Implode-o-Meter News - Most of Today's Young Billionaires Were Born Privileged

In some ways, it's great to live in the age of the nerd. And it's tough to mourn the decline of Wall Street-style corporate machismo. But a poor kid growing up today may find it much harder to emulate the life path of someone like Zuckerberg, who coded an instant messaging system before hitting puberty, than that of even Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein, who grew up in Brooklyn housing projects and at one point served concessions at Yankee Stadium to earn extra money. Â
Statistically as well as anecdotally, true American rags-to-riches stories are getting rarer. Class mobility, as defined by the percentage of children who earn more than their parents, has been in a state of mostly uninterrupted decline since the 1940s. Economist Raj Chetty found that only about half of the children born in 1980Â have surpassed their parents' income. In 1940, that number exceeded 90 percent.

Nary a mention of how the upper-crust has access to unprecedented power-money liquidity in recent decades (and especially in the post-2008 bailout era), which is likely massively increasing upward-mobility within the top 1% (to the top .00001%), as well as distancing the top 10% from the lower 90%.

Relevant:

Most of Today's Young Billionaires Were Born Privileged