Actually Elon Musk inherited his money and got his start from his father- they're an old South African mining family. Trump also got his start from his wealthy parents. Bill Gates grew up wealthy. Actually a very large portion of the wealthiest people inherited some or a good amount of their wealth. And yeah, the tech and hedge fund titans are sitting around scheming about how to get into the clubs, neighborhoods, and universities that these old families still run... trying to copy them, trying to dress like them, trying to pass themselves off as one of them. |
You've more than proven it, over and over. |
I am that pp btw and I’m not really that focused on whether I’ve “made it.” I think I have a pretty healthy level of humility. I’m just kind of living my life. I have a lot of friends who are way more accomplished than I am. Also kinder, funnier, more beautiful etc. I also have some that are not! I’m not really trying to “get to” anything or anywhere, I don’t think, except for my family to be reasonably healthy and happy. |
| There’s no such thing as “old money” guys. It’s always new to someone! |
The story on Elon Mush is completely fabricated. His dad made all that up. Bill Gates' dad was a lawyer who did well and I gather is the definition of the striver in DCUMland. He didn't inherit squat from his dad, mainly because he was worth 1000x more than his dad at like 25. Sure, even though Stephen Schwarzman essentially owns Yale...what old money family is secretly actually controlling it? |
It doesnt take away from the fact that many of these men inherited wealth. And old money families still control the eating clubs, the social groups and dynamics, etc. Both at the elite universities and afterwards, of course. |
Bill Gates's mom was old money in the PNW, part of a banking dynasty. Her grandfather was head of National City Bank, her father ran a bank too. Bill Gates's dad "married up" into a very connected family. |
I find the bolded very hard to believe. Things like that happen in movies about high school mean girls, but not in real life. I haven't encountered anyone like that after college. I live in McLean, which is one of the fanciest zip codes in all of the DMV. Not a single person -- whether than person be friend, acquaintance or stranger has ever even taken note of my generic black bag or asked me what brand it was, let alone made fun of it for not being a "pricey" brand name. The wealthy mom's in my neighborhood could have asked me who designed it or feigned interest in it pretending they wanted one for themselves, if they were really trying to "out" me for wearing a non-designer purse, but they've never shown an iota of interest in it... the same goes for my non designer labeled clothing, car, and shoes. Not a single person... ever. It moreso sounds like those women probably had a problem with YOU, and that was the passive-aggressive outlet they chose to inform you of it. It was never reallllly about your purse. |
Slow clap. This PP nailed it on the head. The OP thinks she has it all figured out through her limited aggregate of her kids friends parents in her "upscale DMV" neighborhood. However, that "aha!" moment of hers was just so embarrassing, because she doesn't really have the first clue about anything. |
OP is SUCH a hypocrite. Let's fast forward by 30 or 40 years from now, when OP's own children become the EXACT kind of people that she's currently resentful of. I mean, they're going to have the benefit of receiving a house that they, themselves, didn't earn, because it was given to them by OP, right? OP's bitterness stems from her own parents not doing this for her, but it's guaranteed that she'll be doing this for her own... and I guess it will be OK to do then, right?? |
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+1
BUT I would be think, given the absurdity of the OP’s initial post, that OP is a man who can’t find his way. I know someone like this - whines and carries on about all of the “loaded” people in his orbit, while he, capable as he is, lives off of his wife’s salary and his father in law’s largesse. OP isn’t exactly that guy. But OP sure sounds like him, pathetically looking at others with sorrow and envy. |
Well, the fact that many of these men did not inherit wealth, does in fact take away from that non-fact. Stephen Schwarzman went to public school in Queens...Larry Ellison grew up in South Chicago...Jeff Bezos went to public school in NM and Florida (and his stepdad did invest some money in Amazon alongside major VC investors)...Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman had UMC upbringings, but no old money, family money. The selective Princeton Eating Clubs where you have to bicker don't care if your money is old or new...they just care you have a ton of it. There aren't enough old money descendants attending at any one point in time for the club to survive. Curious who is in this "old money" club...you have to be Vanderbilt or Rockefeller or Dow or Dupont, etc. in order to control these universities and clubs because you had to lay your hooks in the 19th century. |
Actually random anecdotes don't take away from that fact... and as someone else pointed out, Bill comes from old money stock. The handful of names you mentioned hardly take away from the existence of the myriad of old money families that make up the fabric of real wealth in this country. Of course the Princeton Eating Clubs care, as do the Yale societies. In every venerated institution in America, the old guard still holds a huge amount of sway, often behind the scenes, blocking out contenders who dont fit the bill, occasionally giving their blessing to new money strivers who happen to rub them the right way (or who are willing to lavish enough cash on them to make it worth their while) Again, there are plenty of private members of the old money guard that you've probably never heard of, living in- Oh my God!- Chevy Chase. That's what you find so irritating- many of these old money people are living thriving, relatively quiet lives, having a job that fulfills their passion or just is calm and peaceful, rather than rabidly chasing cash the way the strivers have to. And there's nothing you can do about it :) |
Well here is the background of the 500 wealthiest families in the country: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gigizamora/2023/10/03/the-2023-forbes-400-self-made-score-from-silver-spooners-to-bootstrappers/ Even the ones that are listed as "inheriting a fortune" are people like the Walton family...which again, not sure how a fortune derived from Walmart is old money. Every argument you make doesn't even rise to the level of an anecdote. You don't have even have those. |
I wasn’t excluded. You were excluded. You are excluded because you’re not smart and you’re not talented. People look at you and they wonder why you are so unimpressive. They wonder where your parents went wrong. And you are deeply insecure about that because it really sucks to underachieve. |