They mean as opposed to inherited, not in the way you mean it.
Comment on YSK that 158 families made up 50% of all US Presidential Campaign Spending
whostosay@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
“mainly selfmade wealth”
That doesn’t exist, let’s stop fucking pretending it does.
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 1 week ago
danc4498@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I made all my money myself. After I graduated from private school with my personal trainer and one on one tutoring and my car I didn’t have to work for and my apartment I didn’t have to pay for I definitely earned my first job myself. I mean, my dad didn’t interview with his good friend from the country club, I DID! Give me the credit I deserve! I am a self made man!
kalkulat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
They get to play in a sandbox designed for them. They’re taught how to play in the sandbox, and are given the toys to play (roads, electricity, raw materials for example). We get to be the sand.
whostosay@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
If only the sand realized how many people and weapons there are. We could figure this shit out in a day
kalkulat@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Only the grains that are knocked out of the box don’t get played any more.
whostosay@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
People that play with the sand too, tho
unphazed@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Only two super wealthy people come to mind: Oprah and Rowling. Both are bastards (Oprah mostly because of who she endorsed and her increasing lack of connection to the average American).
parody@lemmings.world 2 weeks ago
Who helped Taylor Swift? (I don’t know myself)
unphazed@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Didn’t think of her. Her parents did literally change their entire lives around her and sacrificed a lot to help her career, but I’d say that though most parents couldn’t afford or have the opportunity to that much, Taylor did build her empire from scratch. She didn’t come from poverty, but wasn’t wealthy from the start.
faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
I’ve heard both of her parents work in finance.
dhork@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
What they really mean is that they didn’t inherit their immense wealth, which means there was a time in their lives when they weren’t obscenely wealthy.
UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Except even that doesn’t hold up under close scrutiny. A big component of the market cap of any Fortune 100 company stems from equity and debt held by the generationally wealthy. Amazon and Tesla aren’t worth $1T without the Vanderbilts and the Carnegies and the Adelsons and the Waltons bidding up asset prices.
What’s more, the biggest source of market capital is inevitably government contracts. You can’t tell me that Michael Dell is “independently wealthy” when the bulk of his fortune came via the Texas public school system buying all his company’s computers. Particularly when the governors, legislators, and board members making these decisions are (a) big shareholders of the Dell corporation and (b) legacy scions of wealthy Texas families.
jimjam5@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
To them, poor is probably like just a few dozen million USD.
whostosay@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
I get what they’re getting at, but selfmade has that connotation with it.
They could say not inherited vs inherited wealth
haui_lemmy@lemmy.giftedmc.com 3 weeks ago
Not inherited is also wrong. Because more than 50% of americans live paycheck to paycheck, one can assume that private schools, elite universities, etc are also inherited wealth.
They dont spawn with billions but they started at the top and just built exploitation empires.
The is no such thing as self made wealth and an insane majprity of it is already being very comfortable and just going full bore.
I’m not saying financial success has nothing to do with capabilities and discipline but surprisingly little.
Or to quote jay gould, who said it before:
boonhet@lemm.ee 3 weeks ago
There’s basically one self-made billionaire I’m aware of. Wealth turned him into a right-wing asshole unfortunately, but the original creator of Minecraft, Notch, is the closest thing to a self-made billionaire I can think of. He originally built Minecraft on his own and it was already doing insanely well when other people got involved. He did not have a rich background.
Now where we can argue about the self-made part: 1) None of what he did would’ve been possible without prior work by others (same goes for ANYTHING to do with computers nowadays), 2) There’s no guarantee he could’ve sold the game for over 2 billion dollars without help from others.
whostosay@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Very true as well. Directly exploitative vs indirectly idk man, but self made ain’t it