All the parent is saying is they were not upper or elite class. You're saying that much of the middle class in the US is privileged enough, and that these people had more going for them than money in the bank, which is the exact opposite of what the article was saying. It was basically saying you had to be rich to be risk-adverse. You don't. You just need enough of a cushion and a support system.
> but also being raised in families from highly educated backgrounds, a culture of hard work, a selection of professions that promote entrepreneurial and technical values, the sheer luck of having chosen a field that's expanded exponentially
You can have people hitting up wealth from very specific opportunities. But the knowledge that comes from being raised from class is how to maintain and further that wealth.
My parents are from the professional middle class, but they never taught me the value of networking, self-promotion, and corporate speak because they never found a use for it. I had to learn it from friends of mine from far more affluent backgrounds, who told me exactly what recruiters look for, what investors look for, how to dress the part and how to talk the part.
That knowledge, concentrated in just two years of meeting these people, has easily made a different of 50% in my income, if not more. And my ceiling is now essentially unlimited because of the access that has given me.
If I hadn't gone to an expensive private school I would have never acquired those social codes which are key to getting funding and interest in the larger public sphere. I am forever grateful for that knowledge, but I'd be naive to say it's something anyone can learn by themselves without prior exposure.
Your emphasis is on intellect, not wealth class. Middle class is enough to have access to intellect and nurture it with a top tier education. Obama and Dave Chappelle are also products of middle class intellects raising (dare i say) unicorn children. The original article is bs and your points are not about wealth. Most of the rich are not entrepreneurial. There is no causation let alone correlation. What you are citing is intellect.
As for how to dress and behave, they are far easier to pick up than what makes anyone intrinsically smart. Yourself included, you did not need to be rich for a little "class" to rub off on you. It's like learning proper English. At places like Harvard, it truly does rub off (often along with the Haaavd-ness or MIT-ness etc etc).
> but also being raised in families from highly educated backgrounds, a culture of hard work, a selection of professions that promote entrepreneurial and technical values, the sheer luck of having chosen a field that's expanded exponentially
None are the result of plain wealth.