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Comment by exabrial | Hacker News Reader

Correlation, not Causation

The actual cause is more than likely: parents who have high income set a precedent for self-employment.

Doesn't fit in with what I've seen personally. Most of the people I know who've started companies have parents in high-paying jobs where they work for someone else, e.g. finance, medicine.

Edit: I'm also not saying you need to have family help to be a successful entrepreneur. Maybe the most successful person I know personally did it on his own, but he is unusual.

From my anecdotical experience: more children from well off families are optimistic and have more tolerance to economic risks. It's not that they need the family's money to start a venture, but that they know they can fall back on it, if it doesn't go well

Fields like finance and medicine require both a good amount of intelligence and an exceptional work ethic.

Perhaps if the source of the parents' money were lottery winnings, the correlation with entrepreneurial success would vanish.

Yes, except I'm mostly talking about Harvard grads, so everyone is smart with a good work ethic.

"Everyone"? Isn't that the community college that Jared Kushner went to?

Yeah, he sure sounds like a low achiever.

This, but unironically.

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-story-behind-jared-ku...

Society will be far better off once Harvard's endowment is taxed and redistributed to oblivion.

You wouldn't say this if you got into Harvard. You've admitted as much in your other comments.

What's your point? Spread the wealth around for the rest of us regardless.

Risk tolerance and deferred gratification are heritable traits.

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