[GreedClarifies]

Yet on the billionaire leaderboard the top-10 are: Musk, Arnault, Bezos, Ellison, Buffet, Gates, Zuckerberg, Balmer, Page, Bin.

Not one of them through inheritance. Sure, you have the waltons a little lower on the list.

As a person who started in the bottom decile of wealth I want to hate inheritance at least as much as the next person. But at first glance it sure doesn't look good for these "researchers".

[beardicus]

boy, i wonder if these researchers maybe did more research than casually glancing at at top 10 list on the internet?

[lapcat]

> boy, i wonder if these researchers maybe did more research than casually glancing at at top 10 list on the internet?

The "researchers" were the Union Bank of Switzerland. "UBS manages the largest amount of private wealth in the world, counting approximately half of the world's billionaires among its clients." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBS

[suoduandao3]

I think though that most of the people on that list had their net worths decrease last year. To my understanding this article is pointing to a pretty short-term trend, though maybe an important one.

[fsckboy]

people have fewer children today, that concentrates any inheritance, including among people of modest means. depending on the statistics analyzed, people of modest net worth with one child could contribute to an overall upward skew.

[hk__2]

> Yet on the billionaire leaderboard the top-10 are: Musk, Arnault, Bezos, Ellison, Buffet, Gates, Zuckerberg, Balmer, Page, Bin.

According to Forbes there are 2,6k+ billionaires, so the top 10 is 0.3% of that.

[GreedClarifies]

Weighted by wealth?

[justinsaccount]

Musk: Rich father, emerald mine money?

Arnault: "In 1971, he graduated from the École Polytechnique, France's leading engineering school, and began work for his father's company. Three years later, after he convinced his father to shift the focus of the company to real estate"

Gates: "His father was a prominent lawyer" "At age 13, he enrolled in the private Lakeside prep school, where he wrote his first software program" "Microsoft co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen first met as teenagers in the late 1960s at Lakeside School in Seattle"

Zuckerberg: "My dad, funny enough, right before each of us went to college offered us the options of going to college or like investing in a franchise and running it,” sister Randi Zuckerberg told CNN Business’ Laurie Segall of her dad’s offer to his son and each of his three daughters.

They may not have literally handed their kids a sack full of money, but you can't argue that people like Arnault, Gates, Zuckerberg are not largely where they are today due to their parents wealth.

[feedforward]

> Not one of them through inheritance

Gates grandfather was president of a bank. Gates left his prep school for Harvard with a million dollar trust fund. His mother was on a board with the chairman of IBM which helped launch Microsoft into the big time.

Buffett's father was a congressman. His grandparents owned a chain of grocery stores.

Zuckerberg's high school was Phillips Exeter Academy. Currently tuition is over $50,000 a year - for high school.

[AaronM]

Yeah, they all came from families that gave them a significant advantage over their peers. They could all afford to fail at entrepreneurship, and not have their life turned upside down by it.

[justinsaccount]

oh, and according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeside_School_(Seattle)

> Annual tuition $40,080

Does your parents spending $160,000 to send you to high school not count as inheriting wealth ?

[Sohcahtoa82]

I genuinely find it absolutely infuriating that so many people actually think any of those people are self-made.

They all had rich parents that provided a massive safety net in case their ventures failed.

For over 90% of the country, if they quit their day jobs to try out some business venture, they'd be bankrupt within a few months just from living expenses, let alone business expenses. Half the country would probably be out on the street within weeks as they wouldn't be able to pay the rent.

57% of Americans can't afford a $1,000 emergency expense [0]. For these people, even if they didn't quit their day jobs, they'd have an extremely difficult time getting a business off the ground.

[0] https://fortune.com/recommends/banking/57-percent-of-america...

[lifestyleguru]

It's disguisting how we praise these people and consider them "just like us".

[1234letshaveatw]

largely lol, this is class warfare silliness. Zuck is largely a billionaire because his father offered to pay for college? Have you read up on the so called "emerald mine"?. And how many lawyer's kids do you know that are billionaires?

[wing-_-nuts]

When you have the casino stake you for $1000 before you even sit down to the table, you can afford to take more risk than if you sit down with $100 of your grocery money. That doesn't guarantee you'll win but it's much easier to take a shot. Does that make more sense?

[lapcat]

> But at first glance it sure doesn't look good for these "researchers".

The "researchers" were the Union Bank of Switzerland. "UBS manages the largest amount of private wealth in the world, counting approximately half of the world's billionaires among its clients." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBS