Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates. Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire is a Father with Money
Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates. Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire is a Father with Money
In gates' case it was a father with enough money he could attend one of the few schools that he could have access to a computer and a program to learn IT. While ALSO having an investment banker uncle who was willing to invest millions into his company early on.
“I built this company by myself, from the ground up, my own blood sweat and tears, no help from anyone, and a $20 million dollar gift from my daddy”
Donald Trump's famous "very small loan" he got from his father...
If only any of them even got a million.
I mean $200000 vs $20000000, not a big difference.
How much did you get from your dad? I know my dad has nothing to give me, mainly because of those guys that were able to get a hand out pulling the ladder up behind them.
In this country even being sent to college is a privilege, you are either gifted it from your parents or you are an indentured servant for your student loans/tuition. A handout from your parents is a handout from your parents, no matter the amount.
It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone needs help every now and then. Just don’t label yourself “selfmade” when you are not.
Not an economist, but a lousy CS grad, so my rambling may be incorrect. But honestly, I have no words for your genius. More specifically, the lack of it.
- you ignored inflation around the 1970s
- you did not take into account the cost of living
- you also conveniently ignored the lifestyle choices
Inflation has caused the cumulative price increase of 488.65% in the US from 1975 to 2023-almost-2024. $200,000 in 1975 is around $1,177,295.17 in today's time.
$20 million is just an exaggeration for the light-hearted joke @[email protected] made, it's not that deep.
Source: Inflation calculator
I have long said that if we look at typical success stories somewhat soberly, it is always a combination of luck and privilege. Hard work and talent can be very helpful, but they are in no way a prerequisite for success.
To illustrate: Whenever someone says "taking risks must be rewarded", it is always worth pointing out that you don't get rewarded for taking risks, but for getting lucky while taking a risk. Also, you have to be in a position to take a risk in the first place (i.e. have time, resources, and the means to not starve if it goes belly up); in other words, some degree of privilege.
Yep. I have no doubt that Gates and Bezos and Zuckerberg are genuinely very smart and hard-working people, but there are a LOT of smart and hard-working people with poor parents, and you don't see a lot of billionaires in that group.
I know a lot of talented hardworking homeless people. Many of them work harder than I do and I make 6 figures. We're not in a meritocracy, we're all one misstep or accident away from being disabled and on the streets regardless of skill or work ethic.
It's worth remembering that once you get to the street, you now live in a combat zone that will cause PTSD along with a host of other psychological issues.
Housing first initiatives are the cheapest option we have. Once society stops creating new psychological disorders in their homeless population, then the formerly homeless can move out of survival mode, and actually address their many other problems*.
*Provided of course that one can actually afford to thrive on a single income regardless of the job one takes.
A lot of people also seem to ignore the fact that the risks are not the same for everybody.
E.g. four people get the same business opportunity. For person A, failure means they have to ask their parents to bail them out. For person B, they have to move in with their parents. For person C, they have to move their family into a tent under the bridge. And for person D, they have to ration their medication and risk dying.
Person A could probably try things out a few times without suffering too much other than embarrassment. Person B, maybe a couple times, but that's pushing it. The others have to pretty damn sure it'll pay off, and even then, the risk might be too much.
Ideally, taking business risks should be rewarded as much as possible. That keeps an economy dynamic, flexible, and responsive to new opportunities. Otherwise you get an economy dominated by big brittle players that are content to sit back and milk cash cows. Oracle comes to mind, with its army of lawyers eager to shake down institutions that may not have quite the correct license for a server.
This is where bankruptcy for businesses is incredibly important. People should be able to start a business based on an idea, try to grow it, and not suffer personal ruin if the business fails. A good social safety net is beneficial as well to make sure that after a business folds, its former owners still have the bear necessities of life. Likewise, there needs to be a strong inheritance tax so the wealthy have their wealth significantly diluted.
None of this will make things equal between the children of the upper class and lower class, obviously. It just makes social mobility a little easier and benefits the economy as a whole.
That is the opposite of risk. A risk is something you do with a poor chance of success, possibly with a good reward if successful. What you're describing is a guarantee. Now look at the returns on guaranteed interest certificates and the high-risk stocks. Sure, some of the high-risk stocks outperform the guaranteed certificates, but many also end up being worth nothing.
born on third base
Was just complaining about this to my therapist. Boomers, in general, were born on third base. Raging economy, low-priced homes, cheap college, think they pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. "Kids today…" Fuck you. Your situation only existed because Europe was destroyed by war and America was untouched.
I don't know.
When I started Reynholm Industries, I had just two things in my possession: a dream and six million pounds. Today I have a business empire the like of which the world has never seen the like of which. I hope it doesn't sound arrogant when I say that I am the greatest man in the world!
For the uninitiated - IT Crowd
Yes Security? Everyone on floor 5 is fired.
GET A BIKE
"If you don't want to be poor, why weren't you just born into a rich family? I have no respect for your bad choices pre life!"
"Because you are poor you are unworthy*. Because you are unworthy you don't deserve support."
( * replace by favorite slur)
And because they don't get any support, people remain poor, thereby closing the circular reasoning.
Is there any doubt about that? This is no news, even for people with a big house, cars …
You have the same income image for both links.
The median cost for a one bedroom apartment in the US is NOT $5,000 a month. First result on my search has $3190 for New York, but most of the listed cities are around $1,500 a month which is $18,000 a year.
Lololol these guys are all from upper middle class. And on the low side of that. Y'all just want to be pissed.
Non-trolls will note this person's comment history and if you notice, you'll see them propping up rich Republicans all over lemmy. It's interesting that they stay here given that everyone downvotes them to hell and just generally disagrees with everything they believe, apparently.
Upper middle class middle class with families and connections who had spare money to invest and just far enough along that they had the kids were raised with the drive to gather even more wealth. If they had been more wealthy they wouldn't have the drive, if they were less well off then they wouldn't have the advantages to make that drive happen.
"With money" doesn't mean all the money. It means plenty of money. Gates loves to tell the story about how he started his company in his father's garage. That was a three car garage because they could afford a large house with a lot of extra space Bill could use for free while starting his business.
The parents could afford to send them to prestigious schools where they made connections.
The parents had money. Recognizing this is not jealousy, it is a reason to acknowledge that massive wealth does not come from effort alone.
Mmmmmmm tasty tasty boot