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I think it depends where you set the limit between “self made” and “inherited”. I don’t think it’s black or white Would Gates have made it if Mum wasn’t on the

I think it depends where you set the limit between “self made” and “inherited”. I don’t think it’s black or white Would Gates have made it if Mum wasn’t on the board of IBM? Would Bezos have made it without 200k from mum&dad ?

importantbrian 3y ago
The real problem with those lists is that they only include people whose wealth is known and can be reasonably valued based on public sources. It's often not easy to trace the net worth of old-money families. It also means you won't find people from countries with very low transparency or dictators on the list. For example, you won't find Putin or any of the Saudi royals on the Forbes list even though they are among the wealthiest people in the world. Perhaps even competing for #1 depending on what estimate of their wealth you find to be the most reliable. It's impossible to draw any firm conclusions from those lists because they aren't representative samples of wealthy people. They're a sample of wealthy people with public assets, and of course that's going to skew heavily towards people who founded large publically traded companies who live in countries with high degrees of financial transparency.
- secstate 3y ago
  Which makes one feel even shittier when you realize that even with that skewing, the list STILL contains a lot of inherited-wealth or comfortable-highly-educated-wealth people.
Aunche 3y ago
> Would Bezos have made it without 200k from mum&dad ? Bezos was already the youngest Senior Vice President at DE Shaw before he started Amazon, so he wouldn't have any problem finding other investors. His mom had Bezos as a teenager, and his adoptive dad was a young Cuban refugee. His grandfather was rich though.
YetAnotherNick 3y ago
I would consider someone who has made >1000x what they were given as self made without any doubt. Yes $200k or being in IBM's board or being US citizen or being able to afford Stanford is not a small thing for many, but saying that those were the biggest determining factor in making them richest is just being cynic on their progress.
petesergeant 3y ago
> I think it depends where you set the limit between “self made” and “inherited”. I don’t think it’s black or white That’s a fair point to make in the abstract, but it’s absolutely, breath-takingly extraordinary to turn moderately well-off parents into a top-twenty global wealth position. I went to high school and university with many people considerably more privileged than either of those, and the challenge is generally in not mismanaging the assets too poorly so there’s enough to pass on to the next generation.

importantbrian 3y ago

The real problem with those lists is that they only include people whose wealth is known and can be reasonably valued based on public sources. It's often not easy to trace the net worth of old-money families. It also means you won't find people from countries with very low transparency or dictators on the list. For example, you won't find Putin or any of the Saudi royals on the Forbes list even though they are among the wealthiest people in the world. Perhaps even competing for #1 depending on what estimate of their wealth you find to be the most reliable. It's impossible to draw any firm conclusions from those lists because they aren't representative samples of wealthy people. They're a sample of wealthy people with public assets, and of course that's going to skew heavily towards people who founded large publically traded companies who live in countries with high degrees of financial transparency.

secstate 3y ago
Which makes one feel even shittier when you realize that even with that skewing, the list STILL contains a lot of inherited-wealth or comfortable-highly-educated-wealth people.

Aunche 3y ago

> Would Bezos have made it without 200k from mum&dad ? Bezos was already the youngest Senior Vice President at DE Shaw before he started Amazon, so he wouldn't have any problem finding other investors. His mom had Bezos as a teenager, and his adoptive dad was a young Cuban refugee. His grandfather was rich though.

YetAnotherNick 3y ago

I would consider someone who has made >1000x what they were given as self made without any doubt. Yes $200k or being in IBM's board or being US citizen or being able to afford Stanford is not a small thing for many, but saying that those were the biggest determining factor in making them richest is just being cynic on their progress.

petesergeant 3y ago

> I think it depends where you set the limit between “self made” and “inherited”. I don’t think it’s black or white That’s a fair point to make in the abstract, but it’s absolutely, breath-takingly extraordinary to turn moderately well-off parents into a top-twenty global wealth position. I went to high school and university with many people considerably more privileged than either of those, and the challenge is generally in not mismanaging the assets too poorly so there’s enough to pass on to the next generation.