Sure, Gates was lucky - but he worked hard for that luck.

But the others? Steve Jobs and Richard Branson haven't exactly been lottery winners, and they've both worked damn hard for it.

in other words, comfortable/professional middle class

If you like. But hardly "money and power and influence". Nor is it necessarily "comfortable" either.

My point is that if "class" exists, it's as a modifier on education, willingness to take risks, and foresight in judging those risks. In other words, an upbringing which gives the kids a better or worse foundation for success, and when those kids grow up they make their own way. But that difference in upbringing is down to *values*, not income.

Does that mean I think some "lower-class" (whatever that means) people have no (or poorer) values, and tend to pass on that lack of values to their kids? Damn right I do. And so do some "middle-class" and "upper-class" people - it's universal. If you've inherited daddy's money, then you don't have to achieve anything, so it probably doesn't impact you. But if you need to work for a living (and that covers everyone except the very richest "upper-class" bracket) then the lack of values passed from your parents is likely to screw up your future.

Graham.