AIBU to not understand why some people seem to have an absolute hatred for rich people in this country.

[Barbierella]

I cannot understand why people find it acceptable to slate rich people as if they are all the same and responsible for all that is wrong in society.

Surely people can understand that many rich people do pay tax and generally are an asset to society? And without the many successful businesses in the private sector we would not have a public sector?

AIBU to think that people who like to lump all rich people into one tax avoiding bunch of tossers can be the very same people who get outraged at the lumping of all out of work people as benefit scroungers?

Neither are ok in IMO.

Barbierella I am sure a lot of very wealthy people do contribute quietly and without fuss or fanfare.

Some wealthy people do, however, show an awful sense of arrogance and greed.

I remember a number of years ago Paul McCartney (often reknowned as a bit 'tight' with his millions) offering to fund the local hospital to keep the A&E unit open, and he wasn't allowed to, I wondered why not?

Op, I am sure they do! I am sure there are many rich people who go about their day and make many contributions without drawing attention to themselves. I don' t think I have ever suggested otherwise.

But you posed a specific question: you didn't understand why 'some' people had 'absolute hatred' for rich people.

I have tried to explain why, in my opinion, some people may find some rich people quite distasteful.

You cannot deny - in fact I have been told everyone agrees with me on this - that the banking crisis shone a very strong light on the unpleasant greed and sense of entitlement of some rich people. The consequences of their greed and lack of moral compass have been very real and very horrible for very many.

So I can understand why some people would hate rich people as representatives of that particular class of disgusting scumbags.

Not a shanty town in Nigeria as a PP mentioned but research has shown we are now on a par with the former Eastern bloc.

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/welfare-cuts-one-year-on-3713263#.U6HrWj85MtY.twitter

Interestingly has anyone seen the calculator on the bbc website this morning showing what you get back from the government compared to what you put into the system. Without the richer members of the population, those in the lower six income groups (the vast majority of the population) would be in trouble and would have a completely different (lesser) standard of living.

Its bust at the moment but its interesting to plug in the figures.

I don't understand where you have got this from OP? On MN all I see is vitriol directed at the poor, at benefit claimants and such life.

Howver I do think people who are 'rich' have mostly got that way by exploiting others directly or indirectly.

Thats rubbish sunshinecity, I've not exploited anyone.

You've just directly proved the OP's point.

You must be the exception that proves the rule, then.

Why on earth would you say that? What are you basing this on?

So DH is also a high earner, is he also a second exception proving the rule in one household?

I earn very good money, I work for myself running my own business. I exploit nobody, in fact in a small way I provide work for others because I'm so busy that we need help around the house. Between DH and I we pay £100k a year in tax. We take nowhere near this amount back out of the system.

I thought this was quite interesting. Shows how we are encouraged to hate each other and how the better off are comforted by the narrative that the poor are poor because of their bad choices and bad attitudes.

po.st/2WWNSz

A lot of my middle class/affluent friends make the same claims - they don't exploit, they put more in than they take out etc etc.

But they buy up all the houses in the catchment areas of the 'nice' schools and drive everyone on lower incomes out of the area. They get annoyed if their cleaner lives in a nice house in their area. They watch tv programmes about the feckless poor and laugh and judge.

I don't think any of us can afford to be complacent about what is going on and our attitudes towards it and our roles in perpetuating it.

You just have nasty friends then spero if they laugh and judge anyone. Somewhat ironically you seem to do your fair share of judging.

I don't take up any state school places, I haven't bought up property in a good school catchment area and I haven't driven anyone out. My cleaner can live where she likes and actually lives in my village.

This conversation is ridiculous and really does prove the OP's point.

I didn't have a privileged upbringing, my dad drove a fork lift truck and my mum worked as a cleaner at night. I went to a not very good comprehensive school. I've worked hard to set up a business and I earn good money through having done that. I was lucky, I was born with a good brain and I've used it.

so what is your business, and what does your DH do?

I'm assuming that you'd deliberately buy a house in a crap area if you won the lottery because heaven forbid you buy a house in a nice area!

I applaud hatred of the rich and wish there was more of it. At the moment we're encouraged to treat them as though they were some kind of special-interest group "The fact that my children go to a top-rated private school, my accountant makes sure I pay minimal tax and I go on luxury holidays 5x a year doesn't make up for the fact that PEOPLE HAAAATE ME". Boo hoo.

I'm expecting "richism" to be one of the new 21st Century no-nos. Why, look at all the fantastic things the rich do! On this thread alone, they provide the entire public sector and NHS (never mind the people who actually work there and keep these sectors afloat - if they were worth anything they'd be rich themselves, amirite?), selflessly provide loads of worthless layabouts with jobs at their own expense (how kind of them!) and are generally all-around fantastic super beings that we should love and cherish. I venture to suggest that the reality is somewhat different.

Why is that relevant?

This conversation is silly now. Have you read the thread shockinglybadteacher?

I am leaving now. I have slaves to whip and small children to give chinese burns to.

Why is that relevant?

.. because you are holding yourself and your dh up as examples to refute my argument.

LOL atticusclaw, I suspect you aren't who I'm talking about. You own a business and employ a cleaner. That hardly propels you into the ranks of the super-rich (in fact they'd laugh at you).

I don't like the assumption that the rich are rich because they're just fantastic people. There are loads of threads everywhere from the Grauniad website to the Daily Mail to MN to...basically telling people that if they are poor it's their fault. You do it yourself - you were "born with a good brain" which is why you're doing better than people who were, presumably, born with a hopeless brain.

Poor people "didn't bother to learn at school" "are parasites on society" suck up benefits, and if they have a minimum wage job as a cleaner, it's because they are too crap and rubbish to get an Oxbridge degree. The rich do not realise that the position they have exists because of the poverty of millions.

I was simply acknowledging that there's a degree of luck involved. I couldn't have entered my field without the ability to pass lots of exams however hard I tried.

I didn't realise we were only talking about the super rich. There are really not that many super rich you know and they don't tend to hang about on mumsnet "directing vitriol" What is super rich anyway? When do you move from well off to rich to super rich?

I judge. I judge all the time. I make no apology for that.

And I have also made it very clear what kind of people I am judging, so if you don't fall into that category you can be assured I am not judging you.

Bloodyhell, there are some very nasty people about. I don't think the hatred of anyone should be applauded. What a peculiar and not very socialist notion.