SEEMS THEY TOOK A RISK” —- – Of the Forbes 400 from 1987, 327 people have drop

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/08/how-did-superrich-americans-become-superrich-americans/”IT SEEMS THEY TOOK A RISK”

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– Of the Forbes 400 from 1987, 327 people have dropped off the list. Of the remaining 73 people, those with the highest annual rates of return are generally self-made entrepreneurs and investors—not heirs—with an average annual real rate of return of 5.6 percent over the last 26 years.

– The rate of return for the Forbes 400 as a whole, 2.4 percent, is roughly equal to Piketty’s estimated returns for the entire population.

– Wealth today is largely generated by entrepreneurial skill, with the number of entrepreneurs on the Forbes 400 list rising from 40 percent in 1982 to *****69 percent in 2011*****.

– The role of inheritance has diminished over the last generation; the share of the Forbes 400 that grew up wealthy has fallen from 60 percent in 1982 to 32 percent today.

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