Comments on: mommy, where do billionaires come from?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:51:37 +0000

You forgot the 1% from Franklin Pierce…. ME! hahah

By: DjEttDizzle

DjEttDizzle — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:28:13 +0000

In an attemot to find the economic value of an Ivy Leage degree, some reputable publication (which one, I forget) did a study of the lifetime earnings of people that transfered out of Ivy League schools versus students that actually graduated from Ivies. The study found no significant difference between the salaries of the two groups, possibly indicating that the actual degree (and/or the last 2 or 3 years of an Ivy education) isn’t worth as much as having the family connections/right stuff to get into those schools.

Or it could mean that the value of the degree and education gives you about the same boost as having the confidence to bail on an elitist degree in favor of a cheaper education.

By: PiFry

PiFry — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:14:41 +0000

Or maybe they got into Harvard because they came from loaded families with tons of money and connections, and the “right stuff” mattered as little as the education.

For a nice example of this effect on a non-billionaire (but on someone who could have been had he gone that route), take George W. Bush. Harvard MBA. Has never once successfully run a business or enterprise in many attempts over the course of his career (his list of enterprises he has failed to run even moderately well includes oil companies, timber companies, baseball teams, and sovereign national superpowers). And yet…