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Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates. Behind Every Self-Made Billionaire is a Father with Money
(mohaboelez.medium.com)
this post was submitted on 27 Dec 2023
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Economics
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Upper middle class middle class with families and connections who had spare money to invest and just far enough along that they had the kids were raised with the drive to gather even more wealth. If they had been more wealthy they wouldn't have the drive, if they were less well off then they wouldn't have the advantages to make that drive happen.
"With money" doesn't mean all the money. It means plenty of money. Gates loves to tell the story about how he started his company in his father's garage. That was a three car garage because they could afford a large house with a lot of extra space Bill could use for free while starting his business.
The parents could afford to send them to prestigious schools where they made connections.
The parents had money. Recognizing this is not jealousy, it is a reason to acknowledge that massive wealth does not come from effort alone.
you guys have skewed views of middle class. What do you consider upper class?
Since there is a ton of variation on cost of living and other factors by region, I just go by rough percentages because anything more is too complex to generalize. So the following is my view, which can be applied nationally or within a state/region as the outcome is basically the same. Keep in mind that after basic expenses are paid and someone can afford to invest their long term investments and other wealth are generally not included in their income despite their actual wealth continuing to increase allowing them access to loans and other monetary options that the middle class just doesn't have.
So how I see it by income:
Upper class as top 10%
Upper middle class would be 75%-90%
Middle class 25%-75%
Sure, people in California won't have the same monthly costs at 100k+ income to someone in the midwest, but the person in California who owns a home is building up a lot more wealth and options for loans/mortgages in higher amounts than someone in the midwest with a cheaper home. Renting is a different thing, but upper middle class and above have the option to buy and increase their wealth and puts them even further above middle class and below that aren't able to do the same or aren't able to save on top of the house payments.
What do you consider upper class?