You don't have to inherit billions from your parents to have a huge leg up on everyone else. There are examples all over the place from something as extravagant 'a small loan of a million dollars' to 'an introduction to a vp at ibm', to paying their kids tuition to the best private schools. I am extremely suspicious of any wealthy person who claims to be 'self made' when in reality they had a paved path to success.
Are we calling them "self-made" now for strapping some http requests to old, purposefully gate-kept banking systems? Or is it the ones that we allowed to horizontally expand with zero regulatory system to stop them? Or is it the ones who ruined housing the world over? So many useful people.
> ~80% of current billionaires in the U.S. are self-made first generation.
I see conflicting evidence to the claim[0,1,2]
I'd argue that you also got to be really careful with these studies. Defining "self-made" is not a straight forward issue. In some sense, no person is self made as we're all products of our environments and the opportunities presented to us. If it were consistent you wouldn't see these numbers swing between studies, so don't just pick the highest one. Metrics are deceptive because their subtleties and you need to carefully consider their alignment.
>> Defining "self-made" is not a straight forward issue
Forbes has an interesting (to me at least) self-made score that assigns ten categories from "Inherited fortune but not working to increase it" to "Self-made who not only grew up poor but also overcame significant obstacles", https://www.forbes.com/sites/gigizamora/2023/10/03/the-2023-....
The article is saying that the inherited wealth of the remaining 20% of today's billionaires is greater than the wealth of those new-made billionaires, there's no contradiction there at all. And obviously you'd expect most new billionaires to have a net wealth close to the $1bn mark, so all it would take is each of the 20% to inherit four times as much on average.
This page lists nine people who inherited over $50bn each, and another 23 who inherited between $4bn and $50bn, totalling just over $1.1tn of inherited wealth. Easy to see how that would outweigh the wealth of a larger number of new billionaires.
And another large chunk are first generation inherited. Like self made mom or dad just kicked the bucket. This myth of multi-generational, dynastic absurd wealth is.... nonsense with few exceptions.
wing-_-nuts|2 years ago
futureamish|2 years ago
godelski|2 years ago
I see conflicting evidence to the claim[0,1,2]
I'd argue that you also got to be really careful with these studies. Defining "self-made" is not a straight forward issue. In some sense, no person is self made as we're all products of our environments and the opportunities presented to us. If it were consistent you wouldn't see these numbers swing between studies, so don't just pick the highest one. Metrics are deceptive because their subtleties and you need to carefully consider their alignment.
[0] https://finance.yahoo.com/news/79-millionaires-self-made-les...
[1] https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2871-how-most-millionaires...
[2] https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/personal-finance/articles/st...
rufus_foreman|2 years ago
Forbes has an interesting (to me at least) self-made score that assigns ten categories from "Inherited fortune but not working to increase it" to "Self-made who not only grew up poor but also overcame significant obstacles", https://www.forbes.com/sites/gigizamora/2023/10/03/the-2023-....
spiralx|2 years ago
This page lists nine people who inherited over $50bn each, and another 23 who inherited between $4bn and $50bn, totalling just over $1.1tn of inherited wealth. Easy to see how that would outweigh the wealth of a larger number of new billionaires.
https://www.madisontrust.com/information-center/visualizatio...
And that list doesn't include any of the inherited wealth of the various royal, noble and other old money families around the world...
danielmarkbruce|2 years ago
tmalsburg2|2 years ago