Aimeé
There is a strange American belief that anyone can “lift themselves by their bootstraps” and become a millionaire or billionaire. In theory, there aren’t any official laws that explicitly say they can’t, but the likelihood that anyone born to poverty will become a billionaire in the U.S. is essentially non-existent. There may have been a time when improving your station in life was a bit easier, but the wealth gap has gotten so wide, and wages have remained so stagnant, basic survival is the challenge for too many.
But grotesquely wealthy people like Jeff Bezos are still lauded by conservatives who want to “inspire” poor people…into not criticizing the wealthy. On July 5th, Bloomberg anchor Jon Erlichman tweeted a photo of the house Bezos started Amazon in. Compared to his digs now, I’m sure it looks like an outhouse, but in reality, it’s a solidly upper-middle-class home.
On this day in 1994: Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in his garage. pic.twitter.com/vtlu570KeX
— Jon Erlichman (@JonErlichman) July 5, 2020
This is a story frequently told about Bezos, as though he created one of the most exploitative and profitable companies in the world during the weekends when he had time off from coal-mining. That’s not the real story at all, as writer Aiden Smith explained in a thread on the myths of billionaires starting out “poor.”
He started with Bezos, explaining he got $245,573 from his parents in 1995 to keep Amazon from failing. Then he hit a few more favorites:
Jeff Bezos
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 ⧖ (@AidanSmith2020) July 6, 2020
Bill Gates
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 ⧖ (@AidanSmith2020) July 6, 2020
Warren Buffet
The tale of Warren Buffett is told as if he was a scrappy upstart living in a lower-middle class suburban home in Omaha who had a knack for investing. In reality his dad was a congressman (and Bob Taft’s campaign manager!) and, uh… pic.twitter.com/GmjyMCKYlU
— Aidan Smith ⧖ (@AidanSmith2020) July 6, 2020
Mark Zuckerberg
…and got software developer David Newman to give him private tutoring in computer science before he even entered college. Zuckerberg, is, like others mentioned, an intelligent individual in his own right, but if he was born into a working-class family he simply…
— Aidan Smith ⧖ (@AidanSmith2020) July 6, 2020
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’s did, can’t be underestimated. There is no fair playing field.
— Aidan Smith ⧖ (@AidanSmith2020) July 6, 2020
Kylie Jenner
People laugh when Kylie Jenner is described as a “self-made billionaire” as if she doesn’t come from one of the wealthiest/best-known families on Earth, but really, it’s no more absurd then describing Gates’/Bezos’ wealth as being a “self-made” product of meritocracy.
— Aidan Smith ⧖ (@AidanSmith2020) July 6, 2020
And he didn’t even get to Elon Musk, the weirdo whose parents literally own an emerald mine in Zambia. Yes, a lot of people celebrated for their ambition and work ethic have never had to work as hard as someone who has three jobs at minimum wage, no education or opportunities, and definitely no family money. And those people won’t ever get to be billionaires.
It’s bizarre to me that anyone worships these people, who often exploit labor and support politicians like Donald Trump, who keep their taxes low. But if you do want to look up to someone like Jeff Bezos, at least read more about him than “he started Amazon in a garage.” That garage might be even bigger than your apartment.
