
Majority of the world's richest people are self-made, says new report - hirundo
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/majority-of-the-worlds-richest-people-are-self-made-says-new-report.html
======
perfmode
> The market research firm analyzed the state of the world’s ultra-wealthy
> population — or those with a net worth of $30 million or more. The report,
> which is based on 2018 data, “showed muted growth” in the number of ultra-
> wealthy people that year, “rising by 0.8% to 265,490 individuals,” says
> Wealth-X.

> Of those folks, 67.7% were self-made

of the ~1600 people who crossed a threshold of $30M, 67% are self made. this
is 1000 people.

does anyone else feel this is a statement intended to shape public perception?

does anyone feel that a reader might be misled into coming to a different
conclusion than what the data actually indicates?

~~~
adamredwoods
Keyword that I cringe at is "self-made". No one is ever "self-made". These
people are lucky, maybe, but self-made is a narcissistic term of false-
connotation.

Ford said it well in the article, and I'd like to add that MANY engineers
helped make the rocket:

>> “Just as not everyone is qualified to be an astronaut, it takes a special
kind of person to be an entrepreneur,” [Ford] added. “You need discipline,
intelligence, extreme dedication. But the best astronaut in the world can’t
fly to the moon unless someone gives them the rocket.”

~~~
milkytron
I'm not a client of the publisher, and therefore cannot download the full
report, but I would like to see what they define as "self-made" for the
reasons you mentioned.

------
Sohcahtoa82
What defines a "self-made" man?

IMO, you don't have to directly inherit a large sum of cash or assets to
disqualify you from being considered self-made. People consider Bill Gates to
be self-made because he founded Microsoft, but his father was a prominent
lawyer and his mother was on the board of directors for a bank and the United
Way. His parents were already millionaires with connections. Bill was already
very likely to be successful.

~~~
MR4D
You make a good point.

Doing a quick bit of estimating, if his parents were worth $10MM USD, and he
reached $100billion in net worth, then he increased their wealth 10,000 times.
Note that it is not yet inherited, as he achieved that wealth while both
parents were alive.

I'd surmise that anyone that increases their wealth 10,000 times more than
their parents is self made.

If Bill's parents only had $100, and he reached a million (10,000 times
higher), then he'd still be "self-made".

To me at least, anyone who increases that much is impressive, regardless of
what they started with - it's the multiple that is key.

So I guess the question is what is the probability of the child of a
multimillionaire increasing their wealth by 10,000 times?

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
Simplifying it down to "multiplying wealth by 10,000x" is naive.

It's a lot easier to turn $10M into $100B than it is to turn $100 into $1M.

With $10M, you already have the basics handled. You can have a house and car
that are paid off and enough cash stashed away to handle living expenses for
the rest of your life and still have $7M+ to piss away. If you're smart and
never dip into the funds reserved for lifetime living expenses, it's
impossible to fail.

With only $100, you're struggling to put food on the table. Possibly even
working two jobs with no time to work on building a business.

And here, I haven't even touched on the concept of "connections". Someone with
an 8-figure bank account likely knows who to talk to when it comes to getting
a product in front of the right people.

If Bill's parents had only $100 and turned it into $1M, then definitely, he'd
be self-made. But since he started with likely an 8-figure backing, he's
definitely not.

~~~
MR4D
> It's a lot easier to turn $10M into $100B than it is to turn $100 into $1M.

Baloney! If it were, there would be tons of people with Bill Gates level
wealth! (last I checked, there were only 2 - him and Bezos).

The facts speak for themselves.

=======

EDIT:

After rereading this comment, the tone I have ("Baloney!") seems harsher than
Iintended. Still, I'll leave it as such because I don't like to change what I
wrote on HN. Please don't take it as an insult, but rather as emphasis of the
extent that I disagree with your point.

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
I said "easier", not "easy".

But even if we tone it down by an order of magnitude or even two, I think it
still applies. I think turning $10M into $1B is easier than turning $100 into
$10,000, for the same reasons outlined above. Don't underestimate the massive
impact it has to be starting at a level where living expenses are of zero
concern.

~~~
SamReidHughes
At $100 you can just work for wages until you have more money.

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
Easier said than done when you have a low-wage job.

~~~
SamReidHughes
Then join the military and build up savings.

You're only stuck in a $100 asset hole if you refuse to do anything about it,
or if you intrinsically offer no value to the world.

------
Chinjut
There's no way they're self-made. They may not have inherited it all, but you
get rich, truly rich rich, only by having a bunch of other people do work for
which you are paid.

------
droidno9
Arnold would disagree:
[https://youtu.be/RJsvR_gSEjg?t=270](https://youtu.be/RJsvR_gSEjg?t=270)

------
strikelaserclaw
I think most people's problem is that an initial winner is more likely to win
next time in the system. these self made men certainly had some attributes
which made them "win", it wasn't all luck, but as the game goes on, the
playing field becomes more and more unfair. Not to mention how a certain
segment of wealthy people influence politics and media to completely further
their advantage. I think at the root of the issue is the idea of "meritocracy"
and "fairness." Sam Walton was a great man, but are his children? Yet, they
still control a vast amount of wealth and influence regularly ranking in the
top 20 richest people in the World.

------
LatteLazy
People wail on Zuckerberg, Gates and Bezos but you have to respect them more
than people who inherit and tonne of money and just sit on it or watch it grow
on its own...

~~~
Sohcahtoa82
Gates is not a self-made man. His father was a prominent lawyer, and his
mother was on the board of directors at a bank. He was already basically
guaranteed to be successful, even without forming Microsoft.

~~~
jbverschoor
Wasn’t she on the board of IBM?

~~~
csixty4
She served on an executive committee at the United Way with John Opel, the CEO
of IBM at the time the PC was being born.

------
heimatau
Btw, this 'report' isn't new. It's almost a year old based on 2 years old
data. The pandemic has changed some things.

------
adventist
This is great to hear!

