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Is success tied to having rich parents?

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Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#101

Post by 999900000999 »

notacoward wrote: post #99
999900000999 wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be happy to just get rid of the FASA system which assumes family stability. A good friend of mine has to estrange herself from her family since they were extremely abusive. If someone is mistreating you,the only real option is to leave. But in America you basically can't get college aid if you don't talk to your parents until your 24. We should give everyone aid for college regardless of income. Hell, this would…

I fell into exactly one of those traps because financial aid was predicated on a parental contribution that was not really possible (because my mother had to spend that money on her own uncovered medical expenses). I know many others who have also been denied the aid they needed, and no few who received aid they didn't need. Basically every system in the US - not just education and health care but also housing, trans…

Same here, I ended up dropping out of college at 22 and by the time I came back to finish I was making six figures.

I don't really think a lot of these systems are intentionally malicious, But they assume a very specific type of family structure.

If you don't have stable parents, even just tracking them down to ask him to fill out a FAFSA can be impossible.

We have the money as a society, if you do something stupid, they'll find $70,000 a year to lock you up.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#102

Post by jandrewrogers »

jccalhoun wrote: post #32

This is the thing that drives me crazy. The true rags to riches stories are incredibly rare. In the USA we love the stories about the person that came from nothing and the self-made millionaire but in the vast majority of cases if you look at the person's history you will see they grew up in at least an upper middle class family. This applies to a lot of actors and musicians as well. After all, most of us couldn't af…

For something that is "incredibly rare", I sure seem to know an enormous number of people that managed to bootstrap their way out of real poverty and into real wealth. At least a dozen. It isn't that exceptional, you are overfitting on having heard of them; the vast, vast majority are never going to be written about nor advertise the fact. In many contexts, it is beneficial to pretend like you had an upper-middle class upbringing, so people learn to wear that facade well.

When I see assertions like the above made, it makes me think that it is an assumption made by people that haven't actually spent much time living among the lower economic classes.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#103

Post by abhaynayar »

Entwickler wrote: post #17
lazypenguin wrote: post #10

Rich parents means you eat better, have access to higher quality resources, have more time for fitness, more time to go to the doctor for preventative issues. Rich parents means you don’t have to work two jobs or work while studying. Means you have free “consulting” on life decisions from the perspective of the upper class. Means you access to new things like computers, phones, cars, etc. It’s a huge advantage to com…

I would agree with a lot of this. On the flip side, there's the sayings "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times." and "Wealth does not last beyond three generations". I've anecdotally seen this where kids from rich parents take a lot of their wealth for granted and don't understand fully what it takes to build-up and retain wealth for the…

I've always had a gripe with the "Hard times..." saying, because in reality, hard times just crush people. The few people that survive hard times are of course exceptionally strong or lucky, but they are exceptions.

I can say through my personal experience since I've worked in Switzerland and India: Just because India is having a harder time, doesn't mean we are stronger people, quite the contrary. I don't think good times are anywhere near for India and I don't think hard times are anywhere near for Switzerland.

(Switch Switzerland with any developed country.)

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#104

Post by UncleMeat »

Entwickler wrote: post #17
lazypenguin wrote: post #10

Rich parents means you eat better, have access to higher quality resources, have more time for fitness, more time to go to the doctor for preventative issues. Rich parents means you don’t have to work two jobs or work while studying. Means you have free “consulting” on life decisions from the perspective of the upper class. Means you access to new things like computers, phones, cars, etc. It’s a huge advantage to com…

I would agree with a lot of this. On the flip side, there's the sayings "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times." and "Wealth does not last beyond three generations". I've anecdotally seen this where kids from rich parents take a lot of their wealth for granted and don't understand fully what it takes to build-up and retain wealth for the…

There are also a lot of dumb sayings. There is a large amount of scientific evidence demonstrating large and lasting impacts of things like nutrition and parental involvement in education (both early education and ordinary primary education). Hard times might create some hard men. They also just kill a lot of people.

I've anecdotally seen people from impoverished backgrounds struggle to work in a healthy manner for long term success because of trauma dealing with short term needs on a consistent basis.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#105

Post by scsilver »

Entwickler wrote: post #17
lazypenguin wrote: post #10

Rich parents means you eat better, have access to higher quality resources, have more time for fitness, more time to go to the doctor for preventative issues. Rich parents means you don’t have to work two jobs or work while studying. Means you have free “consulting” on life decisions from the perspective of the upper class. Means you access to new things like computers, phones, cars, etc. It’s a huge advantage to com…

I would agree with a lot of this. On the flip side, there's the sayings "Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times." and "Wealth does not last beyond three generations". I've anecdotally seen this where kids from rich parents take a lot of their wealth for granted and don't understand fully what it takes to build-up and retain wealth for the…

You talk to a professional if you want to retain wealth for the long term. Would you roll your own auth? Rich -pepper have better access to talented professionals.

There’s obviously a balance between wealth and stress that is useful for happiness/success. But I believe it’s very easy to accidentally traumatize with unbridled stress on a developing person. For example I’m still healing a year from a shoulder overuse injury. Would have been wiser to focus on backing away from the stressors at that point. From what I have seen, rich environments have plenty of bridled stressors, and these rich kids are developing plenty thick skin, just with adequate supervision.

Maybe this generation is different from past ones due to our access to the internet and it’s human refining nature.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#106

Post by joshstrange »

lazypenguin wrote: post #10

Rich parents means you eat better, have access to higher quality resources, have more time for fitness, more time to go to the doctor for preventative issues. Rich parents means you don’t have to work two jobs or work while studying. Means you have free “consulting” on life decisions from the perspective of the upper class. Means you access to new things like computers, phones, cars, etc. It’s a huge advantage to com…

Not to mention the safety net you always know you can fall back on. I would do everything in my power to avoid asking my parents for help but at the end of the day if I lost my job, couldn't find a new one, and fell on hard times I know I could go to them. I have not lived my life in a way where I might need that (aka taking big risks) but it's in the back of my head and that's a huge peace of mind that many people don't have. In the same vein I could join my parents in their profession (I don't think I'd enjoy it but it's good money and I'd be a shoo-in), that has to affect me on a low level that I don't even realize.

I consider myself to have been fairly successful in my career and while I've worked hard for it, I know at the same time I was born with massive advantages. One of the most depressing things is when I see people who I know have relied on their parents a ton who are completely against any type of social programs. It's frustrating that they can't see that they had "free healthcare" (on parent's plan) till they were 26, that they have UBI in the form of weekly/monthly allowance deep into their adult years, or that they have guaranteed housing when they had to move back in for a few years.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#107

Post by stronglikedan »

skywritergr wrote: post #9

Once you don't have to worry about not having to pay rent, not having to pay electricity etc then your appetite for risks grows. To get to that point you either need to start from a rich household (parents) or get to a certain age, have some money to support you (from previous work) and then go into entrepreneurial experiments. This is a big reason why you see older entrepreneurs embarking into that journey.

> Once you don't have to worry about not having to pay rent, not having to pay electricity etc then your appetite for risks grows

You could say the opposite, and it would be just as true. Risk is an individual choice, not an environmental one.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#108

Post by jjj123 »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #96
jjj123 wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree with everything you said, but just want to add a couple additional hurdles to even being considered “smart”: - going to a bad public school because you live in a poor area has ripple effects that may put you in a worse position than some private prep school kid - if you grew up in poverty, your brain will literally grow differently due to chronic stress, environmental toxins, lack of stimulation, etc. [1]. We p…

Years ago, I saw a study that said that there is as much child neglect and drug abuse in rich neighborhoods as in ghettos. Good parents tend to be middle class because, yes, you need to be able to feed the kids adequately etc but you also need to actually spend time with the kids and care about them. Money can't buy you love.

It can’t buy love, but it can buy food security, shelter, medical care, and decent schooling.

I’m not saying growing up rich is always easy, but the point is it’s _more likely_ to be easy than if you’re poor.

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#109

Post by pabe »

Yes. Look at "elite" universities like Harvard etc. - you basically pay a fortune to get in there and get access to the social network. And that network is what really makes the difference.

Also, successful founders often try long enough so that luck finally strikes them. Without money, that's hard to do.

Read more here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55277918-super-founders

Re: Is success tied to having rich parents?

#110

Post by notacoward »

newaccount74 wrote: post #55

I don't have rich parents and I'm not a successful startup founder. I guess this confirms it! Joking aside, I don't think it's just about the money or the safety net -- most parents can afford to support their kids for a few years after college. I think the biggest advantage is an understanding for entrepreneurial spirit. When I started my business (not a startup), my biggest problem was having no role model and havi…

> most parents can afford to support their kids for a few years after college

Are you sure about that? And even if it's true for most, how many exceptions are you willing to allow before you'll consider that lack of a safety net is a real limitation?

> If your parents are "rich", chances are they are entrepreneurs of some kind themselves

That statement also seems "lightly supported" to put it mildly. What about doctors, lawyers, MBAs, people who inherited, people who had seven-figure years at a MAGMA, etc.? In fact, let's focus on that last one. It's well known that Microsoft has created thousands of millionaires. A mere handful were entrepreneurs. Most were regular employees who drew generous regular paychecks and also had some stock/options. A minority even of those took much risk working for Microsoft before it was already a big company. Ditto Google/Alphabet, ditto Amazon, ditto Facebook/Meta. They're all minting hundreds of new millionaires every month, and none of those are entrepreneurs. I think your sample might be a bit skewed.

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