19 year old millionaire: Self-made man, or beneficiary?

VIDEO:

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/player.html?url=/video/business/2006/06/04/harris.young.millionaire.cnn


A 19-year-old college freshman runs a multimillion-dollar business. CNN's Tony Harris reports (June 4)


This story is interesting to me because I think it typifies and promotes certain right-wing conceits about what creates sucess in this country, and how well-deserved it actually is, and just how out of reach it is for so many Americans.

Not to take anything away from young Mr. Belnick, or his ambition, hard work or accomplishments. I'm sure he's a bright, wonderful young man.

But in the same breath that the narrator calls him a "self-made millionaire", he mentions that it was "with the help of his stepdad, who was already in the furniture business.


Can anyone honestly say that a typical working class kid with two parents working 3 jobs, who can't afford a decent computer, much less a way of teaching him to be an internet whiz, would have the same opportunity for such wild success? How about a black kid in the ghetto, having grown up using the "Ebonics" dialect - would his prospective clients respond as positively on the phone, assuming the black kid would even have a dad in a position to finance his business venture?

It just gives lie to the whole farce of there being a "level playing field" in this country. I don't mind people like this making a success of themselves - what bugs me is when they do so, and then are so smug about it and ungrateful for all the blessings and advantages that helped put them where they are. I've known lots of young black kids with that same entrepreneurial spirit who put every cent into burning some CDs, then went out day after day to try to hustle them, then ended up with nothing. Nobody to sing their praises.


Maybe what we need in schools is a class on "humility", ESPECIALLY in the middle and upper-class schools.

else to get where they are.

I'm not saying it doesn't involve hard work. But everyone needs at least A LITTLE help to really get somewhere. Anyone who believes otherwise either a) never had to go it alone OR b) is an idealistic idiot.

who gave his son's fledgling company a substantial financial boost. And before that he sent him through years of a very challenging private school.

I'm not blaming the parents for having the means to send Gates there, and he probably did need the challenge. But no one should delude themselves into thinking that their kid could be the next Bill Gates -- unless they have similar means to back their brilliant kid up.

Actually, the senior Bill Gates seems like a pretty good guy. He's among the people fighting to RETAIN the estate tax.

...but I just hate it when rightwingers say "Bill Gates started Microsoft in a GARAGE!, so there's no excuse for ANY poor person not becoming a millionaire!"


No, I know a lot of wealthy people who are well aware of their good fortune. The people who spout this stuff are as likely to be broke, debt-ridden wannabes as real successful people.

state temporary workers; only after a prolonged lawsuit were their legal rights upheld (Microsoft ended up paying significant back-pay and benefits). Other software companies don't sing the praises of Microsoft, either; Microsoft is still not fulfilling numerous court orders, a huge issue in the EU.

start in a garage, more or less, along with Steve Jobs. But definitely not Bill Gates.

And Wozniak graduated from Berkeley, as opposed to Gates who is a Harvard drop-out.

is the way Trump has been lionized as some kind example of America's open-ended opportunities. His millionaire developer dad backed his initial loans. And when his recklessness eventually left a backwash of ruined investors, his dad's death (by then a billionaire) enabled him to rebound relatively unscathed. The Donald has always been a loud sizzle without a shred of steak.

He's the worst of America, all round, IMHO.

bail him out - it wasn't much of a risk for him to throw away a college education (much less a Harvard education) - he knew he could always change his mind later and his family would help foot the bill.

I know someone (late 20s) who sat around for over a year, looking for the "right" job, wouldn't take any job just to pay the bills (his parents were supporting him). How many Americans can afford to do that, can afford to take the risk of running up credit card debt, when we don't have someone to bail us out if the perfect job never comes along?

Availability of parental money (or family money of some sort) really opens up options: some college students can take on an unpaid internship or take advantage of some summer research program (that may help land a job later) while others need to work every possible hour they can to pay their tuition. The playing field is far from level. I know while I was in college, there were plenty of opportunities I simply couldn't take advantage of because I needed to pay my share (as well as my parent's share) of my college expenses.

because what parent doesn't want to do the best for their kid? But I do resent it when people smugly attribute their success to nothing but their hard work, when luck and good parents are such a huge factor. Our society should be helping everyone to make the most of themselves, not just the select few.

Frederick Douglass, now THAT was a self-made man.

I'm not impressed by people like this. Meh.

Li Ka Shing has 18.8 Billion dollars. His father was teacher.

Roman Abramovich has 18.2 Billion dollars. He lost both parents by the time he was four years old.

Larry Ellison has 18.4 Billion dollars. He was born to a 19-year-old unwed mother.


Of course there is an advantage to being born rich, but being born poor doesn't count you out.

the other 99.5% will be lucky to hit "middle class" in this country, if that. The idea of class mobility in this country has been proven nothing more than a pipe dream to most. If you are born poor, chances are you will die poor, same for everybody else in all the other classes as well. This has actually become MORE of a reality in the past 30 years or so, in the past, the idea of living in a modest home, with one parent working, and supporting the family, wasn't farfetched, now, with median wages having fallen by over 10%, class mobility is becoming even harder to accomplish, and when it is accomplished, it usually goes in the other direction. Remember this, most Americans are a paycheck or two from homelessness.

That's quite a story.

are failures. And there really isn't enough wealth to go around for everyone to be a millionaire.

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