What do you think about the "rich"?

[kentuck]

Do you believe they are smarter than the average person and are deserving of everything they can get?

Do you think they are greedy and lacking in some human qualities?

Don't you wish you were "rich"?

[DJ13]

1. Stringy, but okay with the right sauce

[Taverner]

2. Eat 'em!!!!

Paris Hilton burgers, yum!

Now with extra cocaine!

[Courtesy Flush]

3. Don't eat the rich. They're spoiled. nt

[FarLeftFist]

4. The largest percentage of rich people in this country inherited their money

2nd largest: Oil tycoon.

Neither of which have ever worked hard or done manual labor in their lives. To those who've earned it I congratulate you. Never forget where you came from.

[Zax2me]

62. WRONG

One of the biggest lies believed about the 'rich'

- About 80 percent are first-generation affluent.
http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stanley-millionaire.html

[dameocrat67]

75. mining and speculation account for a lot of it too.

n/t

[dameocrat67]

79. rent seeking and real estate speculation account for alot of wealth

as well.

[Philippine expat]

63. Incorrect, the majority DID NOT inherit their wealth

[JoePhilly]

5. Define "rich" in some manner.

If you don't do that, then we won't be discussing the same people.

[kentuck]

6. You don't know what "rich" means??

I can't help you. :-)

[JoePhilly]

13. Weak response from you.

1) Is a recent graduate who is a doctor, a medical specialist making 250k a year rich, if that same person has no assets from their parents, and 400k in debt from school?

They have a large salary, but no assets. Given you know what "rich" means, are they rich?

2) A woman in hr 70s has no income, but she has assets of about 200,00 dollars. Her out of pocket medical costs are about 20k a year. Is she rich?

3) A person has 10 million dollars of assets. They're capital gains are about 200,000 a year. Are they rich?

Catching on?

If you want an actual discussion, you need to define what "rich" is in some manner.

On edit ... the answers you are getting reflect my point. If you don't provide some kind of definition of what you think "rich" is ... you will not get many direct responses, beyond, "the rich are evil".

[kentuck]

17. Let's make it easy for you.

The top 5% in the country?

[JoePhilly]

23. Top 5% in what? Income or Assets?

[kentuck]

25. What difference does it make?

Either can be turned into cash. If you were to have the Hope Diamond, you are not poor and it would be an asset.

[JoePhilly]

32. Makes a huge difference.

And I can't believe I need to explain this to you ...

A salary is money that comes in over time.

Assets reflect money that you already have.

And so ...

If a person is making 250k a year, you have to also ask, for how long have they been making that salary, and what are their other assets?

A new doctor, may have no assets, 400k in debt, and just started to make 250k a year. You seem to think that doctor would be rich.

Meanwhile ... a person with 10 milion in assets (not salary) could have ZERO income from work.

But you don't seem to get that these two situations are different.

You see INCOME as the same as ASSETS. They are not the same.

[kentuck]

34. You seem to want to tell other people what they think?

If you have no income at all but you have $10 million in assets, do you think you qualify for food stamps?

[JoePhilly]

40. No, you don't qualify.

You seem to be unable to think today.

Salary and Assets are not the same thing.

And to help you, because I need to get dinner started, being rich requires ASSETS, not salary.

The rich don't need a Salary, and in fact they don't want one.

A SALARY is taxed up to 30%, income from ASSETS (dividends) are taxes at 15%.

So a rich person will want to DEFER salary, or have it turned into other tax deferred vehicles ... automatic retirement, so on.

Bottom line, a rich person does not live off of a salary.

They don't need it.

[kentuck]

42. Do you think income from assets is more valuable than income from salary?

Or should they be taxed equally?

[Frustratedlady]

51. Keep in mind that the dr. with $250K in salary and $400K in college debt

isn't going to pay down that $400K in one year.

Say he brings in $250K in salary and owes for a million dollar house. Same thing.

The person with $10M in assets (hopefully) paid taxes on his income. We're talking salary, not assets when it comes to paying taxes.

[indurancevile]

57. try the top 0.1%. those are the people who own the country.

[GSLevel9]

29. rich is SIMPLY...

living in a way that money is not a barrier to any desire or need.

[JoePhilly]

38. Ok, that is better ...

but I'd argue with the "barrier to any desire or need" part.

I'd separate needs and desires.

A "rich person" can handle all needs. That part is easy. After that, they can obtain a "wide array" of desires, but not all.

I mean, one could be very well off, have all needs met, and have most desires met, but not be able to purchase their own plane.

My own definition would be something along the lines where, a rich person needs no direct income (other than that which flows from investments), and they have assets which ensure that their children need no direct income.

After all, that is what most of us work for. To provide a safe environment for ourselves and our kids. If you have the assets to do that with ZERO salary, you are rich.

[bluestate10]

68. Rich means money to you. Doowwnn goes socialism. You should expand

your horizons.

[hifiguy]

7. The old money rich

who inherited it should, for the most part, be thrown into tumbrels headed for the scaffold and every dime should be confiscated from their families. See, e.g., the Walton and Koch families. But a person-by-person approach is necessary.

[Warpy]

8. I have the (dis)advantage of knowing a few of them

when I was young and cute and had a reputation as a wit.

I found them affable, generous and utterly clueless. They would lavish presents on people they liked, but anyone who would mention something they actually needed would be frozen out. They were concerned with the comfort of their immediate surroundings and nothing else, hiring people to be concerned with all the distasteful aspects of staying rich. Most lived very understated lives and you'd never guess who they are if you'd happen to run into them anywhere.

They are firmly in the category of people I would far rather see than be. I'm grateful for a taste of things I would never have been able to afford since it left me not eager to acquire them.

For the time being, I am without financial worry as long as my body holds up and I can still cook. I have enough. I don't need to be rich.

[bluestate10]

70. I grew into a college lad working for a couple that I describe as good rich.

Socially aware, the man liberal as hell, his wife a moderate. Both saw a type of intellect in me that I did not see in myself when I first started working for them. Steered me toward math and science and watched as a so-so student excelled. Proudly introduced me to their pampered children and grandchildren.

[Warpy]

73. You were luckier than I, then

although the material generosity was there in the people I knew.

[fasttense]

9. Most of the "rich", not all, are greedy, cheating idiots.

No I don't wish I were rich. I never have thought much about money. I just want enough to live without going hungry or cold. My dreams have never been filled with being wealthy. I would rather love people and animals than money and objects.

[Wait Wut]

10. All of them?

I'm supposed to come up with one description for all of them? Okay...

I think they're human with good and bad traits just like any of us. Some are short, some are tall. They come in different colors and some are gay. There are some that are in prison and some have killed people. Some spend a lot of their money trying to do good things. Some spend their money on $100,000 pens. Some are Christian, some are Atheists. Some of them drive really expensive gas guzzlers, some drive expensive electric cars. Some like the color green, some worship green. Some have been friends, some haven't. Some have lost children, some have never had a child to love. Some love animals, some love to hunt.

Promoting the "hate the rich" meme is harmful to any of our causes. We should be so lucky to have our own Koch Brothers. Ones with souls, that is.

[kentuck]

11. Who said you had to "hate the rich"??

Did you read that between the lines?

[Wait Wut]

18. Didn't have to read between the lines.

Read some of the comments. Read some of the comments from any thread from any day on DU. Are you going to try to tell me that the average DUer thinks of the wealthy as anything but evil or, at the very least, coldhearted and selfish?

Oh, I forgot to answer the last question. Yes. I would love to be rich. I have a charter school for troubled inner-city teens in mind. I'm going to hire the best teachers that the government won't pay and the best nutritionists their parents can't afford. Then I plan on infiltrating public schools. Or, I'll die broke.

[kentuck]

21. You don't like public schools?

Did you go to a public school?

[Wait Wut]

39. I went to great public schools...

...in one of the top school districts in the country (at the time). I lived in an affluent suburb of Chicago. Every child, no matter their social status or amount of wealth, should be afforded the same opportunites that I wasted. Every teacher that spent his/her financial future in order to teach should be allowed to teach and not have to spend his/her day breaking up gang fights between 8 year olds or worry that they'll be shot by a 10 year old. Every child should be aware of the world outside the hell that they've been fated to endure. They need to know that they can be a part of that outside if they fight, not with weapons, but with knowledge and courage.

I love public schools. We should all love them more. Until then, I will support charter schools that take the child off the street and gives them hope. One child is a lifetime in society.

[Name removed]

44. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Wait Wut]

45. Lovely.

:eyes:

[markpkessinger]

12. I'm suspicious of questions like this that put scare quotes around the word "rich" n/t

[kentuck]

16. "scare quotes"?

Wow! Sounds like someone is a little defensive?

[markpkessinger]

27. Not at all...

...by the term scare quotes, I just mean that it seems to be a hedge against using the term in a straightforward manner.

[kentuck]

30. It's a relative term...

and perfectly eligible for "quotes".

[markpkessinger]

50. Fair enough. n/t

[indurancevile]

59. sounds more like someone (you) doesn't know the meaning of "scare quotes".

Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to indicate that it does not signify its literal or conventional meaning.

Writers use scare quotes for a variety of reasons. When the enclosed text is a quotation from another source, scare quotes may indicate that the writer does not accept the usage of the phrase (or the phrase itself),<3> that the writer feels its use is potentially ironic, or that the writer feels it is a misnomer. This meaning may serve to distance the writer from the quoted content.

If scare quotes are enclosing a word or phrase that does not represent a quotation from another source they may simply serve to alert the reader that the word or phrase is used in an unusual, special, or non-standard way or should be understood to include caveats to the conventional meaning.<4>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scare_quotes

nothing to do with scariness.

[Nye Bevan]

14. The Baby Einstein Company was founded by stay-at-home mom and former teacher Julie Aigner-Clark

The Baby Einstein Company was founded in 1996 by stay-at-home mom and former teacher Julie Aigner-Clark at her home in suburban Alpharetta, Georgia. Aigner-Clark and her husband, Bill Clark, invested $18,000 of their savings to produce the initial product, a VHS video called Baby Einstein, later sold as Language Nursery.

The original video shows a variety of toys and visuals interspersed with music, stories, numbers, and words of many languages. Eventually, the video was marketed across the United States, Europe, Asia and Australia. Other videos followed, some featuring the Clarks' two daughters, Aspen and Sierra.

Baby Einstein became a multi-million dollar franchise; its revenue grew from $1 million in 1998 to around $10 million in 2000. Aigner-Clark sold a 20% stake in the company to Artisan Entertainment in February 2000 and sold the rest to The Walt Disney Company for an undisclosed amount in November 2001. The franchise is named after and pays significant royalties to the estate of deceased physicist Albert Einstein, putting him in the top 5 of most earning dead celebrities, according to Forbes.

At one point in 2009, the brand was estimated to be worth nearly 400 million dollars based on revenues. Julie was named Entrepreneur of the Year and won various awards for her products, which are the number one selling brand (1 in three households with babies in the US own at least one Baby Einstein product) of videos for very young children. Julie has appeared in many media outlets, including Oprah, GMA, The Today Show and USA Today.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Einstein

So according to DUers, Ms Clark is "spoiled"; "utterly clueless"; a "greedy, cheating, idiot"; and of course, should be "eaten". Personally I admire her for her good idea, her hard work and the jobs her company has created. But I am fully aware that puts me in a small minority on DU. Jealousy is ugly.

[HockeyMom]

28. She is precisely the person I do hate

because I have been listening to countless people over 40 years in 2 different states nagging me to sell my "product", even today. You like what I make so damned much YOU try to copy and sell it. They look at my dumbfounded when I say that. They don't get it. I just don't care to own my own business. Call me lazy, but these people have a passion for their goods or services, which I simply don't have. Let me work x number of hours, get my paycheck, and GO HOME and forget it.

I guess I am very "Un-American" in my thinking. I prefer to expend my energy to help people. When I die, I would like somebody to say I made a differece in their, or their children's, lives and not HOW MUCH MONEY I made.

Most Americans cannot understand this. Certainly, the Republicans (including my husband) and Teabaggers can't.

[GSLevel9]

31. stand up and claps...

[in_cog_ni_to]

33. You left out the MOST IMPORTANT PART of that Wiki: They're RETHUGS

That's why they're vile people.


On January 23, 2007 The Baby Einstein Company was mentioned in the State of the Union address by President George W. Bush. Aigner-Clark, along with other notable U.S. citizens, was invited to sit in the gallery during the speech, and was recognized by Bush during his presentation to the nation. The mention of Aigner-Clark was criticized by reporters and other media observers for a number of reasons:

1. A conflict of interest: her husband had (regularly?) made donations in the thousands to the Republican National Committee during the 2004 Presidential election cycle. 2. Baby Einstein and similar video and media companies had for years promoted the suggestion that their videos stimulated cognitive and socio-emotional development in infants, toddlers and preschoolers. But these claims had been made with no rigorous scientific or medical research and testing to validate the assertions.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Einstein

[kentuck]

35. Picky...picky...picky....

:rofl:

[in_cog_ni_to]

43. I know, I know....I'm sooooo close-minded. Why can't I just embrace the people who want to destroy

my country?

[abelenkpe]

36. Baby Einstein?

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/the-great-baby-einstein-scam-531147

The great Baby Einstein scam

Of course it was too good to be true.

The New York Times reported Thursday that Disney is offering a refund to buyers of its ubiquitous “Baby Einstein” videos, which did not, as promised, turn babies into wunderkinds. Apparently, all those puppets, bright colors, and songs were what we had feared all along—a mind-numbing way to occupy infants.

This news has rocked the parenting world, which had embraced the videos as a miraculous child-rearing staple. Videos that make your kid smarter while you prepare dinner? Genius!

Or not. According to the article, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under two years old stay away from watching screens. In the letter threatening Disney with a class-action lawsuit for "deceptive advertising," public health lawyers hired by Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood cited a study which found a link between early television exposure and later problems with attention span.

(more at link)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[indurancevile]

60. oh, god. baby einstein, brainchild of a bush donor, shown to impair childhood development?

Study: 'Baby Einsteins' Makes Babies Dumber

Parents hoping to raise baby Einsteins by using infant educational videos are actually creating baby Homer Simpsons. For every hour a day that babies 8 to 16 months old were shown such popular series as "Brainy Baby" or "Baby Einstein," they knew six to eight fewer words than other children, the study found.

http://www.drudge.com/archive/97248/study-baby-einsteins-makes-babies-dumber

the reason for her "success" is her connections, not her product or "hard work".

[demwing]

15. Taste like chicken

or creamy wheat

[RagAss]

19. I love them.......

with fried onions.

[Bonhomme Richard]

20. Focused. The "Rich" I think you are talking about......

are what they are because they are focused. Focused on money. Great musicians are focused on music. Pro sports players are focused on their sport. The new rich are focused on money and that is all they care about. If the wife doesn't like the amount of time they chase money that's fine. They will get another one. They are focused on money and any opportunity that will enable them to get more.
My brother used to joke that we would never be rich because we were not focused enough. I started my own company and work for myself but I like to spend time with my wife and kids, fish, play guitar, kayak, drink with friends, take photos which are all a distraction to the "Pro" whether sports, music or money.

[MrMickeysMom]

22. It's a concept I'm unfamiliar with, therefore, difficult to weigh in...

I know from reading personal accounts of the Kennedy's that there are wealthy families (regardless of how they made their money) who instill the attitude "of those with much, much is expected". I truly believe there are good families with much wealth. I'm thinking currently of the Heinz foundation.

Without this philanthropic attitude, we would not have some great foundations, so you can't just criticize the rich.

Now, what do I think of the NEWLY rich who have never come up by their bootstraps, or simply use (abuse) financial management for THEIR wealth? I think they are piss poor protoplasm most of the time. I see no evidence to the contrary.

Uhmpf!

[Throd]

24. Being poor totally sucked. I wouldn't mind giving rich a try.

I try to judge people on a case-by-case basis.

[GSLevel9]

26. I know TWO of them... rather well in fact.

And YES they deserve every dime.

Let's start with #1. Net worth north of 100 million $$. The guy is a genius with money and business. He doesn't play farmville or check his email... he reads business books and researches developing markets. His BRAIN is WIRED in a way that just leads him into making money. I'm convinced it's genetic. He gets great PLEASURE from business... BUSINESS is his HOBBY. He LOVES it. It's not a stressful thing or something he worries about... he LOVES it. He co-founded a VERY large company and cashed out LARGE. I watch him in awe... his brain is literally WIRED to make $$. So answer to your question... he's somewhat smarter than the average "well educated guy" but his success comes from this passion and brain wiring to be successful. He's not greedy at all... and if he is, it's because turning a 10 Million dollar company into a 20 million dollar company is a goal and a challenge... and meeting that goal is a passion.

And #2... a man who recently passed away who at one time was worth about 10 million dollars. AGAIN... its the brain. This is the guy who would buy a new cell phone and start a file for the phone with copies of the receipts, warranty card, owners manual and purchase spare batteries to store for a possible need. And he did this kind of thing for 40 years. He had the "organization gene"... and this carried over to his business (land development) and he was very successful. The difference between #1 and #2 is that #1 LOVES making money... but #2 loved being successful and enjoyed his free time.

So I've known a couple SELF MADE millionaires... and YES they ARE different than you and I. And both of them are completely 100% down to earth Jeans and a T-shirt guys.

[hifiguy]

47. Self made millionaires are a different kettle o' fish

which is why my answer focused on old inherited money.

A friend of mine is a guy who was a medical engineer and loved classical music. His hobby was recording chamber music. He decided that he needed better monitor speakers to use while making his recordings so he built himself a pair. People heard them and started asking him to build speakers for them. Started in his garage and over 20+ years built it into a $25-30 million per year business. His stuff ain't cheap - the price range is $12.5K/pair to $180K/pair. But he has earned every last penny the old fashioned way - honestly, by providing great products, great customer service, and fair dealing with everyone involved.

Though he and I agree about nothing politically and he is a devout LDSer while I am a convinced atheist I admire him as much as anyone I have ever known. He categorically refuses to even buy parts made in China, much less allow his products to be assembled or produced there, pays very high wages to his employees as well as first-class benefits, has virtually zero turnover at his factory except when someone retires or he has to fill a new need. He once told me "without these people I'd still be stuck in a lab designing medical stuff and building a few pairs of speakers a year in the garage. I need them and we all do well." The business is owned 100% by my friend, his wife and a couple of their kids. My friend is worth probably $15-20 million and he made it all off this business.

What this fellow does is free enterprise in the truest sense, not "capitalism." He manufactures a product that is sold in a highly competitive marketplace - there are an amazing number of $$$$$ home loudspeakers on the market from companies all over the world - and it is generally considered to be the best of its kind in existence by people who review such things (of which I am one). The value for dollar is there if you want music reproduced as perfectly as is possible in your house.

The world needs all of the people like my friend that can be found. Bankers, insurance execs and others who push around piles of money and create nothing and regard people as merely a means to an end, or those parasites who have inherited vast piles of cash, should be encouraged to find another planet to live on. And I am speaking very euphamistically.

[liberal N proud]

37. Scourge on society

[Mnemosyne]

61. And giant parasites. n/t

[Fire1]

41. I AM rich in many ways. I don't think "most" rich folks are

honorable people and I think most are thieves (acquiring wealth via illegal means). I think they're smarter in the sense that they know how to steal without getting caught.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

46. When some of the exceed the greed limit there is no one there to stop them. That's

the beauty of capitalism I spose. :crazy: :crazy:

[Raine]

48. The same as I think about all people in general

some are good and some are bad, some are giving and some are greedy. Some deserve what they have/get and some don't, as it is with all people.

[alfredo]

49. It's those who use their money and power to amass more

of each, that give the rich a bad name. They are willing to make others suffer just so they can put another zero to the left of the period. Where you stand on the Forbes 400 doesn't mean shit if you harm others to get on that list.

[indepat]

52. The rich are not like you and I: moreover government has decided to eviscerate the big three so

the rich and large corporations can continue their 30+-year run raucously sucking at the public welfare teat. :patriot:

[LatteLibertine]

53. Hmm

Well study the history of indentured servitude and slavery in this nation. It's useful to review the entire history between owners/management and labor. You'll discover how a lot of wealth was "made" both fair and foul. More often foul.

Today you have many of the same folks making record profits but doing all they may to avoid employing people full time in the United States with benefits. Those that are working are often doing the work of four people and may not be being compensated for large amounts of overtime.

The problem is that even our regulated capitalism is not really regulated. Often the people regulating a certain sector while in government go to work for that same said sector as an "adviser" when they're done with their government job. Often at double the pay. Adviser is usually the replacement word for lobbyist these days.

We've a rotten corrupt system of cronyism. The people crowing about believing in "free markets" and "capitalism" are full of shit. They do all they may be to enable a slanted monopolistic system. It'll be nice when we get back to our rivers catching on fire and kids working in coal mines.

I guess the short of it is, I believe we live in a plutocracy.

[LWolf]

54. I don't know any of the rich.

At this point, I'd like to be comfortably middle class.

[Igel]

55. I don't understand "smart".

Or "deserving."

If you're poor, does that mean you're stupid and deserving of what you have? Stupid and undeserving of being poor? (What does "deserving" and "undeserving" mean if what you have is what you earned?)

If you're poor, does that mean you're altruistic and possessed of all human qualities (which would, of course, include greed).

I've had the fortune--neither good nor ill--to be around some rich people. Some were self-made and were, in some sense, "smart." Some would have failed college--wrong kind of smarts. Others were smart and got rich through being inventive and clever in a smart way. They were crazy busy, all of them. Many of them were lucky--but they all made sure that if luck happened, they were ready to take advantage of it. Sometimes they seemed to make their own "luck."

I wouldn't call them greedy. "Savvy," perhaps. They figured that it was a competition and if they competed and got more money than others, that's the way it worked. This was true for the businessman, the owner of a string of garages, the inventors. Every dollar they earned came at the expense of somebody else--a competing garage, a competing company, some other item that a consumer could buy.

Others were spoiled. This doesn't mean they didn't work hard--they didn't exactly live a life of leisure. One got his PhD and taught at a major university, finally deciding that he was fed up with spoiled grad students and wanted to work only with undergrads. Others were kept busy on boards, organizing things, involved with NGOs. Some started businesses. They weren't savvy, in many ways they were clueless. But I wouldn't call them "greedy."

Finally, some didn't work hard or intensively, but managed to keep themselves busy doing drivel.

Some were just venal. "Greedy" doesn't handle it; "grasping" was better for some. Matter of fact describes others--they had the cash, that was that. In many cases, "whiney" suited them much more. Then again, that also describes my aunt who may have had a few million when she died, but scraped and saved to get to that amount.

On the whole, they weren't greedier than the poor people I've known, who were more than willing in many cases to find a way to wheedle a promotion or overtime from their boss that could have gone to somebody else no less willing, who did things to hurt others' chances of promotion or get them in trouble. It may have made a $40 difference instead of a $400,000 difference, but it was still greed. The amount doesn't matter--in many ways, the lesser amount hurt a coworker more than the greater amount hurt a competitor.

Many of them were actually nicer. They didn't have to scrabble and scramble to make ends meet, they'd had cushier lives and so assumed that it should be that way for everybody. Some were clueless, most weren't. It really rather depended on how they came into their money. The worst were women who married into it or people who got it by virtue of something like singing or sports. The first had to prove they were superior; the second were flattered into and came to believe that they were important. Neither were especially savvy, smart, altruistic, or nice, even if they did have ideologies and images to put over their adoring socialite admirers or fans.

[begin_within]

56. The rich create poverty, by taking more than their share.

[workinclasszero]

58. Most of them were born into it

I got nothing against the rich as long as there is a strong middle class and everyone has a shot at a halfway decent life, no problems.

But now that the rich like the kocksuckers, teahadists rethugs, the controlling majorities of both parties and wall street have declared war on the poor, elderly, minorities and all the remnants of a once strong middle class, well...all bets are off.

You would think these people would be smart enough to let the other 95% of the country have a decent life but oh hell naw!

Maybe they think when we are all starving and living under bridges by the tens of millions we will just quietly watch as our children and parents slowly die in misery?

Maybe they think food and job riots will only happen on the rough side of town?

I bet a starving man knows where the food is at after all the grocery stores have burnt down to the ground. Ah those nice gated communities with their broad streets and sidewalks...yep, bet there's alot of food there eh?

But hey it couldn't happen here right?

Uh.....right???

[Zax2me]

64. I understand that most millionaires did NOT inherit it.

Which most don't believe or simply do not want to believe.
We outnumber them so we can easily repeat the lie 'they are lazy, got lucky - inherited it' until it is the perceived truth.

Some facts, link follows
- Most of us have never felt at a disadvantage because we did not receive any inheritance. About 80 percent of us are first-generation affluent.

- Only 17 percent of us or our spouses ever attended a private elementary or private high school. But 55 percent of our children are currently attending or have attended private schools.

- Many of the types of businesses we are in could be classified as dullnormal. We are welding contractors, auctioneers, rice farmers, owners of mobile-home parks, pest controllers, coin and stamp dealers, and paving contractors.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stanley-millionaire.html

[Philippine expat]

65. Where to start???

First:: Everyone has a different definition/idea of what rich is
Second: Some deserve it, some don't, I don't know any personally that I would begrudge them their money
Third: Just like everyone else, some are good some are not
Fourth: Who said I wasn't rich

[kentuck]

66. If the horses don't shit, the sparrows don't eat?

Is that basically the role of the "rich"?

[bluestate10]

67. Why the fixation on the rich? Too many of them are gross assholes.

Focus on the things that you can control, like getting people from your local area elected to represent you. Money can't stand up against passion, but money wins out when opponents are confused and self defeating.

[kentuck]

69. Maybe because there is a class war going on...?

And we are getting our asses kicked?

[devilgrrl]

71. Rich in spirit suits me fine.

As for "the rich" - other people helped you get rich.

[leftygolfer]

72. my family has rich members

my sister married a guy that (my best guess) makes maybe $10 million a year?

he is a horrible person. treats her like crap. i'm pretty sure he cheats on her. but she'll never leave because she loves the country club/yacht club lifestyle too much. and they all think i'm some type of street vermin because i scrape by week to week. the hell with 'em.

[TBF]

74. I think we ought to be focusing on the system that rewards the behaviors,

rather than individual rich folk.

[Name removed]

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[dameocrat67]

77. I view them as sheltered people. I do not think as a class they

do as much for America since globalization and labor arbitrage became popular, and I do believe they are vastly overpaid and pampered relative to the rest of us.

Some of them promote the obnoxious beliefs of Ayn Rand!

[Name removed]

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