This is everything I admired about America as a teenager growing up in France. Michael Dell starts a company at 19 in his dorm room with $1,000, becomes a billionaire, then he and Susan commit $6.25 billion to give 25 million American children their first investment. I remember my high school teachers blaming large corporations and their dividends. It was just accepted in the classroom: corporations were evil, dividends were evil. And I remember thinking: wait. There’s a system where I can buy a piece of these companies, and they’ll give me money on a recurring basis? Everyone was explaining why this was terrible, and all I could think was: I need a piece of that. If I want to escape poverty, I need to own some of these businesses. It took me years to understand investing properly. I hope these kids get that realization much sooner. Munger said: “Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome.” You can explain the benefits of capitalism forever. But owning a piece of a business gives you a personal reason to understand profits, dividends, reinvestment and compounding. Suddenly, America’s most successful companies are partly yours. Their success means something to you. And maybe a kid who starts by asking “What do I own?” will eventually ask “What could I build?” That’s what makes this so inspiring to me. A man who built his fortune giving millions of children a first experience of ownership, and perhaps the ambition to build something themselves. This is the America I dreamed of. LFG America 🇺🇸