It takes a village to make a millionaire. (Buffet and others)

[barbaraann]

RESPONSIBLE WEALTH PRESS RELEASE
June 24, 2004
Contact: Bob Keener
[phone] x26

It Takes a Village to Make a Millionaire
New Report Blasts Myth of the Self-Made Man
Download the report PDF 280 KB

"I personally think that society is responsible for a very significant percentage of what I've earned."

—Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway

A new report, "I Didn't Do It Alone: Society's Contribution to Individual Wealth and Success," spotlights successful entrepreneurs and concludes that the myth of self-made success is destructive to the social and economic infrastructure that fosters wealth creation.

Martin Rothenberg, the son of a housepainter and sales clerk, grew up to become a multimillionaire software entrepreneur.

Investor Warren Buffett is the world's second-wealthiest person.

Ben Cohen co-founded Ben & Jerry's with no business background and walked away with $40 million when the company was sold years later.

While these three seem typical examples of self-made success, they're not. None of them believes they did it on their own. Like others profiled in the report, they attribute their success to many factors, among them public schools and colleges, government investment in research and small business assistance, contributions of employees, and strong legal and financial systems.
... http://www.vendio.com/mesg/read.html?num=28&thread=223184


http://www.responsiblewealth.org/press/2004/NotAlone_pr.html

http://www.faireconomy.org/

I think these are some great resources to counter the GOP meme that we need to give all our money to the wealthy because only THEY ALONE can create a healthy economy and the meme that there are "self-made men" who owe NOTHING to working class Americans.

[wryter2000]

1. Wow

Awesome. Thanks.

[barbaraann]

4. You're welcome.

I think I heard about this on AAR.

[CrispyQ]

2. I'm proud to work for a multi-multi-millionaire . . .

...who has started two companies that went public & is now working on his third company idea. He is a democrat & he never whines a bit about the taxes he pays. His philisophy: Whenever I pay lots of taxes, I've made lots & lots of money.

He pays all of us a very decent wage, 80% of all of our health benefits, has a charity matching program, 4 weeks paid vacation & is a good man to work for. I wish more rich people were like him.

[wryter2000]

5. Give your boss a pat on the back

People like that are a huge part of what has made this country strong and will again when we have the pretenders out of office.

[AmandaRuth]

3. yes very good

i heard snippets of bully monsons show the other day, about our roaring economy, he said over and over that homeownership was up and up, but no mention of bankruptcies, foreclosures, and the staggering amount of consumer cc debt, or the trend in wages going down.

It is nice to read something that talks about the whole picture.