Hacker News Reader

Comment by prestigious | Hacker News Reader

Generational wealth is way overstated. Steve jobs didn’t have generational wealth. Airbnb was funded by selling obama branded cereal.

View on HN

Yes, we can point to exceptions.

Inherited wealth is rather an exception: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/26/majority-of-the-worlds-riche...

Of course, rich kid will not end up like poor kid, but they will be much less rich than their parents.

What exceptions? Don't you have any restaurants or dry cleaners or any other small businesses around where you live which were started by poor immigrants?

That seems like a strange comparison. Apple and my local kebab shop are not businesses in the same league and never will be.

I hope you don't think only a multi billion dollar companies count as success. The point is: a lot of poor people start businesses all the time and a lot of them end up successful.

I would not count working 12+ hours per day 7 days a week, while barely making each months rent as success. As far as I can tell that's the reality for most non-franchise stores, small restaurants, etc.

> The point is: a lot of poor people start businesses all the time and a lot of them end up successful

What's "a lot". My bet is on the majority failing, and by that, I mean, going bankrupt before even breaking even.

I don't know. A lot more than there are companies like Apple or Google. Don't you see how many small businesses are around you when walking down a random street. Anyway why does it even matter? If only 49% of them succeeded which is less than majority, would that mean poor people cannot become successful entrepreneurs?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com