Although the majority of billionaires are self-made men, some inherited their fortunes, while others fought for years in court with siblings, parents and other relatives.
Mr Blair has always admired self-made men such as Sir Richard Branson and may, like many senior politicians, have looked wistfully at the seven figure salaries routinely commanded by Britain's captains of industry.
It is just that I believe that the pendulum has swung so far away from the mythos of the American Dream and self-made men that it is high time to redress the balance through overemphasizing to make my point.
The leaders of the growing labour movement were exactly the kind of self-educated men who prided themselves on a fierce intellectual independence from ready-made doctrine.