It's no surprise that the largest predictor of wealth is... wealth. Lots of founders might not be directly funded by family wealth, but the various safety nets and conveniences (even op said they sold 2 of their cars) are a major factor, if not the largest factor, of success.
It's an ugly truth of life that I've come to accept: the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.
People who bought Bitcoin for $1 in 2009 won the lottery. There was no rational basis for expecting any significant payout from that.
Marrying into money is an option for some, but you have to make a big emotional sacrifice (at least in Western culture) if you opt for going by wallet instead of going by heart. It's doable, but GP's point here is that a rich person doesn't have to make that choice.
Why would it be a big emotional sacrifice to marry into money? Especially if (as some studies suggest) money is a big part of what makes men attractive, odds should be high for actual love being involved in the decision.
You have repeatedly brought up marrying someone rich in this thread saying it is "mostly an option for women".
So, are you some how saying rich women only marry rich men, but rich men will consider poor women? So much so it's actually a thing? Sources, please? It sounds extremely out dated and kind of gross...especially because you keep saying it like it is some valid thing.
It's definitely a thing in places like China where you have a much larger population of men, and it is harder and harder to find a woman (so much that some people buy their wives online from other poorer countries).
It's a well known data point. In general, women don't like to marry down, and men have less of an issue marrying down. Think of the classic "doctor marries nurse".
If you Google, you should find a lot of articles about it, as it is an important sociological issue. Now that more women are having a career, in fact, more women than men are having an academic career, it is becoming difficult for women to find adequate men.
Also women marrying up was historically the MOST important mechanism of social mobility (people moving up in status/wealth). Too bad that feminism does not allow it anymore, as any man who marries a less wealthy women is considered to be "abusing his power".
The other claim, women being attracted to men with more money, I am less sure about. I am sure you can find studies analyzing data from dating platforms yielding that result, but I don't know how well they generalize to dating in general.
It's an ugly truth of life that I've come to accept: the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor.