If you really want to make the big bucks, what you really need is a monopoly on the desktop operating system. But the Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1 and 2, and Clayton Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. § 25, are real bitches.
That's how Bill Gates made $100B. He had an opportunity to monopolize desktop OS'es and the luck/insight to bet they would one day be worth a lot, and the skills to execute on that opportunity. Yes, that kind of opportunity is very rare, but $1-100M opportunities are not.
That said, I agree with everything else you said - I agree that I'd much more like to live in a world where a black person with a poor single parent in a small town in Mississippi is given the tools to take advantage of the same opportunities as a Kennedy, but we should also accept that although it's something to strive for, and something to take steps towards (affirmative action/universal education/healthcare), there are also aspects which make it impossible. Ironically, one step towards equality is the removal of the meme "I was born <this and that>, so I can never accomplish what Bill Gates did".
That's how Bill Gates made $100B. He had an opportunity to monopolize desktop OS'es and the luck/insight to bet they would one day be worth a lot, and the skills to execute on that opportunity. Yes, that kind of opportunity is very rare, but $1-100M opportunities are not.
That said, I agree with everything else you said - I agree that I'd much more like to live in a world where a black person with a poor single parent in a small town in Mississippi is given the tools to take advantage of the same opportunities as a Kennedy, but we should also accept that although it's something to strive for, and something to take steps towards (affirmative action/universal education/healthcare), there are also aspects which make it impossible. Ironically, one step towards equality is the removal of the meme "I was born <this and that>, so I can never accomplish what Bill Gates did".