[diminoten]

The reality is these parents gave their kids exactly what the poorer kids never get; access to knowledge and to people who've achieved.

College tuition can be covered while you're in school if you're taught how (and if you're not carrying your parents burdens). Entire careers open up for those who know what to study and optimize for (how many kids want to grow up to be in finance or a consultant, unless it's what their parents do?).

Sure, it probably helps to have well developed discipline and a healthy approach to various aspects of life (if that's even what these kids ended up with), but the real value comes from the generational knowledge of how to work through the system to get to the top. After you do it once, it's 10x easier to guide someone else through it, even without giving them explicit help in the form of money or influence.