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0 pointsryandrake8y ago0 comments

Only numbers 8 through 10 are what any reasonable person might consider even remotely "self made" and lumping "middle-class background" and "upper-class background" into 8 (so that Mark Zuckerberg could be considered 8 instead of 7) is a stretch.

Any credible list of "self-made this" or "successful entrepreneur that" should include a disclosure of parental wealth.

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Solid_State8y ago

Also, Mark Zuckerberg went to high school at Phillips Exeter. Their current tuition is $39,000 per year for day students, and $50,000 for boarders, of which he was one (although he went during 1999 equivalent tuitions). On the 1-10 self-made scale they have, with 1 being inheritance and 10 being self-made, he ranks an 8.

So that is the bearing for this scale they made to keep in mind - the 8 of 10 toward "self-made" are the type of people who were going to $50,000 a year high schools.

haberman8y ago

Financial aid exists. Phillips Exeter's web page says that families with income under $75,000 pay $0 of tuition: https://www.exeter.edu/admissions-and-financial-aid

I went to boarding school and came from a family of two church musicians. Some of my classmates came from wealthy families, others came from very modest backgrounds.

ryandrakeOP8y ago

Raise your hand if you think Mark Zuckerberg got need-based financial aid. Hint: Both parents were doctors. Him being ranked at the same "self-made level" as a middle class kid that went to a state school is ludicrous.

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slavik818y ago

That's true, though I like that it presents "self-made" as a scale rather than something binary. It allows acknowledging differences that would have been glossed over on a binary scale.

There are big differences between how Laurene Jobs (1), Charles Koch (5), Bill Gates (8) and Oprah Winfrey (10) became as wealthy as they are, and it reflects that.

sidlls8y ago

The fact that Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg aren't 5 or lower means this scale is not credible. Both of these individuals had access to substantial capital and social connections, well above any meaningful definition of "middle-class", to jumpstart their businesses.

ameister148y ago

I don't think that's entirely fair - let's say your parents made $500,000 a year; if you made 90 billion, wouldn't that still be self-made? Sure, it's not as self-made as Carnegie or Rockefeller who would have been 10/10 as child-laborers turned wealthiest men in the world, but it's not exactly Trump or JP Morgan Jr., either.

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batbomb8y ago

The Laurene Jobs (1) is a bit dumb since she was raising the family, but whatever.

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