> Closely related to poverty is lack of social mobility. I've seen this myself: you don't have to grow up rich or even upper middle class to get rich as a startup founder, but few successful founders grew up desperately poor. But again, the problem here is not simply economic inequality. There is an enormous difference in wealth between the household Larry Page grew up in and that of a successful startup founder, but that didn't prevent him from joining their ranks. It's not economic inequality per se that's blocking social mobility, but some specific combination of things that go wrong when kids grow up sufficiently poor.
Someone paid a small fortune to buy Larry Page the same elite credentials that billionaires buy for their children, and it was the critical component in his success.
Others spent fortunes buying the same elite credentials for Bill Gates, Paul Graham, Mark Zuckerberg, Drew Houston, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and most other "successful" Silicon Valley founders/investors.
All of these people are smart but that's not why they're rich. They're rich because they had elite credentials which gave them access to resources and opportunities that 99% of people do not receive.
The pie for elite credentials is (intentionally) fixed. Less than 1% of the population gets them, very few poor people do, and yet these people control most of the wealth and power throughout the U.S. They dominate Silicon Valley as if they were in an official alliance.
People on the top of the pile don't complain about getting stepped on, or even see what all the fuss is about.
"Someone paid a small fortune to buy Larry Page the same elite credentials that billionaires buy for their children, and it was the critical component in his success."
Larry Page went to a public high school (East Lansing High School) and a public university (University of Michigan).
"Others spent fortunes buying the same elite credentials for Bill Gates, Paul Graham, Mark Zuckerberg, Drew Houston, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and most other "successful" Silicon Valley founders/investors."
Three and a half out of the six people you named went to public high schools.
What Paul Graham said about this question:
"Closely related to poverty is lack of social mobility. I've seen this myself: you don't have to grow up rich or even upper middle class to get rich as a startup founder, but few successful founders grew up desperately poor. But again, the problem here is not simply economic inequality. There is an enormous difference in wealth between the household Larry Page grew up in and that of a successful startup founder, but that didn't prevent him from joining their ranks. It's not economic inequality per se that's blocking social mobility, but some specific combination of things that go wrong when kids grow up sufficiently poor." (http://www.paulgraham.com/ineq.html)
> Closely related to poverty is lack of social mobility. I've seen this myself: you don't have to grow up rich or even upper middle class to get rich as a startup founder, but few successful founders grew up desperately poor. But again, the problem here is not simply economic inequality. There is an enormous difference in wealth between the household Larry Page grew up in and that of a successful startup founder, but that didn't prevent him from joining their ranks. It's not economic inequality per se that's blocking social mobility, but some specific combination of things that go wrong when kids grow up sufficiently poor.
Someone paid a small fortune to buy Larry Page the same elite credentials that billionaires buy for their children, and it was the critical component in his success.
Others spent fortunes buying the same elite credentials for Bill Gates, Paul Graham, Mark Zuckerberg, Drew Houston, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel, and most other "successful" Silicon Valley founders/investors.
All of these people are smart but that's not why they're rich. They're rich because they had elite credentials which gave them access to resources and opportunities that 99% of people do not receive.
The pie for elite credentials is (intentionally) fixed. Less than 1% of the population gets them, very few poor people do, and yet these people control most of the wealth and power throughout the U.S. They dominate Silicon Valley as if they were in an official alliance.
People on the top of the pile don't complain about getting stepped on, or even see what all the fuss is about.