People who say wealth is not always the product of hard work are flat out wrong. At some point in time, someone worked very hard for the money that was then inherited by the next generation. The generation that inherited the money, then had to work hard to make smart investments, and not squander away the money. There are plenty of examples of wealthy families who have lost all of their wealth because the next generation did not work hard to preserve it, i.e. the Vanderbilts.