To think that most rich people don’t actually care about those struggling?

I don’t think you can generalise.
Yes, there will be wealthy people who don’t consider others, but there will be those who do.

It’s similar to saying that healthy individuals or Neurotypical individuals don’t consider disabled people in their day to day lives.
Most of them won’t because that isn’t their lived reality, but some, for whatever reason will do.

I don’t think it’s realistic to presume people who have made or been born into a family with extreme wealth to be of higher emotional intelligence and moral standing than the rest of the population.
We may wish that it were so, but reality shows that it isn’t the case, and possibly the ability to accumulate wealth, or at least those who do so knowingly and somewhat intentionally, are less likely to question whether they could or should use it in ways that benefit others beside themselves.

I’m a rich person (depending what you mean. Comfortably eight figures sterling. I barely count by many standards of rich).

There’s the whole gamut. I know rich/high income people who give a huge proportion of their income to help others and who put serious thought into how to do that best. Some make that one of the organising principles of their lives. I know others who, as far as I can tell, don’t do any of that.

One misconception and one point I think you are right on.

Giving ‘for the tax breaks’: not really a thing. The govt gives some preferential treatment on gifts, but you are always financially better off not giving. So it’s not some empty tax dodge.

But you are right that very few rich people know how properly poor UK people live. Very few are from that background. And while there is perhaps some sympathy for the ‘squeezed middle’ (many stealth-rich people have, superficially, the same sort of lifestyle), most I know would consider it embarrassing to take that as a cause. There’s a handful who focus on prosperity/growth/progress as a cause, which I guess is that.

Mainly, rich people I’m aware of seem to fall into three giving camps: I) personal causes, eg health charities they have some personal connection to, II) arts types (my least favourite), who like fashionable causes especially if they can put their name on it, III) the spreadsheet givers, who are looking for the most possible good they can do in the world for their buck. That mostly goes to global health and development or more esoteric neglected causes.

They might donate to charity for tax breaks, post about “awareness” on social media or make vague comments about how “hard work pays off” but they rarely do anything that actually makes a difference.

But ultimately, why do you feel people with money are obliged to do more than this? People who choose to work with “poor people” should care and have ideas about how to solve poverty and do things which make a difference; people who choose to go into politics as a career should care and have ideas about how to solve poverty and do things which make a difference. I’m not convinced anyone else is necessarily obliged to “make a difference” beyond making charitable donations if they choose to and using their position to raise awareness of causes they support.

When I was a child anyone whose parents owned a car I saw as rich because we didn’t have one.
These days I see people with over a million as rich , but maybe they don’t think they are ? They certainly are not compared to someone like Elon Musk. It’s all relative isn’t it ?

I used to advise some of the richest people in the world. A lot of my time was spent dealing with their charitable giving. Most of the time it was very very anonymous so it is impossible to tell which billionaire or multi multi millionaire is giving away money and which is not.

Having said that it reminds me of one of the directors at the first company DH worked for. He asked if he was going to buy a house in the area. DH pointed out that on the salary he was being paid he couldn't afford a studio flat..... Shortly afterwards he abandoned STEM for the City - I don't think it came as a big surprise.

@ZippyMintCat if you are talking at the mega rich level, I know few who haven’t got there ( apart from inherited wealth) without a certain amount of looking after number 1 at all times and being more than happy not to give a second thought to others situation apart from possibly very immediate family - and not always that either.

Ido think the rich probably get giving fatigue. A bit like reading about seemingly endless conflicts in Africa. It sort of feels like it doesn’t matter in a way how many hundreds of millions of pounds are poured in, it doesn’t resolve things, it’s a very expensive plaster.

Is there an amount of money that would solve the underlying issues or is everything just kicking the can down the road.

I think you'll need to put a number on it. Otherwise we're all just hypocrites pointing fingers at those with slightly more than us.
Because there's an abundance of people in the world who will think you should do more and that you are wasting your power and influence and that you are out of touch with their reality.
In reality I think most of us could do more if we really wanted to. Rich people may do less proportionally, but likely far more in absolute terms.

That’s the big question!

I know a woman worth absolute millions, she owns several houses in several countries across the world.
She’s in her late 60s
She spends half her year working in India building schools running a charity for the schools, building backup communities and sending girls to university (a lot of which she pays for)

The rest of the year she runs the charity does fundraisers and also gives to other charities, she doesn’t just give money she gave her a lot of time. She doesn’t have to do this but she does because she was an educator before she became a millionaire.
I don’t think it’s fair to tar people with a brush just because they have money.
A lot of celebrities are philanthropist they just don’t go talking about it all the time.
I work for a multi million dollar industry, we donate to hell a of a lot of money to our local community alone.
It’s going on around you all the time just because you don’t see it and hear it doesn’t mean it’s not happening…

You need to decide who you're talking about first. Are you talking about people with a few properties and investments to live off of or billionaires with power? There's very few of the latter and of course they're all horrible. You don't get that rich by being nice. Nobody else has the power or resources to do any of that.

The Chair of my employers is worth about £150m - he's late 60's. His family were lawyers; his dad was a celebrity lawyer way back. He was educated at public school, and started a property development firm with an inheritance. He does not have the slightest idea how "normal" people live, let alone people under the poverty line. And if he doesn't know, then how can he care?

My experience of rich people is that they ‘care’ in a ‘poverty is terrible but I’ll live somewhere where it isn’t ever in my face and I’ll educate my children so they’ll never have to brush up against povvo riff raff’ kind of way.

I agree.
To the wealthy the rest of us are just cogs in the machine, the machine that churns out money so that the wealthy can become even more wealthy.

I agree really OP. I think that’s always been that way. I’m alright Jack attitude is in ever aspect of life. Most people say they’re concerned but the reality is, most people are in their own little bubble with their lives and their families and that’s it. They aren’t actively thinking of people who are less fortunate. I include myself in that.

Exactly. And some people are poor because they're nasty. It's a personality trait, not a bank balance.

@ZippyMintCat You are rich beyond the wildest dreams of many. I know, cos you are on the internet on a work day, so leisure time and electricity seem to be a given. I would hazard a guess you also have access to drinking water, sanitation, are wearing matching fitting shoes, and had somewhere to sleep last night?

What are you doing for destitute children starving in Sudan, or syrian refugees in Turkish refugee camps? or families with no water, or the schools in the world with no doors or windows, no pens and three children to every chair? or are you "living in your own bubble completely disconnected from the struggles of normal people"?

Some do, some don't.
JK Rowling definitely does, for example.
I don't think you can generalise.

You cant generalise. And there is a certain demographic who are rich BECAUSE they are nasty, rather than the other way around - they are never going to suddenly change. But some rich people are actually caring and empathetic too, and very proactive

I don't think most people (whether they are rich or not) spend a lot of time thinking about those less fortunate than themselves. Most people are just getting on with their own lives.

I do desperately. Feel very guilty but I can’t change the family was I born in to and all I can do is help people when I can.