The richest woman in the world has a message for all you normals out there: Becoming rich is as easy as putting down that beer and getting off your ass.
Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart wrotethat there is "no monopoly on becoming a millionaire," in a column in Australian Resources Magazine, according to the AFP.
"If you're jealous of those with more money, don't just sit there and complain," Rinehart wrote. "Do something to make more money yourself -- spend less time drinking or smoking and socialising, and more time working."
Rinehart has a point, working hard is one way to make a lot of money. Another way is to inherit a boatload of it and turn that wealth into more wealth. Rinehart may be more familiar with the second route. When her father died in 1992, he left the mining mogul $75 million and, yes, she multiplied that sum by 386 over the past 20 years, according to AOL Daily Finance.
It's true that probably happened because Rinehart worked hard. But in the race to become super-rich, it always helps to have a head start. Nearly 70 percent of the sons of top-earning men have worked at their dad's employer, compared to just 40 percent of sons overall, a recent study found.
Rinehart's comments set off a firestorm in Australia, where she holds the title of richest person. The country's Treasurer slammed her column, saying it was "an insult to the millions of Australian workers who go to work and slog it out to feed the kids and pay the bills," according to the Sydney Morning Herald.
But this isn't the first time the billionaire has made known her views on the poor. Shewaxed poetic on the subject in a poem published earlier this year that included the lines "The globe is sadly groaning with debt, poverty and strife/ And billions now are pleading to enjoy a better life/ Their hope lies with resources buried deep within the earth/ And the enterprise and capital which give each project worth."
The poem, titled "Our Future" was dubbed "the universe's worst poem" by one critic, according to the Guardian.
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