Why do people resent the wealthy?

Discussion in 'Politics' started by Norsefire, Feb 15, 2010.

  1. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    There is so much resentment against the upper-class, and I don't understand it. Why do people resent the wealthy so much? The wealthy symbolize the American dream; contrary to popular belief, most fabulously wealthy people do not inherit their wealth: they earn it.

    People are so quick to distrust the wealthy; all they want to do is tax them more, regulate them more, and somehow make it out as if the wealthy are guilty and "owe" people something. Positively absurd! The wealthy have given something already to society.......that is why they are wealthy in the first place! Take Mr. Gates, founder of Microsoft.

    The mentality is increasingly becoming parasitic, where people are like "hey, let's just tax the wealthy and make them pay for everything"; that is extremely un-American. America is supposed to be a free-market country where people can put themselves to the test and try to find their own wealth, not a country where the idle and lame masses leech off of the wealthy few entrepreneurs.

    The entrepreneur is the embodiment of all that is good and American; of course, there is more to the American dream. America was the "land of opportunity", and the American dream is the dream of the entrepreneur and the dream of a sensible, suburban life in a conservative paradise. What has happened to this dream?


    Are there wealthy people that are schemers? Yes. Of course there are; and I do not defend them. But I honestly do think that the vast majority of the wealthy were simply hard-working, innovative entrepreneurs that earned their wealth and ought to keep it. We ought to reward them with tax cuts and more privileges, not punish them for doing a good thing (creating wealth)!


    I do not resent the wealthy. Instead, I hope to join them one day. Why do so many, particularly on the left (and even some on the right) resent the wealthy? Jealousy? I do not think that people are entitled to the jewels of the wealthy; how about they get off their asses and try to be entrepreneurs themselves?
     
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  3. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    AMEN - and VERY well-said!!!

    You hit the nail directly on the head - it's jealously, pure and simple - coupled with a covetous greed to get their hand on what others have worked so hard to accomplish.

    They (people in general) approach it with the same thought as the sniveler of an employee who takes home a ream of paper thinking "The company has plenty of money, they'll never miss this." And the same way many people treat expense accounts - padding them for all they possibly can.

    I could write 10 full pages here but I'll hold my tongue (keyboard) at this point - for now...
     
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  5. cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    I do not resent the wealthy but feel they resent me.
     
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  7. WillNever Valued Senior Member

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    As I've stated in another thread on this forum, I come from a more wealthy background than probably most here. My father was a stock broker one of many co-managers of a small firm in Manhattan for twenty five years between the 1970's and the early 1990's. I knew most of the people where he worked: almost all white Catholic guys, a couple blacks. No asians or middle easterners though: that isn't the New Yorker style.

    Anyway, I hate saying it... but wealthy people are, in my experience, far more noble-acting than poor people.
    And why wouldn't they be..? They have more of a capacity to be so. I've been exposed to both types of people in my lifetime, rich and poor, growing up with my brothers and then living and working as an adult. Living in the world this way, you will come to realize that eventually, when you yourself are not poor and you become more familiar to people who *are* poor, whether they be friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, or whatever, they will eventually want something from you as time goes on. As they get more used to you, they begin to feel more entitled to what you have. Being poor makes people wretched, amoral-acting, and insatiable. It breeds mercenary behavior and it makes them lack meaning in their lives. However, I don't blame them for being poor, at least not always. This truth is one of the reasons I state that in a perfect world, NOBODY would be poor. I hate that we have poor people in the world, for their own sakes. It is a horrible way to be. People say that the wealthy are the immoral ones while poor people are kind. Tragically, they have it backwards.

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    Last edited: Feb 15, 2010
  8. PsychoticEpisode It is very dry in here today Valued Senior Member

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    Philanthropy aside, I resent them because I pay more taxes than they do.

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  9. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    I'll bet you don't.

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    You may think that we all use "special" loopholes and "special" breaks to get around paying taxes - but that simply isn't true. While it IS true that some invest primarily in tax-free bonds, etc. that's actually a very, VERY small minority. The rest of us invest in the same things as most other people - stocks. Because they have a much better rate of return.

    And perhaps you are thinking of percentage-wise? Guess what - my bracket is most likely SKY-HIGH as compared to yours.

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    It's certainly almost double that of most people making between $50K and $100K/year.
     
  10. Norsefire Salam Shalom Salom Registered Senior Member

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    Nobody pays more in taxes than the wealthy; I don't think they should be paying such high taxes, though.
     
  11. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    In ancient Japan the merchant class (often wealthy) were ranked just underneath of farmers. AKA: At the bottom of society. They were also taxed and their trade was controlled. It was thought that these people often put money before country - they were an necessity, but they also need to be taught their place and watched (controlled). In this way people of Japan were happy I suppose.

    Why are people so distrustful of Used Car Salesmen?

    In the game Dictator you (person B) are told person A was given $20 dollars and has to share it with you. If you accept person A's offer then both you and person A keep the money. If you reject person A's offer neither person gets anything. Most of the time when person B is offered less than $1 (where person A keeps $19 or more) then person B will choose to reject person A's offer so that they both get to keep nothing at all.
    But why?
    That doesn't make sense.
    By rejecting person A's offer, person B gets nothing.

    Well, actually, they do get something, they get to feel good that that greedy bastard person A got nothing for being so greedy and trying to keep most of it all.

    There are many experiments like this.
     
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2010
  12. pjdude1219 The biscuit has risen Valued Senior Member

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    its generally because people look at the jobs that tend to make people wealthy and they rarely require the same level of work as the jobs poor people do. Sorry but sitting your ass in a cushy chair and making phone calls isn't working harder than the guy slogging out on a say a construction site.
     
  13. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    um because the majority of them made there wealth by screwing people and its compleatly incorect to suggest that the wealthy are more generious than the poor. $10 from a poor person who only has $100 means a lot greater sacrifice from that person than 1,000,000 or even 50,000,000 (10% from both) from someone with a 500,000,000 net wealth (thats bill gates from memory)

    Further more people value labor a LOT more than capital (and why shouldnt they), who actually gives more to sociaty? someone who prints money or trades shares? or someone who grows food or treats the sick?

    there is an emprical basis for this as well, a recent study carried out in the UK found that:

    After all, how much value does Britney spears add to sociaty?

    Marx wasnt the poor envious person that the US would like to paint him BTW, he WAS from the upper class and he saw what the policies of his own class did to the working classes.

    Further more if we look further back into history we see the excesses of the unrestrained upper clases, ie the robber barrons and slave owners of the middle ages.
     
  14. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    As usual, dude, you just don't get it. There are MANY different forms of "working." Some of them require years of training, some appreciable intelligence and considerable skills.

    For example, would you want your construction worker to try and save a hand you nearly cut off in an accident?
     
  15. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    Oh, yeah - what else could we possibly expect from Asguard?
     
  16. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    lets look at the top 10 ritchest people IN AUSTRALIA as an example:

    1.James Packer: $US3.1 bln gaming
    2.Frank Lowy: $US2.8 bln property
    3.Harry Triguboff: $US2.0 bln property
    4.John Gandel: $US1.7 bln property
    5.Andrew Forrest: $US1.65 bln mining
    6.Anthony Pratt: $US1.6 bln packaging (interesting to note, pratt was charged with the biggest colusion racket in Australian history)
    7.Gina Rinehart: $US1.5 bln mining
    8.Kerr Neilson: $US1.45 bln investment
    9.Kerry Stokes: $US1.0 bln media
    10.Lindsay Fox: $US970 mln logistics

    http://www.lendingcentral.com/2009/05/15/forbes-list-of-the-top-10-richest-australian/

    so wheres the scientiests? where are the people who actually contributed to sociaty? out ot them all the most admirable is probably No. 10 because at least transport actually helps get food from producers to the people who need it
     
  17. Read-Only Valued Senior Member

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    You know full-well that I know little about your country (and really have no big interest in it). And you honestly don't think mining and owning property doesn't contribute to society? Yeah, that figures.

    EDIT: And for that matter what about investments? They create jobs, for heaven's sake.

    And by the way, just exactly WHO was it that held a gun to your "poor" people and forced then to spend their money on gambling - which contributed to putting that one guy at the top of the list??????
     
  18. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    oh so now you DO want me to comment on the US, make up your mind read. BTW they dont MINE or BUILD houses they simply put money into it and sit back and get the profits which come from the hard work of others.

    the one surprise for me from that list was the fact that Dick Smiths name wasnt on it. He really DID earn his money by building his electronics store from the ground up till it was big enough to sell, then he built up the chain of national geographic stores, then Dick smith foods. He is the only one of the lot (excepting possably Fox) who actually EARNED there money
     
  19. Doreen Valued Senior Member

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    4,101
    The wealthy get more services than the poor, so they should pay more.
    The wealthy have greater control over the government. They know this. They know it cuts directly against democratic principles. Yet they continue to benefit from this. They should pay more, they benefit more.
     
  20. Asguard Kiss my dark side Valued Senior Member

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    23,049
    they create jobs do they? you oviously neglected to read my previous post at all. Pound for pound (as it was a British study) for every pound earned by an investment banker they rip 7 pounds OUT of the economy.
     
  21. joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    22,910
    When it comes to income taxes, yes higher income wage earners pay more income tax. But when you add in the payroll tax, the picture changes. And when you add in stock awards, it changes even further.

    The bottom line is that this country has a huge debt problem that needs to be addressed. And those best able to pay for it are the rich. There is only so much the middle class and lower income people can pay.

    As for resentment, I think it works both ways. There are high income folks who hate poor people and there are poor people who hate rich folks. No one group is without blame in this regard. I think what people dislike is when some wealthy people take short cuts to wealth (e.g. Enron) at the expense of others.
     
  22. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    30,994
    Because they don't like being screwed over.

    They put the work into the system by which the wealthy succeed, and the wealthy do not put the wealth into it.

    The financial industry just bankrupted the United States - a system that the rest of the country had put enormous amounts of work into. A reasonable tax rate on the earnings of a typical hedge fund manager from the years 2000 to 2008 would have approached 100%, to help pay for the damage they were doing to systems created and supported by others.
     
  23. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Taxing and regulating are not resentment, they are prudent. The thing our founders were most afraid of was being controlled by a ruling elite. We want to be controlled by the collective intellectual decisions of all the citizens, not money. It is great if you are wealthy, and many of the founders were, but we want to have a situation where the maximum number of people are wealthy. We can't have that if a wealthy elite uses their wealth to maintain their exclusivity, which is exactly how they would use their money if they were allowed.
     

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