[much snippage]

---------- From: James A, Donald[SMTP:jamesd@echeque.com]

The book "the millionaire next door" does provides plausible evidence that

in their origins, millionaires are close to being a cross section of America.

The Forbes 400, listing the 400 most wealthy Americans, is on the newstands right now. While I don't have it at hand right now, the self-made men significantly outnumber those who inherited all or part of their wealth. The cut-off point this year is $725M. The list can be browsed at http://www.forbes.com/400richest/ , but doesn't include the self made vs inherited data (which is in the dead tree edition). Peter