The Self Made Myth

[47of74]

Just saw this article that said a lot of the self made stories are a bunch of bullshit. 

Quote

The ultra-wealthy often love to pretend that they are self-made. Maybe it makes them feel better about squandering wealth while others who work hard continue to financially struggle. Maybe they need to believe that their success is purely because of their own virtue. Maybe they’re just stories we circulate among ourselves to buy into the lie that anyone, ANYONE, can find insane success if they’re “good” enough.

But in reality, just about every billionaire had some massive leg up early in their career that ultimately set them on the path to their extreme wealth, and that wouldn’t have been available if wealth and connections hadn’t already been in their lives.

Boils my blood how people who were born on third base and think they hit a fucking triple act like they’re self made. 

[Ozlsn]

What sums it up for me is:

"If we need to pretend billionaires started from nothing in order to find their success inspirational, there’s definitely a problem. Perhaps if they ran companies that paid all employees enough money to where they could provide a stable home for their own children, who would then be just as capable of pursuing their own brilliant business ideas with a financial safety net, successful people wouldn’t feel the need to craft a lie of making it all on their own.

But if billionaires ran companies that paid employees fairly, they probably wouldn’t have ever become billionaires at all."

If they paid tax at even the same level as most workers, if they contributed to community much more than they took out it would be less controversial.