What if Donald Trump was born poor. .

[B Calm]

Do you think he would be rich today? He wouldn't be any richer than the average working stiff. He never created, invented anything his entire life.

[stone space]

1. He'd have had a much different life, and might very well have...

...grown up to be a decent, thoughtful, and caring human being.

[ShrimpPoboy]

26. Yup

It's hard to build real character when you're handed everything.

[yeoman6987]

2. He might be rich but it would have taken longer and probably would not be as rich

Many today are rich after being born dirt poor.

[B Calm]

6. Some are rich, but what % end up that way? Donald made his fortune in real estate

without ever pounding a nail. The old saying it takes money to make money wouldn't apply to Trump if he had been born poor.

[melm00se]

15. that is a good question

http://www.fa-mag.com/news/most-millionaires-self-made--study-says-14565.html

Most Americans with $1 million or more in assets made their money on their own, according to a study by BMO Private Bank released today.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/03/there-are-more-self-made-billionaires-in-the-forbes-400-than-ever-before/#2715e4857a0b6b3a07c5e0a5

Over the past 30 years, the origin of the wealth of the richest people in the United States has shifted away from old, inherited money. Our new metric, the self-made scores developed for the Forbes 400, shows that increasingly we find self-made billionaires among the ranks of the richest people in the country.

[B Calm]

17. Again, what percentage of people who were born poor end up rich?

[melm00se]

22. the information necessary to provide at least one

answer to your question is in the second article with more information included in a link embedded in the article

to help you out ever more:

Step #1: look at the Forbes 1-10 scale and determine which rank(s) meet(s) your definition of "poor" (10 certainly does but what about 9? or 8?)
Step #2: determine the distribution of the scale across the Fortune 400.
Step #3: do some math

there you go: you have one possible answer.

[B Calm]

25. Doesn't answer my question.

[KentuckyWoman]

19. It is not possible to make a million on your own.

If people like me and you were unwilling to live below our means so there was a little money floating in the financial system then there would not be anything to lend to "self made" millionaires.

Not to mention the fact we are all willing to work for them. We are willing to live and create an ordered society that is stable enough to grow a business in. We are willing help pay for the schools that educated that millionaire. We are willing to help pay for the roads and electrical grid and the security force that helps get them where they need to go to conduct business, gets customers to them, and moves their product around.

Any business owner who claims to be "self made" is an ungrateful wretch.

[MillennialDem]

23. Earning/buying/investing $1 million in assets is very different than $300 million

Earning $1 million in assets is $250,000 home and $750,000 in retirement accounts/pensions. That's doable by a lot of middle class folks by the time they hit retirement. Not all, but a lot can do it.

That's very different than having even $2 million in assets though and unobtainable for most. And there are more people with $1,000,000 - $1,999,999 in assets than they are people with $2 million (OR MORE) in assets. And there are more people with $2,000,000 - $2,999,999 than there are people with $3 million (OR MORE) ETC

EDIT: So saying the majority of millionaires are self made is not really a useful statement. If most folks with $1,000,000 - $1,999,999 are self made, you might as well make the same declaration (most millionaires are self made) and it will be true.

[daleanime]

7. How ever it is by far the least common path to riches....

with the most common being inherited wealth.

[melm00se]

16. see post #15

[daleanime]

18. Gee, who funded the study?

No chance that could affect the findings at all.

[melm00se]

29. why not google

"self made millionaire statistics"?

How about "The Millionaire Next Door"?

Dr.'s Stanley and Danko's survey showed that ~80% are 1st generation affluent.

the numbers are not outliers they are pretty consistent regardless of the source.

[daleanime]

39. Why would I be interested in the statistics....

that were produced by a millionaire?

[MillennialDem]

30. It's a bad argument, because most "millionaires" have $1,000,000 - $1,999,999 in assets. That's

very attainable "self made".

Making $100,000,000 self made is another story.

Millionaire doesn't have the same meaning as did it on reruns of Gilligan's Island I watched in the 1980s as a kid. The equivalent of Thurston Howle today is someone who EARNS (whether by wages as a CEO or capital gains) $1,000,000 PER YEAR. Not someone who has $1,000,000 in assets.

And of course what counts as "self made"? What if a man has $100,000 in home equity and a $600,000 401 (k) (or pension,what have you) and his mother dies. Her house is worth $250,000 and she had another $100,000 in assets herself. The man sells/rolls over the assets to his own. Is he now a self made millionaire? He has over $1,000,000 in assets and inherited under half of it...

[Kingofalldems]

11. Can you name some, say 1000.

'Many' would mean 10's of thousands.

[madokie]

3. I'd say he probably

would have already died from alcoholism. Personalities like his don't make it long in the real world.

[hobbit709]

4. He'd probably still be an ass.

[TIME TO PANIC]

40. And owe thousands in child support.

[fleur-de-lisa]

5. He would currently be an armed seditionist at the Malheur Refuge . . .

begging for cheesy poofs and snacky cakes, then whining about the bag of dicks and glitter he received.

[2naSalit]

36. +1!

[yellowcanine]

8. He would be richer today if he had put all of daddy's money into a stock fund.

So by that standard he is pretty much a failure. He hasn't so much as "created wealth" as conned a whole lot of people including himself into making bad investment decisions into his sundry enterprises.

[onecaliberal]

9. No, his father gave him the money.

[lpbk2713]

10. An ass kicking would be a regular occurrence for him.

If he were to grow up as the snotty little dipshit that we see
today there would be numerous attitude adjustment sessions.

[patricia92243]

12. He has a high IQ, so he would probably do well in life. But without the help at the start from

Daddy, it is doubtful he would be as rich as he is today.

[maveric]

45. He says he has a high IQ

Because he went to the best schools. That remains to be seen.

[Mendocino]

13. D-Rump really

downplays the "small loan" of a million dollars that his father gave him. That loan from 1968 would be worth almost $7,000,000 today, hardly small, actually sort of "yooge". How many people in life could get an amount of that size from a parent with what I imagine were very easy terms? The only thing self made about him is repellent personality and massive bigotry.

[annabanana]

47. He describes this loan as "paying his dues" because he had to pay his dad back...

WITH INTEREST!

[Mendocino]

56. Like Willard and Queen Anne,

(paraphrase) " We had to sell off some of our trust funds to survive". Life is so tough!

[11 Bravo]

14. He'd be an impoverished racist, jackass, fuckwad?

[Orsino]

20. He would have had to learn things, to work, and to respect others. He'd have been different.

You can't create a Donald Trump without massive infusions of money into a carefully climate-controlled and soundproofed laboratory flask. If exposed to normal atmospheric pressure, they wilt.

[KentuckyWoman]

21. His lack of conscious is the issue not his wealth.

Granted most people who are good at self promotion use it for selfish reasons and have no conscious about doing so at other's expense. He's not alone in that.

But the man takes it to a whole other level. He is proud of the fact he destroys communities and families in his efforts to make a quick buck. He'll gladly screw his own bankers in a heartbeat and relish ever second of it.

The man is gross beyond words.

[Takket]

24. no he'd be a "loser" (his word)

[B Calm]

55. HUGE LOSER!

[TIME TO PANIC]

27. He'd be a used car salesman.

No offense to used car salesmen.

[bklyncowgirl]

31. Yeah, I could see that. Or some low level real estate developer/landlord one step ahead of the law.

He's a good salesman and self-promoter. I could see him being a slightly shady business type--not trusted by the elites--but smart and ruthless. I doubt he'd be anywhere as big as he is now.

[TIME TO PANIC]

35. He'd definitely be doing something shady.

Maybe a strip club owner.

[bklyncowgirl]

44. I've known plenty of New York City landlords who fit his profile quite nicely.

They'll screw you this way to Sunday but always manage to stay on the right side of the law.

[MillennialDem]

34. Relevant user name

[TIME TO PANIC]

38. It's better to keep a cool head,

but we should have a sense of urgency.

[Squinch]

51. I was going to say that he would be working at the third best tire repair shop in town.

No offense to guys who repair tires.

[redstatebluegirl]

28. He would have a hard time keeping a job at McDonalds.

[bulloney]

32. To paraphrase: A million bucks ain't what it used to be.

You can be worth over $1 million because you own farmland and machinery, as is the case with a lot of people around where I live. I've seen farms go for $4-8000/acre. At $8000/acre, that's only 125 acres, which is not much to own these days. Even 250 acres at $4000/acre is not a big farm. Add to the value of your buildings, machinery, equipment, livestock (if any) and it's not difficult to be worth over $1 million - on paper.

Even modest homes go for $300-400,000, plus the value of the lot it sets on.

Make no mistake - the real wealth is with the old blueblood families. They're worth billions.

[MillennialDem]

33. Right, a better definition of what people imagine as a millionaire (like Thurston Howle or

Mr. Burns or Carter Pewterschmidt)

is someone who earns at least $1 millionaire a year (IOW, likely has over $10 million in assets)

In which case, even those are the bush leaguers of millionaires. Romney is a triple Aer who could get called up to the majors, and people like the Kochs are the pros.

Someone with $1 million doesn't even get on a college team.

[2naSalit]

37. I think he'd probably

be dead or in prison by now. He's a psychopath/sociopath... he'd likely have ended up being a hit man for the mob and be caught, thus prison or dead.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

41. He would've been beaten to death sometime in his 30's.

Assuming the same mouth and attitude he holds as a rich person, that's my guess.

[Sam_Fields]

42. He would be a truck driver that listens to Limbaugh everyday.

[B Calm]

50. It takes skills to drive an 18 wheeler. I really doubt he's ever droven a stick shift

his entire life, let alone a ten speed.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

43. I bet he would still be on tv

but it would be on an episode of Cops and probably for domestic abuse and he would be wearing a tank top instead of a $5k suit.

[annabanana]

46. Someone, somewhere MIGHT have told him "no"...

He MIGHT have worked for someone who could fire him...

[tabasco]

48. He'd be some jerk low level government bureaucrat.

The kind that gives all government employees a bad name.

[Calista241]

49. Say what you want about Donald Trump

But the man is VERY disciplined. Every minute of every day is planned, productive, and accounted for. He even schedules time in his calendar to screw his mistresses.

I have no doubt that he's still be a rich bastard if he was born poor.

[louis-t]

52. He would probably be less of a dick.

Someone did some calculations a while back and discovered that he would have been much richer had he simply invested in the stock market and took the last 40 years off.

[Warpy]

53. He'd be a neighborhood grifter with a long rap sheet

because he's really not a smart man.

[jmowreader]

54. He would probably be the Car Wash Mogul of Passaic

Donald Trump has one YOOGE advantage over the common schmo: his father taught him the family business and the Trump family business is very lucrative. Donald Trump is known for his self-discipline; he might have started out washing people's cars in his back yard, then bought a truck, then a corner lot to put a wash on. One wash would have led to more, and eventually he'd have a net worth of several million dollars.

The most time-honored way of getting rich is to do something before anyone else thinks of it. That's how Mark Cuban (pioneer in subscription-based webcasting), Marc Zuckerberg (who converted personal vanity webpages into an advertising medium), Elon Musk (created PayPal), Tai Lopez (the dating site king), the guy who turned his used car lot into Rent-a-Wreck after one of his customers told him it was cheaper to buy a used car than to rent a new one, and many others did it. So I figure Trump would have found a niche he could have gotten into cheap and worked it for all he was worth.

[Gothmog]

57. Without his daddy's money, trump would be nothing