Photo by: Upworthy
A thread by a Twitter user has gone viral after it poked holes in the lie that American billionaires came from nothing to produce their vast wealth. While many billionaires are certainly much richer than when they began, they certainly didn't live the 'rags-to-riches' tale that many have been sold.
Aidan Smith created the thread in response to a tweet by Jon Erlichman, who said that Jeff Bezos, now the world's man, built his Amazon company from his parent's garage.
Aidan started by saying:
"Cute propaganda. In reality, Bezos's mommy and daddy gave him $245,573 to stop Amazon from failing in 1995, but you'd never know it from listening to our right-wing mainstream media that blames poverty on personal failure and attributes wealth to personal virtue."
Cute propaganda. In reality Bezos's mommy and daddy gave him $245,573 to stop Amazon from failing in 1995, but you'd never know it from listening to our right-wing mainstream media that blames poverty on personal failure and attributes wealth to personal virtue. https://t.co/vM15SKIcWs
— Aidan Smith (@aidan_smx) July 6, 2020
He continued:
"You can find this in the backstory of almost every billionaire. The story of Bill Gates is told as if he was a normal guy who dropped out of college to pursue his dream when in reality his mom Mary Gates, the president of United Way, convinced IBM to hire Microsoft to build an OS. Gates is a talented individual but his career break wouldn't have happened if he wasn't the child of wealthy, well-connected parents who were able to convince IBM to hire the-then obscure Microsoft to build an OS. He likely wouldn't be a billionaire if he was born working-class."
You can find this in the backstory of almost every billionaire. The story of Bill Gates is told as if he was a normal guy who dropped out of college to pursue his dream when in reality his mom Mary Gates, the president of United Way, convinced IBM to hire Microsoft to build an OS pic.twitter.com/OOX1ELjMLb
— Aidan Smith (@aidan_smx) July 6, 2020
Aidan also spoke out regarding Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and other billionaires:
"Remember: People took such an interest in Zuckerberg to begin with because he already entered college with the reputation as a computing prodigy, which, again, couldn't have happened if his parents didn't hire a software developer to tutor him. The benefits of having wealthy parents, even if they don't give you a 1/4 million as Bezos' did, can't be underestimated. There is no fair playing field."
...wouldn’t have had the same opportunities as he did. Remember: People took such an interest in Zuckerberg to begin with because he already entered college with the reputation as...
— Aidan Smith (@aidan_smx) July 6, 2020
Adding:
"It's far from a U.S.-exclusive phenomenon, but in America, it's easier for most people to imagine becoming a billionaire themselves than it is to imagine an economic order in which a handful of people own half the world's wealth. Social mobility from working-class to middle-class is increasingly out of reach and the illusion that one can conceivably amass a net worth of over a billion dollars is a comforting fantasy for many people. For one, even in the rare cases in which people from working-class backgrounds amass exorbitant wealth, it's still not 'self-made' given that amassing wealth on that scale will always have come from ruthless exploitation of others."
[Based on reporting by: Upworthy]
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