We ENGLISH are we too respectful of the rich?

[GabbyLoggon]

And too critical of the poor? (I suspect we are, or I would not be asking the question, ok)

Is it because money gives power; and the rich have money?

Or do we clobber the poor because they have little money and little power?

I suppose it goes back to Victorian times.

And you really don't want to go into discussing the western world's responsibilities for the poverty of the developing countries...

I do think it's relevant, as I think we have lost touch with what poverty actually is.

My ancestors were incredibly wealthy, and so may I have been, (stately home wealthy!) had my great-great-grandfather not been disinherited.

Instead, my great-grandfather was born into a very poor situation. Each subsequent generation has worked hard to achieve comfort and moderate wealth.
Are we now to be despised because of this?

'And you really don't want to go into discussing the western world's responsibilities for the poverty of the developing countries...'

They are indeed a contributing factor. But it's hardly the fault of the Average Joe in the UK, much less the poor on the margins of society.

Are people who worked just as hard but were not as fortunate to be, twirly?

It's in the past.

Just as other countries are, other countries.

Indeed Expat, that's what I meant.

No expat it's just that I don't like hatred and bigotry of any kind. To hate someone because they are born into a wealthy family is ludicrous.

'I do think it's relevant, as I think we have lost touch with what poverty actually is.'

Yes, let's go back there and show 'em what it's really like!

By the same token, there's an article out right now proclaiming that women have lost touch with the pain of childbirth. Soft touch, the lot of 'em. Deny 'em pain relief, God said they should suffer in the Bible.

I don't think most hate them, twirly, but they certainly are under no obligation to repsect them, particularly when they decide to join government and dictate to others how they will live.

How is poverty defined in Britain? Not a facetious question, I genuinely would like to know.

at the childbirth analogy.

There has been a lot of vitriol on here!

There are official government guidelines to define it, IIRC.

I've lived in several places with dire poverty, Brazil among them.

I have always been grateful to be in the West. I never saw it as, 'Oh, poor people here should be happy not to be able to put the heating on, they could be in Brazil'.

I also come from a country where you have to pay for healthcare and it's easy to go bankrupt from something common like cancer.

I think that's appalling and shameful considering how rich a nation it is, rather than thinking, 'Well, if they'd been in Africa, they'd just have died.'

From my perspective, I wasn't demonising the poor in Britain. Just pointing out that in some countries what constitutes being "poor" is a hell of a lot different from in the UK.

If memory serves, the official government guidelines are relative, so if you earn/live on say x% of the average wage, not definitive.

I'm taken aback by the levels of poverty and neglect you glimpse in my city. Yes we are a western country and yes people have running water and rarely go without food, but I feel very lucky to be where I am, rather than on one of the neglected estates, 15 floors up, with no transport, shops, work and knowing that nothing is going to change for me.

Ha! I glimpse it daily out of my back window!

Ace post @ 16.53 Expat

And, mumoftwoplustwo...you are frickin loaded! Congrats!

I don't hate rich people at all, I just hate cheats and people who think others are only poor because the choose to be...

happiestblonde (if that is your real hair colour) It is totally naive to suppose that the money does not breed money.

If I have parents who own property they are more likely to give me money for a deposit to buy my own property and so on.

If my parents have nothing and live in a council house, there is no collateral, no family money, and unless I earn BIG (unlikely as a nurse for eg)I will always be at a massive disadvantage, as will my children etc.)

Why should you be taxed on what you earn and not from what you merely inherit?