Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most people on US Forbes top 500 came from poverty and / or other disadvantage.
Seemed like a dubious claim, so tried to find a source and found this old article: Did the Forbes 400 Billionaires Really 'Build That'? https://www.cnbc.com/id/49167533 Trimming a lot: "United for a Fair Economy breaks down the Forbes list using a baseball analogy. It says - 35 percent of the list was born in the “batter’s box,” with a lower-middle class or middle-class background... - 22 percent of the list were bor…
Gates did not directly inherit vast wealth. But, most people’s parents don’t know the CEO of IBM back when it was the computer company.
That bottom 35% is a little doubious. Larry Ellison was put in that category, though he was adopted at a young age. Further, his adopted family had recently been wealthy which is a much better than average background for becoming rich.
Finally, the category they place Trump in vastly underplays the amount of direct family support he received. The initial gift was under 50 million, but was just the first of many. He would have become a billionaire simply putting the money given to him into the S&P 500.