BORN ON 3rd.BASE:What the Forbes 400 Really Says About Economic Equality and Opportunity in America

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22% Born on First Base
People on first base may have had other opportunities that gave them an advantage. Their biography indicates a wealthy or upper-­‐class background. They inherited less than $1 million or received some start-­‐up capital for a business from a family member. For example, many of these people went to boarding schools with tuition that cost tens of thousands of dollars per year. Since complete biographical information is not always available, and our researchers held the players to their lowest likely base, it is likely that some of those listed as born on first base actually belong on second or third base.
Highlights:
Louis Bacon ($1.4 Billion) #312
Louis Bacon was the son of a highly successful realtor, and was able to get a job on the New York Cotton Exchange through family connections. With a small inheritance from his mother, Bacon started Moore Capital Management, which ultimately grew to become a multibillion-­‐dollar international hedge fund.vi
Mark Zuckerberg ($17.5 Billion) #14
Mark Zuckerberg was born into a comfortable, well-­‐educated family. After studying at an exclusive preparatory school in New Hampshire, Zuckerberg went on to Harvard where he founded Facebook with a few of his roommates.vii

11.5% Born on Second Base
Inherited a medium-­‐sized business or wealth of more than $1 million or received substantial start-­‐up capital for a business from a family member.
Highlights:
Donald Schneider ($2.5 Billion) #159
Schneider inherited trucking company Schneider National, Inc. from his father, which has since grown into a multibillion-­‐dollar company.viii
Donald Trump ($2.9 Billion) #128
Trump joined his father's company, the Trump Organization, after college, expanding the company's holdings by convincing his father to be more liberal in the use of loans based on the equity in the Trump apartment complexes.ix

7% Born on Third Base
Inherited wealth in excess of $50 million or a large and prosperous company.

http://faireconomy.org/sites/default/files/BornOnThirdBase2012.pdf

[Travis_0004]

1. If 40% were born into wealth, then that means 60% were not and made the list

Being born wealthy certainly helps, but there are a lot of smart people who still made it without the head start.

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2. Each story calculatedly glamorizes the myth of the “self-­‐made man” while minimizing the many other

factors that enable wealth, such as tax policies, other government policies that favor the wealthy, and the importance of being born to the right family, gender and race. Consider the following:


• 17 percent of the Forbes 400 have family members on the list.
• 60 percent of the income owned by the Forbes 400 comes from capital gains, which
are taxed at just 15 percent.ii
• Forbes 400 members are part of the top 0.1 percent, who capture half of all net
increases in capital gains. NOTE: Need a citation here.



Sixty-­‐nine of the Forbes 400 inherited a family fortune sufficient to land them on the list. Fifty-­‐seven of those were born on home plate.