Besides that statement is usually not true: The wealthy HIRE the people who invent stuff. Then they make a lot more money than they pay the inventor. This is why almost all patents are assigned.

I know from personal experience. I fixed part of the Ethernet Last Mile spec for high speed DSL, and now I get a $216 per month pension from Rockwell. I also wrote the whole Layer 2 protocol software for the Japanese Handyphone System, and I get nada for that.