@makemesmart , there is a famous quote from a former Texas official (and I have no idea if it was original to him), describing a rival as “Born on third and thinks he hit a triple”
It’s been on my mind a lot lately…
I’d put that dash at about 99.9% or higher. I’m not in the top 1%, but I’m doing great, and I know my financial success is almost 100% luck. I mean, I work hard, but not a hundred times harder than, say, the people who work for me or the maintenance team in my office building, and certainly not as hard as my public school teacher mom worked. And it’s literally impossible for Jeff Bezos to work a million times harder than his warehouse laborers (not bothering to do the math on that one, it’s a no brainer).
@dragonmom
That’s a good one, even to my non-baseball-fan brain. Lol.
@marvin100
Do you think Bezos was “shamed” into increasing amazon’s minimal wage to $15/hr? It is interesting that we “commoners” admire/are inspired by billionaires’ charity works while at the same time don’t cringe at their often brutal treatment of their own workers.
@makemesmart - I think Bezos (and the rest of the Amazon decision-makers–he doesn’t own Amazon all by himself) made a calculation that upping the wage was a cheap way to buy some relief from bad press and terrible PR. Also worth noting that along with giving that raise, Amazon took away its bonus program…
Oh yeah… The bump in the stock price that PR generated means more $$ for the BOD pockets, and said feel good PR will melt the hearts of bureaucrats like our Seattle City Clouncil and result in even bigger taxpayer subsidies… 
I am going to leave at least 70% of my money to my kid when I die. This is because it’s not as if I will have 30 million usd plus unless I get real lucky. Depending on luck or screw ups, I will probably have 10 mill to 20 mill when I die. This is because so far, I actually like my kid and even respect some of his qualities. But I have no problem with many people thinking giving their kids college education is enough. I care less what they do with their moneys.
Another good thing about having money is I told my parents who had around $800k in assets to leave all to my sibling because I don’t need it or want it. And they did. I only got back the house I bought for them.
As for remaining money after my kid’s portion, I plan to give money to colleges which gave me financial aid and financial scholarships, even if all I did with the free education was get lousy grades. I might place a condition that the money be used to help students with lower than 3.0 gpa finish college. Lol
Probably just a typo, but a great one nonetheless 
Nope. No typo. That is what they really are.
The first time that quote appeared in print was a 1986 Chicago Tribune story, attributed to former University of Oklahoma and later Dallas Cowboys football coach Barry Switzer. Switzer came from a humble background, and he used the line to explain why he often found it easier to relate to players who also came from modest beginnings.
Two years later at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, Texas Agriculture Commissioner and left-wing firebrand Jim Hightower (yes, there were such people in Texas then) used the same line in reference to George H.W. Bush, then the Republican candidate for President. Bush came from a wealthy, patrician Connecticut family—his father was a successful Wall Street investment banker and U.S. Senator, and like many generations of Bushes, H.W. attended Yale College where like his father was a cheerleader and a member of Skull and Bones, an exclusive secret society, the exact path H.W.'s son George W. Bush would later follow. But both HW and W sometimes talked as if they had made their own fortunes in the Texas oil fields, without dwelling on the head start they got through family wealth and connections.
Texas Governor Ann Richards later used the same line in reference to George W. Bush.
Politics aside (and I recognize it has no place on CC), I do think some (but by no means all) wealthy people seem to think that those less wealthy are just not sufficiently industrious or otherwise not sufficiently virtuous, not recognizing the head start they themselves got in life. But I also see some of that attitude in some people who are only moderately well off; it’s not confined to the very rich.
“But both HW and W sometimes talked as if they had made their own fortunes in the Texas oil fields, without dwelling on the head start they got through family wealth and connections.”
And GW talked/s with a TX accent which I’ve never understood either.
“I’d put that dash at about 99.9% or higher. I’m not in the top 1%, but I’m doing great, and I know my financial success is almost 100% luck. I mean, I work hard, but not a hundred times harder”
I wouldn’t put it that high, @marvin100, because there are many, many families where siblings have different outcomes with the same opportunities, education, upbringing. As I said, luck and good fortune is definitely a factor but you can’t say intelligence, hard work, and things like good people skills, common sense, etc. aren’t important factors and only equate 1% to the equation.
Well, even siblings don’t really have the same upbringing (one has an older sibling, for example, and they have different social input and genetic differences as well), but I don’t expect many people to feel quite as strongly as I do.
I think intelligence is luck (if it exists at all–there’s no consensus definition), and I think all of those things are luck of the draw, too (even hard work–it’s at least partly a function of upbringing).
I love all the “luck” talk … makes it easier to rationalize confiscating other people’s money. I mean, hey, if it’s just luck then they have no right to complain.
Note: I exclude those who made their fortune on social media websites. They’re basically virtual drug pushers …
I think the amount of luck required (at least defined as “being in the right place at the right time”) increases markedly as you go up from top 5% of wealth to 2%, 1% and especially 0.1%, assuming you don’t have inherited wealth. Sure your millionaire next door can work in a moderately lucrative field and save enough to get to the top 2% of wealth or a bit higher. But you definitely have to be in the right place at the right time to really hit it out of the park. For example the PC industry founders were born within a narrow window in the mid 1950s, so they acquired the skills in HS/college to take advantage of the technology when it arrived.
On a more personal note, a friend took a job early in the life of a famous internet company and made some hundreds of millions of dollars. Sure he would have made some millions doing his everyday work. But his actual outcome was purely luck, being offered and taking a job with the right company at the right time. I even remember him worrying about whether it was a good idea to give up his stable job for this early stage startup.
" For example the PC industry founders were born within a narrow window in the mid 1950s, so they acquired the skills in HS/college to take advantage of the technology when it arrived."
There were a lot of people that were born in that narrow window and acquired those skills. Not all became a Jobs or a Gates. Again, luck is part of it but the .01% that have ingenuity, are forward thinking, and risk takers can’t be chalked up to just serendipity. I think that sells them short.
As far as 1%, not .01%, I know plenty. Wall Street makes them all the time.
@doschicos – exactly … and the original claim seems to imply that those people were only going to make out well because they happened to be born at the right time to take advantage of the computer revolution. It’s more likely that they would have excelled at any point in history. Musk is a prime example. He made a fortune in internet payment technology and could have spent the rest of his life partying on a yacht in the Med … but instead he risked it all to create two of the most innovative companies in existence right now: Tesla and SpaceX. There were thousands of very smart people in each of those fields yet they couldn’t manage to develop the technology and make it successful. He did … in three completely separate areas. It’s astonishing.
Being born in a time and place where that sort of wealth is even possible is luck. I was lucky not to have been born in plague-stricken medieval Europe, contemporary South Sudan, 1960s Cambodia, etc., and I’m even more lucky to have had the upbringing and opportunities I’ve had.
Of course, but you are now comparing your luck relative to other nations, other time periods in history which is beyond the scope of this thread. On Thanksgiving, I’m always reminded how thankful I am not to have been born a Pilgrim. Yikes!
This thread is about where one stands in the context of the here and now, is it not? Why don’t the current 1% feel rich? It’s not because of medieval Europe, South Sudan, or pilgrims.
For those who believe in reincarnation and past lives (channeling Shirley McClain) you might have been born in medieval Europe. But it’s not relevant to this conversation. Lets please get back to topic.
WRT US domestic issues, our funds go much further in our current location than if we moved across country to be closer to the kids. We aren’t top 1%ers (nice job if you can get it) but would definitely be in a different financial situation in that location than here. So we try to visit often (hope the kids dont mind) and don’t have plans to relocate. At least not now. Who knows what may happen way down the road, or where the kids will end up. One is pretty settled, the other could possibly consider a move (just hypothesizing). If we ever did consider a move, we might consider a place with not state tax and no tax on pensions.
@marvin100
Totally agree with you. We are very fortunate to have the time/energy to chat on CC and not busy working two/three thifts or worrying about the safety of our kids.
As for Mr. Musk, do people know Musk got close to $5 billion government loans for his “endeavors”? It was a shame that NASA did most if not all the R/D and “handed” them all to SpaceX! Jobs was brilliant but many of the critical technologies iPod had were “adopted” from government-funded researches. So, these “geniuses”, which I do admire, were pretty darn lucky!