How many billionaires are really self-made?

The Forbes 400 are a ranking of the wealthiest Americans. In order to get a place in the list, pure assets of around $ 2.9 billion must now be demonstrated – in the previous year 2.1 billion. The ranking contains 44 new names this year and said goodbye to some well -known, such as Donald Trump. The collective assets of these 400 people rose by a total of 40 percent last year. What has not increased, on the other hand, is the philanthropy. The number of list members who donate more than 20 percent of their assets for charitable purposes has dropped from ten to eight – this corresponds to two percent of all 400 billionaires.

Among the world's elite, many people proudly describe themselves as self-made billionaires. But how many of them can rightly say this about themselves? Forbes analyzed the careers of all 400 entries on the list and divided them into one of ten categories.

The first six categories are occupied by people who have inherited some or all of their wealth. A distinction is also made as to whether these people continue to work or to what extent they have contributed to increasing their wealth. Around 29.5 percent of the list belongs to this category. Examples of this would be Walmart heir Jim Walton and Dolby heiress Dagmar Dolby.

Category number six is ​​reserved for the 3.3 percent of billionaires who made their fortune as employees of a large company, such as former Microsoft CEO and Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer.

The last four categories are those of self-made billionaires and probably the most interesting. A total of around 67.3 percent of the Forbes 400 falls into this section. But Selfmade is not immediately self -made. As the lower graphic shows, about a tenth of these 269 people grew up with rich parents, another 59.5 percent come from the middle class – including the currently four richest people in the USA; Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg and Gates.

The working class has produced around 18.6 percent of self-made super-rich. Only about 28 people (10.4 percent) among the Forbes 400 live the proverbial American dream. Examples include hedge fund tycoon George Soros and talk show icon Oprah Winfrey.

 

 

 

Xpert.digital – Konrad Wolfenstein

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