wizz14: People get rich through several means. First, they may be rich through inheritance as in the case of royal families. Second, some may won a lottery and such people are simply the lucky ones. Third, there are a limited few who rise to the top through sheer hard-work and ingenuity and their numbers are so limited that they are used as examples to others. Most of the rich accumulate wealth through dishonesty, cheating, robbing others through several means,etc. In short they make their money by hook by crook. In this regard I recall a very lovely quote by the French philosopher Honore de Balzac: Behind every great fortune there is a crime.