Just 35 percent of the Forbes 400 last year were raised poor or middle class, compared to 95 percent of the broader public, as (reasonably) defined by UFE. Twenty one percent inherited enough money to join the 400 without lifting a finger, what UFE calls being “born on home plate.” Another 7 percent inherited at least $50 million or a “large and prosperous company,” 12 percent inherited at least a million bucks or a decent-sized business or startup capital from a relative, and 22 percent were “born on first base,” into an upper class family or got a modest inheritance or startup capital (UFE says it was conservative in assigning people to bases, so its report understates their advantages somewhat). So, at least 62 percent did not, in fact, make their fortunes “entirely from scratch.”
In other words, contra Forbes’s assertion, its 400 list is more a picture of class immobility and stratification than a portrait of an American dream of opportunity for all if who are willing to work hard. It has gotten the story exactly backward.
Of course, this isn’t to say that people who built or massively expanded companies they inherited somehow don’t deserve credit for their work. It’s just to acknowledge that even $50,000 in startup capital or inheritance is a huge advantage on someone with just as much capability but no money. It’s fair to assume that, say, the Koch brothers and Rupert Murdoch, as good a businessmen as they are, would be anywhere near as wealthy as they are today if they hadn’t inherited businesses to expand or that Bill Gates would have created Microsoft without attending an elite high school that afforded them computer access in the early 1970s.
Elvis Presleys, people who came up from literally nothing or from dire poverty, are extremely rare, which is one of the reasons why they are famous and celebrated in the first place. Many of those Forbes 400, by the way, became richer because of Washington policies designed to screw over the masses to help them.
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