Self Made Billionaire: Myth or Reality?

[Zardnaar]

When one looks at several high profile billionaires a lot seem to like pushing the self made part.

However a lot had huge head starts from their parents and/or access to ivy league school. Eg Gate, Musk, Bezos etc.

Others may have taken some morally questionable decisions in regards to tax avoidance, labour laws etc.

So two parter. How many billionaires come from reasonably modest (middle class at best) backgrounds followed by how ethical they were getting there?

My first guess. George Lucas. Created star Wars you know the rest.

 

[amadeus]

Most of them probably fly under the radar. Ever heard of Metromedia or John Kluge? He was the richest man in America in the 1980’s after having bought the remains of the DuMont Network thirty years earlier. He sold all of that to Rupert Murdoch when he started Fox.

 

[Zardnaar]

Most of them probably fly under the radar. Ever heard of Metromedia or John Kluge? He was the richest man in America in the 1980’s after having bought the remains of the DuMont Network thirty years earlier. He sold all of that to Rupert Murdoch when he started Fox.

Nope. Yeah there's a few that keep low profiles.

 

[Gori the Grey]

Myth. Next question.

 

[Samson]

It depends what you mean by "self made". Roman Abramovich was an orphan by the age of 4, and is now worth ~US$12.9 billion. However, he has got there on state enabled, mob implemented asset stripping, or whatever you call what happened with the sell off of USSR industry. Is he self made, or made by Reagan and Yeltsin?

 

[Hygro]

They’re almost all self made, to the extent that phrase has meaning.

 

[Samson]

Another example, and his opinion:

Xu Jiayin grew up impoverished in rural China. His father was a warehouse worker and his mother died when he was a baby. He worked at a steel mill before starting Evergrande in 1996. He is now worth quite a lot. He said "All I have and all that Evergrande Group has achieved were endowed by the Party, the state and the whole society". At least he understands that no one is self made.

 

[Farm Boy]

I wonder if you were to select for a personality trait, like parasitic acquisitiveness, or something - if that would be a more useful metric then whether or not they know where they stand.

 

[amadeus]

"All I have and all that Evergrande Group has achieved were endowed by the Party, the state and the whole society"

What the Party giveth, the Party taketh away.

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Arnold S. has a really good acceptance speech about everything he has achieved is due to others helping him.

 

[Sommerswerd]

Somebody else made the gun that the robber used to rob the bank.

 

[Naskra]

jk Rowling; Michael Jordan

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

Somebody else made the gun that the robber used to rob the bank.

The blacksmith is the real murderer here!

 

[Gorbles]

jk Rowling

Hardly, the bulk of her profits come from movie licensing, the financial success of which is obviously due to the hard work of many, many more people than just the stories she wrote.

 

[Samson]

Hardly, the bulk of her profits come from movie licensing, the financial success of which is obviously due to the hard work of many, many more people than just the stories she wrote.

Rowling had a lot more creative/productive input into the Harry Potter films than Abramovich in Sibneft, or Musk into his flying willy.

 

[Farm Boy]

The blacksmith is the real murderer here!

Clockmaker.

These aint no pointy sticks or overgrown knives.

 

[Gorbles]

Rowling had a lot more creative/productive input into the Harry Potter films than Abramovich in Sibneft, or Musk into his flying willy.

I'm sure she did. The books were successful from the start, too (albeit only being a UK release initially). But the books aren't what made her rich, and while she may have had creative input, there's a lot in the films that stand by themselves. And it's not just the films to be honest, movie licensing includes merchandise, spin-offs, etc.

 

[Sommerswerd]

At the root of this question is that pesky concept again... "deserve"... which itself is the real myth. Fun to talk about in colloquial terms, but elusive to actually consistently quantify.

 

[Samson]

I'm sure she did. The books were successful from the start, too (albeit only being a UK release initially). But the books aren't what made her rich, and while she may have had creative input, there's a lot in the films that stand by themselves. And it's not just the films to be honest, movie licensing includes merchandise, spin-offs, etc.

Yeah, absolutely. However is there anyone else in the 200 richest people in the UK that have had more of a contribution to their wealth (she has ~£820 million, making her the 196th richest person in the UK)? My position is that no one is self made, but the megastars of media have contributed more directly that the oligarchs of industry and finance.

 

[Synobun]

They shouldn't exist, so I don't really care how they did it. Wealth hoarding requires excessive exploitation, inherently, and whether they did it through inheritance or their own inclinations toward increasing suffering is irrelevant.