3y ago
  > nothing can be done to change one's lot in life He said nothing of the sort, just that 245k sure helps when you're starting a business. Maybe his dad should have let him fail so he could have thought up a self-sustaining business from the get go.
  - meowtimemania 3y ago
    Of course it helps. I just think it's overly reductive to reduce something extraordinary to a single investment. Many businesses receive much more investment and fail.
- kderbyma 3y ago
  ........i looked into that...he was sponsored by the military to get from Cuba....they essentially earmarked him in a special covert op.
goneFshn 3y ago
[dead]

34 points by amin 3y ago

[Changing my original comment, since I've been informed that snark is not cool on HN. My mistake.] It's observably true that many high-profile founders and execs, especially in the US, come from well-off families. What's the lesson to draw from this? IMHO even if "my parents never gave ME a cent" is true (as it is for me, btw), how do I help myself by dwelling on that? We could increase taxes to provide better education and social services and increase opportunity for all (a la Finland), but is that a popular sentiment in the tech community?

reaperman 3y ago
Please review the HN commenting guidelines. I don't disagree with you, but this isn't appropriate for a HN comment.
hnaccount141 3y ago
The myth of the rags-to-riches, by-their-bootstraps entrepreneur is foundational to so much political philosophy in the US. It informs popular opinion on a wide range of public policy. Building a more accurate understanding of the nature of wealth and class mobility allows individuals to make more informed decisions both in their personal lives and at the ballot box.

amin 3y ago

Of course parents who are wealthy, well connected and highly educated are able to give huge advantages to their children, and that’s okay. It also makes things like Y-Combinator even more important, as it gives people with drive access to funding, connections, the right advise etc. I submitted this post because the word “self made” is stretched and overused to the point where people forget important context.

coldtea 3y ago
>Of course parents who are wealthy, well connected and highly educated are able to give huge advantages to their children, and that’s okay That's OK? That's quite a controversial statement.
- tekla 3y ago
  Yes, we should make parents investing in their children illegal. At birth, children will hidden from the eyes of the parents and transferred to the community. The child will be part of the community and the community will provide for all equally. They will be rotated out on a weekly basis amongst couples to be raised and nurtured temporarily, so every child will have the closest possible exact same upbringing. Those who grow tall too fast will have weights put on them, those who show intellectual aptitude will be given booze to slow their development. Then one day a child escapes, runs through the corn fields to freedom, and immediately gets run over by a AI controlled John Deere harvester, for the children are fast, but the harvester is faster.
  - vivekd 3y ago
    I think maybe a reverse interpretation might be more charitable - like it's too bad that there are many people who don't have access to that investment and opportunity due to their birth. Although my take is I disagree with both points - yes maybe connections and status may allow some people to be successful, and extreme poverty can hinder success. But on average I don't know how much that matters. I think someone like geohot could be successful without any network or without anyone's help. He has an attitude that's geared for curiousity and making a contribution
  - coldtea 3y ago
    >Yes, we should make parents investing in their children illegal. Agred, we should make the artificial boosting of prospects for some kids and handicapping of others based on their respective's parent's wealth illegal. >Those who grow tall too fast will have weights put on them, those who show intellectual aptitude will be given booze to slow their development. And those sliding on slippery slopes would have to wear high-friction fabrics to be made to slide slower. Or perhaps natural talents and throwing money to boost some children's life prospects while others are left behind (from no quality or action of their own) are not the same thing. Who would have thought?

RcouF1uZ4gsC 3y ago

> In reality Bezos's mommy and daddy gave him $245,573 to stop Amazon from failing in 1995. Actually, it is not that out of reach that a person who is a professional such as an engineer or a doctor or lawyer to have $250,000 to be able to give to an adult child. And it is possible for a poor person to encourage their children to study and become a doctor or engineer (see for example the Asian immigrant communities). Thus a person who comes to the US poor, could have a billionaire grandchild. And no other country offers this kind of opportunity at scale the way America does which is why so many people from all over the world endeavor to come here.

TerrifiedMouse 3y ago
I think the $200k-300k Bezos got was also most of this parent’s life savings. It was their retirement fund they gambled on their son’s company. The rest of the money (excluding his own savings) he got the old fashion way, begging VCs and other investors.
- CraigRo 3y ago
  I'm pretty sure they invested it, and have fine exceptionally well from it
icosa 3y ago
As a reference, $245,573 in 1995 is like $495,962 in 2023.
- amin 3y ago
  And $245,573 in the S&P 500 in 1995 would be worth over $2.2 million today. This is because asset price inflation has grown at much higher rates that consumer prices (CPI).
coldtea 3y ago
>And it is possible for a poor person to encourage their children to study and become a doctor or engineer (see for example the Asian immigrant communities). The Asian immigrant communities benefit from a much more stable environment than other immigrant or domestic communities have (and less systemic racism and exclusion). The same is not the case for the black or latino communities for example. And even if the child of poor immigrant community (Asian or whatever) studies hard to become a doctor or engineer, they'd still have to do it under less opportunities, with less connections, more sacrifices, in worse school districts, with less access to tutors, with more stressful family environment (even less nutricion, more need to move, in more dangerous neighborhoods), etc than the child from a upper middle class or rich family. That's the injustice and lack of meritocracy.

progne 3y ago

To inherit a small fortune and just not lose it is admirable. Yet this person is mocking Bezos for turning a quite small fortune into one of the largest on the planet. As if it doesn't count if he didn't start from scratch. Privilege does not erase accomplishment.

JohnFen 3y ago
> Privilege does not erase accomplishment. It doesn't, that's true, but it does make it less impressive.
- caminante 3y ago
  I don't know. If you gave me 1 million, I'm going to bet against myself creating a trillion dollar company. If you gave a bunch of smart people 1 million, I'd bet against 99.9% of them replicating Bezos' success. Pre-family investment, Bezos was already a super investor at a HF.
  - JohnFen 3y ago
    All else being equal, doing it with less assistance is more impressive than doing it with more assistance.
    - caminante 3y ago
      "More impressive" Sure, technically, but you know that's vague and dismissive of Bezos' outperformance. My point stands that there are plenty of other people out there that get similar wealth boosts and can't replicate Bezos.
amin 3y ago
>“this person is mocking Bezos for turning a quite small fortune into one of the largest on the planet” No, he didn’t do that all. He’s just providing context about the early beginnings of Amazon that allowed Bezos to built this. Bezos deserves credit for what he built but let’s not act as if he came from the gutter.

vivekd 3y ago

Maybe there are other factors besides just money. Like the fact that wealthy parents can afford invest more time into their kids, they have less financial stress so can focus more on parenting. Also having a successful person literally raise you from birth would probably contain a lot of lessons about sucess I think assertions like this miss alot because they automatically assume the wealthy parents helped them financially. It seems to feel of sort of idolizing of money, thinking money can solve most problems and achieve a great many things. I think that's a popular but flawed belief. As someone who started a moderately successful business in the past, I don't think just having money to pour into a startup is as important or as deciding a factor as people think

kderbyma 3y ago
'billionaire'... idolizing money? nah...
codegrappler 3y ago
I would argue that “investing in your kids” is a middle class point of view. If you’re upper middle class or upper class you have nannies and au pairs helping you raise your children. Your relationship with your children has much more of an air of convenience than a middle class family.

meowtimemania 3y ago

I feel like the tweet author is of the belief that there is no such thing as extraordinary ability, only extraordinary privilege, and that nothing can be done to change one's lot in life. Miguel Bezos (Jeff Bezos's father) was a refugee from Cuba. Miguel came to the USA empty handed, got a scholarship to university, worked at Exxon for 32 years, invested in his son's (jeff bezos's) startup and became a billionaire because of that investment.

smrtinsert 3y ago
> nothing can be done to change one's lot in life He said nothing of the sort, just that 245k sure helps when you're starting a business. Maybe his dad should have let him fail so he could have thought up a self-sustaining business from the get go.
- meowtimemania 3y ago
  Of course it helps. I just think it's overly reductive to reduce something extraordinary to a single investment. Many businesses receive much more investment and fail.
kderbyma 3y ago
........i looked into that...he was sponsored by the military to get from Cuba....they essentially earmarked him in a special covert op.

goneFshn 3y ago

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