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I have worked in the finance industry. The people making 500K all have a pedigree. Those who come from humble backgrounds are exceptionally rare.



" The people making 500K all have a pedigree. Those who come from humble backgrounds are exceptionally rare."

There are 3 million people in America earning more than $500K a year.

If any Ivy graduates 5K/year, let's say a nice round 10 Ivy Schools - that's 50K/year or 500K grads every 10 years.

That means it would take 60 years for the Ivies to produce enough grads to make up that 3 million.

At a '20% of Ivy grads to 1%-er rate' - you get only about 20% of those 3 million '1%-ers' as Ivy League grads.

Ergo - the clear majority of 1%-ers are not Ivy League grads. Not even close.

In banking, admittedly, it might be a little a higher ratio than other industries.


https://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/economix/2012/01/17/measuri...

Using data from 2010,

* ...estimated the threshold for being in the top 1 percent in household income at about $380,000, 7.5 times median household income, using census data from 2008 through 2010.

* But for net worth, the 1 percent threshold for net worth in the Fed data was nearly $8.4 million, or 69 times the median household’s net holdings of $121,000.


>There are 3 million people in America earning more than $500K a year

There aren't nearly that many people earning $500k a year regularly. A huge percentage of the people in a given year who earn that much did so because of a one time real estate sale. Then you have another large chunk who some kind of temporary windfall--particularly good bonuses, commissions etc... And people who sold a business.

Basically if you look at people who regularly make $500k+ from a job, the percentage from top schools is going to be very high.


Truth




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