What is a greater leg up?
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Anonymous
Completely agree with this. So let me get this straight. OP is disappointed her kids are average at school and sports but takes comfort in the fact that they are still better off than other kids because they have rich parents? Seems like being raised by psychologically health adults is not on the table... |
Anonymous
The latter. You dont need DCUM for this. There is actual data. Money means everything. The only people who say it doesnt mean everything and wax poetically about being smart or talented are rich people. You know who has a better chance of being wealthy between an average/dumb/unathletic kid who has wealthy parents and an all star talent or super smart kid who is MC/poor.......its the former, EVERY SINGLE TIME except for like 0.05%. |
Anonymous
BULL SHITE. This is how the perpetuate the American Dream when the data shows that billionaires almost always come from rich/UMC families. Entrepreneurship requires risk. Risk requires a net. There are quite a few who have actually been poor but a significant portion have family money, support, connections, etc. |
Anonymous
That’s my takeaway too… |
Anonymous
Forbes Magazine While many of the world’s billionaires inherited their wealth, nearly 70% of the newest names on this year’s list are self-made, meaning they founded or cofounded the company that made them their billions. The newcomers include 73-year-old Sulaiman Al Habib, founder and chairman of Saudi Arabia hospital group HMG, as well as Scale AI cofounder and CEO Alexandr Wang, the list’s youngest self-made billionaire at just 28 years old. The American billionaires are more likely to be self made. Here are Top billionaires that did not inherit their business….. Larry Ellison who grew up working class. Mark Zuckerberg grew up upper middle class Jeff Bezos born to teenage parents grew up working class Warren Buffet grew up upper middle class started businesses at 11 years old Howard Shultz (Starbucks) grew up in public housing Ken Langone grew up working class started businesses Allen Gerry (cable vision) grew up poor Kenny Troutt (Excel communications) grew up poor Plus many more. What some tech billionaires have in common are parents who were professors or tech savvy themselves. Entrepreneurs are comfortable with risk whether they have back up or not. Inheriting billions doesn’t make you an entrepreneur. A person with the rare combination of intelligence, work ethic, resilience, leadership, good communication skills can be a self made person. |
Anonymous
A good portion of them have " family money, support, connections, etc especially the younger billionaires. You can see a thread in those in the 60-70 age range regarding opportunity. But with the condensing of American manufacturing, businesses, and others there are less opportunities for the type of wealth accumulated by poor people. Look at the ages at those who were poor and were able to become billionaires. Almost all of it happened in the 60-early 80s as far as creation of the businesses that built the wealth. Do you not see the difference between the landscape of now and then? I dont think we need to refer to inheriting businesses as the main exclusionary content to self-made. |
Anonymous
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Op, what do you mean by a leg up? What is your goal for your children? Is it wealth? An impressive college? A prestigious career? Happiness? Contributing something positive to the world? Finding loving friends and/or a partner to move through life with?
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Anonymous
Absolutely this. I feel the same way about my own upbringing, and the older I get the more true this becomes. Even if you are academically and professionally successful, growing up with severe dysfunction means you will spend considerable amounts of your adulthood unwinding that dysfunction and trying to process and get past it. And that's if you're lucky enough to understand it and seek to get better -- some people just perpetuate the dysfunction and deal with the consequences, which involve having lots of terrible relationships and never feeling happy or satisfied with life. If my kid grows up feeling like a worthwhile person who deserves to be happy, I consider it a win regardless of her income or the prestige of her career. |
Anonymous
The older ones like the Koch Brothers, the Johnson family at Fidelity, the Waltons from the inexplicably popular Walmart are becoming less common. According to Forbes, 196 of the world's 285 new billionaires in 2025 are self-made, representing nearly 70% of them. This means that they established their fortunes themselves rather than inheriting them, a trend that contrasts with 2023 when new billionaires acquired more wealth through inheritance, according to a UBS report. Studies show that a vast majority of wealthy families, including those with billionaire founders, lose their wealth within a few generations, with around 70% by the second generation and 90% by the third. Each billionaire family has a different story. Read about the Gilded Age when immigrants came to America to make millions, it’s pretty interesting. |
Anonymous
| Op you are wildly fortunate that this is the parenting question you have. My goodness. |
Anonymous
| Having parents with an income of 500k+ who don't give the kid a lot of cash while in high school / college. A kid with too much cash = drug user. |