[ryandrake]

Only numbers 8 through 10 are what any reasonable person might consider even remotely "self made" and lumping "middle-class background" and "upper-class background" into 8 (so that Mark Zuckerberg could be considered 8 instead of 7) is a stretch.

Any credible list of "self-made this" or "successful entrepreneur that" should include a disclosure of parental wealth.

[Solid_State]

Also, Mark Zuckerberg went to high school at Phillips Exeter. Their current tuition is $39,000 per year for day students, and $50,000 for boarders, of which he was one (although he went during 1999 equivalent tuitions). On the 1-10 self-made scale they have, with 1 being inheritance and 10 being self-made, he ranks an 8.

So that is the bearing for this scale they made to keep in mind - the 8 of 10 toward "self-made" are the type of people who were going to $50,000 a year high schools.

[haberman]

Financial aid exists. Phillips Exeter's web page says that families with income under $75,000 pay $0 of tuition: https://www.exeter.edu/admissions-and-financial-aid

I went to boarding school and came from a family of two church musicians. Some of my classmates came from wealthy families, others came from very modest backgrounds.

[ryandrake]

Raise your hand if you think Mark Zuckerberg got need-based financial aid. Hint: Both parents were doctors. Him being ranked at the same "self-made level" as a middle class kid that went to a state school is ludicrous.

[haberman]

I can agree with that wrt. Zuckerberg, I just take exception to the idea that every boarding school kid was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

[slavik81]

That's true, though I like that it presents "self-made" as a scale rather than something binary. It allows acknowledging differences that would have been glossed over on a binary scale.

There are big differences between how Laurene Jobs (1), Charles Koch (5), Bill Gates (8) and Oprah Winfrey (10) became as wealthy as they are, and it reflects that.

[sidlls]

The fact that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg aren't 5 or lower means this scale is not credible. Both of these individuals had access to substantial capital and social connections, well above any meaningful definition of "middle-class", to jumpstart their businesses.

[ameister14]

I don't think that's entirely fair - let's say your parents made $500,000 a year; if you made 90 billion, wouldn't that still be self-made? Sure, it's not as self-made as Carnegie or Rockefeller who would have been 10/10 as child-laborers turned wealthiest men in the world, but it's not exactly Trump or JP Morgan Jr., either.

[sidlls]

They're closer to Koch or Trump than anybody who labored from nothing.

Your hypothetical is why I agree a scale is better than a binary classification. I guess we might just disagree on the grade.

[ryandrake]

When your parents are among the top 1% in the country (and, presumably, act as a risk-cushion in case you were to fail), it is difficult for me to buy that you are self-made.

[batbomb]

The Laurene Jobs (1) is a bit dumb since she was raising the family, but whatever.