Wealthy for purposes of this question are people that make 250K plus per year or even millions or billions per year. Both my therapist and my Dad are ‘wealthy haters’. Neither would admit it though. My Dad has always been lower middle class and while he ‘defends’ himself saying he has wealthy friends, he calls wealthy people selfish and spoiled brats. IMO the fact that he feels the need to defend himself says he is prejudiced against wealthy people. My therapist is the same. I am poor. I live on SSDI. I use to have money (not THAT much but 100K year) and it will occassionally come up that it is hard for me to be poor. My therapist immediately launches into “well, money is OK as long as you don’t love the money itself” and “it’s fine to be wealthy as long as those people aren’t using it to oppress other people”. I’m thinking "whoa dude…No need to ‘quaify’ everything you say with ‘money is OK IF’ etc. He totally overexplains and talks about the evil side of money when I never asked about any of that.
Anyway, it irritates me because I think it is perfectly possible to be very wealthy and still be kind, giving, loving , unselfish etc. I don’t automatically put people in the “you’re a rotten selfish rich person” basket. I assume that people are good, not bad. It’s on my mind because my therapist recently gave me another ‘you gotta be careful with money so it doesn’t ruin you’ speech. Pretty f*cking funny since I’m poor but anyway…
No wrong answer: How do you feel, in general, about wealthy people?
well, you don’t have to know them to have an opinion. What is your ‘perception’ of wealthy people? Spoiled? Heartless? Hard workers? Same as anyone else? Some people are on ‘auto-hate’ with wealthy people and I am sure some have their reasons
No, I don’t hate wealthy people. Most of the people I live with in this assisted living facility are what you would call of good means, so, no I don’t hate them. They are most of them my friends.
I don’t mind them if they are nice people. We have a girl at work who has a rich family and her entire way of thinking and perceiving reality is so disconnected that she may as well be sz.
Not that she’s horrible just the way she was brought up is so different having always got what she wanted. The real world doesn’t work like that. I actually feel sorry for her.
Depends how wealthy…slightly wealthest…if you make triple digit millions to billions…your either an artist who is busy at their craft…or a heartless sociopath hell bent on sucking in as much money as possible through should be illegal but somewhere its not…means…
Is this wrong to assume…? I see way up in the clouds and its either Walmart ceos apple Sony ect…or a small band of artists who stay busy and seem like genuine people…could be in anything or multiple platforms…
@flameoftherhine we tend to hear about and see those extremely wealthy people who appear to be on a mission for wealth at the cost of other people. I agree those people exist. I like to think, though, that there are ambitious people who do very well and still manage to be benevolent and caring. Bill and Melinda Gates would be an example. I am sure they enjoy all the privileges of being wealthy but they never forget about other people. I see where your coming from, though
Not really but those that exploit others to get their wealth are low on my totem pole. I’m on SSDI but I’m doing okay financially. My uncle is wealthy and I try not to cast him in a negative light but his sister had a good job and lost it because of her needing treatment for breast cancer. His reply is “well it’s a business."
So maybe it’s not necessarily the wealth that bothers me but the awful business practices people use to get it.
My mom worked for 18 years as a short fry cook and maybe had three raises in that time period. Her bosses were greedy as ever. Get another job? Well small towns have small jobs. But my mom is the sweetest most helpful person I know but like I said the exploitative aspect pis…irritates me beyond belief.
Yea I agree for every Walmart CEO there’s a bill gates…or I agree I would like to think that…you gave me an idea…I’ll put it in another thread so as to not clutter this good one up…
I believe (don’t quote me) that 1% of people have 90% of the money. That is a tough ratio to absorb. I think it is OK to be ambitious and have money as long as you give back.
Most wealthy people (?) have worked really hard to be wealthy. They’ve given up or just missed out on other things in order to attain their wealth. I can’t relate to them, but if they’re not hurting anyone then why should they be hated? They should pay their share of taxes, but otherwise they don’t owe anyone anything.
I’ve been poor my entire adult life. I have to manage my time carefully and try to keep stress down. But if someone else is capable of working long hours and being in high-power positions, then why shouldn’t they? They owe me nothing.
I suppose that some of them I like, and some I don’t like. That’s the way it is with most groups of people for me. I don’t know that many wealthy people. I’ve come across a couple that were pretty spoiled - who had unreasonable expectations because of their money.
I wouldn’t say I HATE wealthy people
I envy them and think it unfair but I don’t think hate
Sometime you may be born into wealth
If you are wealthy doesn’t mean you are evil
I’m rambling now
I like successful people who are genuine, and passionate.
I don’t like people who love to wear a lot of gold and just show off or have a lot of pride for their money.
There’s a huge difference for me between people who “earned” it and people who didn’t aka the people who inherited it. The people who earned it tend to be more humble, I think because they know what it takes to get to that point, whereas the people who inherited it have no idea and yea, they always get what they want. I think we should have a 100 percent inheritance tax or maybe give the spawn of the rich a 2 million dollar head start. They actually had a tax like that in the US but sometime in the 80s they did away with it. The children of the rich often end up being drug addicts and generally spoiled people, I don’t envy them.