You use the word "earn" far too often.

Most high net wealth households employ wealth managers. What a wealth manager does is takes the disposable income of these households and moves it around from investment to investment. This does not mean the HNWH actually does any work-they simply have more money that compounds interest. After a certain threshold of wealth, where interest off assets can be used to fund a lifestyle, no further work is required-yet the net value of this subset of the population continues to grow, continues to not work and continues to drain the value of real labor from workers.

If the notion that sophisticated thought, design, invention and investment led to wealth, then the opposite should hold true-poor thought, design, invention, and investment should lead to bankruptcy-but it does not. It is extremely rare for the supremely rich to lose their money due to their own ineptitude, so long as they give a modicum of trust to those who know better. The Walton heirs, for example, have never worked a day in their lives, and have shown no desire to. The

In your example, the engineer who invented the system likely did not see much of the value-it's the person who sells it. The person Douglas Engelbart, who invented the mouse, which is used so prodigiously in the modern world-barely was compensated for it-yet the invention revolutionized home computing. It wasn't until well after the home computing revolution that he received any compensation for his contributions and others had already made their fortunes. He certainly never achieved the wealth of someone like Steve Jobs, who merely marketed a company and used the mouse design.

No, those who reap the most money are involved in selling, not creating or doing.