[throwawaymath]

What does any of that have to do with the simple fact that billionaires don't make their fortunes through index funds? This isn't a discussion about active versus passive investing. It's a discussion about whether to attribute wealth to entrepreneurial acumen or to an index fund.

[mycorrhizal]

No, the discussion was specifically a response to a comment speculating that a person with 100M in 1971 would have been better offer investing in the S&P 500.

Quotes from the GP

> Actually, from the article it's unclear if he's beaten the S&P500 as an investor.

> If his total investments at that time was $100 million, which seems somewhat reasonable given how much he lost in the margin call, investing that in the S&P500 would be worth $4 billion today, which is quite a bit more than the $2.3 billion he's actually worth.

And the parent made a snarky comment about why internet commentators always bring up the s&p 500. And the simple answer is that for most of us ETFs are probably one of the best options for growing wealth. No one actually thinks they will be billionaires by retirement age with ETFs. So if you want to be a billionaire go get richer parents and if that doesn't work, invent Google. Good luck.

[fgonzag]

Most billionares don't make their fortunes playing the stock market either, what's your point?

They make billion dollar companies, except for a very select few.