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The short answer is to make stuff people really, really want. You get wealth by creating it, and you get status from creating wealth. It could be software, but it could be anything, really.

If you build a startup that has users who love you, you can raise money from investors, get press attention, etc. Caveat being that it's a really, really hard thing to do.

The student loan system? (both US and UK, although they're slightly different).

Upstart at least initially did this, by letting you sell a percentage of your future income.