Reply #21: Not in my old field. [View All]

[Fovea]

Most of the successes I knew personally did not start a software house in their basement with a dream and a soldering iron. They started with a contract they got through their network of cronies and hired talent to fulfill it, then used the golden parachute when they fucked up and sold to a sucker. At my company, much of upper management came from the motivational seminar circuit. They were not hard workers, they were glib frat boys glad handing each other about the invisible hand of the market. They were all after the fast score, in and out.

They got their invisible hand job, and didn't even tip. They were managing the brightest folks in the world the way you wouldn't even manage a neighborhood dog show.
I have not seen much of the classical American dream of hard work and success of the sort you refer to in action. Maybe my ex FiL who was on the board of KMrat for while. The real successes don't get stopped by a top marginal rate over fifty percent. By the time it applies to them, their wealth is already the working stiff in their families.