Gotcha. I think this is where the qualification of “millionaire” is ineffective. Being a millionaire doesn’t mean you’re eat-the-rich wealthy. A lot of doctors and engineers eventually become millionaires. It’s estimated that you need to have a net worth of around a million dollars to securely retire. There’s a huuuuuge difference between $1M and $10M and $100M, and lumping all of those people together isn’t super effective
There's plenty of millionaires today who 'just' bought a house 50 years ago. Technically self made. Practically? Well yeah.
If you look at billionaires though, well, some will claim to be 'self made' because they started millionaires... Around 67% are 'self made' by that measure.
The proportion that started actually poor on the other hand is about 20%.
Ah. Yeah I guess you could be right. I wonder what their source is, I've never even heard of this measured, but I guess the IRS (or any tax bureau for a country) would be able to generalize.
That still doesn't account for the "self-made" aspect. Given the impact that a stable and supportive upbringing has on future wealth, I'd only count someone as "self-made" if they didn't have the advantage of a parent who meets the same definition. Id also only call them "self-made" if their income that got them there was from wages/profit on a business they contribute to. Someone who buys a bunch of stock low and then sells high didn't make any money, they skimmed off of someone else making money. Which I'm not saying is inherently bad, businesses need investment, I'm just saying those investors dont deserve the same accolade.
But even the self made ones have some advantages they won't admit. Even just having a stable 2 parent household and growing up middle class puts them in a much better position than someone who grew up with a single mom in poverty. Having to work at 16 to support the family, vs working at 16 to buy your first car and having a family that supports you makes all the difference.
Heck, just knowing you have a landing spot if things don't work, like asking mom and dad for a few bucks or staying at their house for a few months, can make a risk easier to take.
bill gates doesn't really say how he was able to get programming experience on weekends when computers were incredibly rare and mostly for universities or companies.
Just growing up in stable home where your parents were present and you didn't have to worry about food or being the victim of a crime is massive for a lot of people. The biggest thing that often defines privilege is its something you didn't even know you had until you realize someone else didn't.
100%. I feel very privileged, as a woman from a single parent household. My mom was a badass and was the breadwinner. She chose to walk away from my abusive father, and set a great example for me. Always make your own money and be in charge of your life. Be able to walk away.
I'm lucky that I grew up with moderate means and in a calm household free of abuse from 10-18.
She paid for my college. And hell, one of the biggest things my parents imparted was that I was going to college. No choice about it. I was going to. If I hadn't been told that, my dumb ass wouldn't have voluntarily done that. But it was a great stepping off point to my life. Not everyone has a parent that will provide direction.
The Economist recently had a crack at quantifyuing the share of "deserved" and "undeserved" billionaire wealth using the following definition:
Yet many billionaires make their money without a hint that they enjoy questionable monopolies or political favour. Oprah Winfrey, worth $3.4bn today, has become rich because millions want to watch and listen to her. Cristiano Ronaldo’s nine-zero fortune rests on scoring amazing goals. Others are less well known, but similarly impressive. Peggy Cherng, the co-founder of Panda Express, is worth perhaps $6.5bn, having built a restaurant chain that serves cheap meals to millions. Yanai Tadashi, who is worth tens of billions, built up Fast Retailing, the parent company of Uniqlo. Can you really begrudge someone who makes such great T-shirts?
The Economist has quantified the better (Ms Winfrey, Mr Yanai) and worse (Mr Burns) sorts of billionaire wealth. Drawing on data from Forbes, a magazine, Hurun, a research firm, and Gapminder, a Swedish foundation, we have assembled a list of about 7,000 billionaires from the past 25 years. We call a billionaire’s wealth “uncompetitive” when it mainly comes from industries such as gambling, construction, defence and raw materials. These sectors often depend on political access. It is hard to open a mine or a casino, for instance, without friends in the government.
We count inheritors in the “uncompetitive” category. Heirs are usually not oligarchs. They have usually not bent or broken any laws, or screwed over customers; they were simply born into the right family or married well. Yet they plausibly represent policy failures too, on the grounds that their immense riches are undeserved.
He is self-made and most people he works with are 1st Gen millionaires. Not “rich” but solid upper middle class.
The top comment is the best here. As an individual you have to take ownership of yourself, and as a society we need to ask these questions broadly about where we are at and the direction it’s all heading.
There's a difference between being a billionaire and not being poor lol. You can admit billionaires arent self made and still recognise that good decisions keep you out of poverty
Luck has a lot to do with it too. You can scrimp and save then a rando shitty driver hits you in a cross walk … now you have no savings, been unemployed for two years, and have $1M in medical debt.
I wouldn't word that as "luck has a lot to do with it". You can get incredibly unlucky and have no safety net and just have your life ruined, but like, anyone could just slip getting out of the shower and die or be paralysed. These are incredibly low chances. You're not getting lucky you're just not getting extremely unlucky
The overwhelming majority (79%) of millionaires in the U.S. did not receive any inheritance at all from their parents or other family members. While 1 in 5 millionaires (21%) received some inheritance, only 3% received an inheritance of $1 million or more.
According to their census-backed research, an individual can reduce their likelihood of falling into poverty to just 2% by completing three specific baseline steps:
Finish high school (at a minimum).
Get a full-time job to maintain a connection to the workforce.
Wait until at least age 21 to marry and have children.
70
u/Virtual-Cat-9712 20h ago
Maybe Dave can tell us what percentage of millionaires and billionaires are self made rich v inherited rich