A large percentage of America's rich did not inherit their weatlh but are self made. Most acquired the skils and knowhow working for somebody else, saved or borrowed some venture capital, and started their own successful businesses. Sometimes they just had an idea that made them multi millionaires or billionaires. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is one of those. An excellent student, he won a merit scholarship to Harvard. He would subsequently drop out, but not before he was fooling around with a computer and launched the precursor to Facebook there. The only venture capital needed was some spending money for a website. A little over ten years later, he is in Fortune 400, one of the richest men in the country.
Steve Jobs was not an excellent student and also a college dropout. But he had an aptitude for electronics. When he was just 21, in the 1970's, he and Steve Wozniak started Apple Computers in the Jobs family garage. The venture was funded by Jobs selling his Volkswagon and Wozniak selling his most valuable and prized possession, a scientific calcuator. The rest is history.
Our own Gary Johnson, former governor of NM, past GOP candidate for President, currently running for President on the Libertarian ticket, was born to a low end employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and a school teacher. With an aptitude for mechancial things, he worked his way to a bachelor's degree at the University of New Mexico here in Albuqeurque by living at home and working as a door to door handyman. After a couple of apprenticeships with mechanical contractors, (mostly minimum wage jobs), he started Big J Construction. He was the only employee. But Johnson perfected his craft and worked long long hard hours. Big J is now one of the largest construction companies in New Mexico with more than 1000 employees and Johnson is a millionaire.
There are thousands and thousands of rags to riches stories of people who started out as children living in poverty who ultimately became multi millionaires. And most of them at some point worked somewhere for minimum wage.
Those who choose to not educate themselves in school, drop out or just get a social promotion diploma, get involved in illegal activities including abusing alcohol and other drugs, and who think doing menial labor or other minimum wage tasks is beneath them or not worth their time, are not likely to prosper. And the sad thing is, they blame everybody but themselves when they do not.