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.

The only place I ever see rich (or more accurately, well off) people being slated is on MN. I don't see it in RL with the very rare exceptions of one cousin and one BIL who hate everyone who has money but neither of whom have ever worked a day in their lives (I assume they are an anomaly).

DH and I are both HRT payers (him more so than me) and we made the decision to send our DC to private school. On MN this seen as a bad thing and I really struggle to understand why?

We both grew up in very poor families but were both determined to break away from the poverty. We've both worked very hard to get where we are now but of course we aren't allowed to say that. I do appreciate some of it is down to luck -but it's mainly been 70+ hours per week sometimes in really shitty jobs and working our way up.

I don't understand why it's seen as such a negative?

boulevardofbroken
genuine question does that include NI?

Also it's still quite a bit isn't it. 90k in your pocket 60k to the tax man.

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/15/you-pay-higher-taxes-than-boeing-and-ge-verizon-23-more-u-s-corporations.html Just saying.

frankblackswife - i think I have a fairly unusual perspective in that I went from a very poor and deprived area to a fairly well off and affluent area courtesy of a critical illness insurance payout.

So my daughter has gone from a primary in a deprived area - above average free school meals, English as second or even third language etc, etc to an independent school (because there were no places at the local school and I had a bit of money left over)

And it does make me very uneasy to see how the affluent middle/upper middle classes behave. There appears to be very little interest in or understanding of how difficult it is for very, very many people. There is a definite feeling of living in a privileged bubble, which is lovely for those in the bubble of course.

I think our society is becoming increasingly segregated with different groups of people never mixing with one another or educating their children together and this breeds suspicion, hatred and fear.

And of course, if you have money that is something for others to envy. I am now picking my daughter up from playdates at astonishingly lovely houses and of course I feel a twinge of envy. I would probably feel a lot worse if I was going back to my Brixton flat than the house I have now.

I've seen it - mainly in the schoolchild politicking in the Guardian where there are regular calls btl for a revolution to destroy the rich.

Given that you would be well into the top 20% of incomes in the country if you earned £39,800 which is hardly super rich territory and is generally subject to PAYE, I think there is some confusion over what counts as 'rich' - it is more likely to be about the super rich than even someone earning £100k per year after tax from his/ her successful business.

holly, the problem is that a lot of people have international jobs or wealth
If I'm Irish but I'm working in the UK, which government do you want me to pay the tax to?

I think some of it is down to jealousy. I remember reading some study (sorry I can't remember the details as it was a while ago) and people were asked which of the following scenario youd choose;

a) You win a £1million
b) You win £2million but your neighbour also wins £2million.

Guess which scenario most people went for?
Most people chose a!

I don't get it but I think it shows most people don't like other people to be rich.

Sorry, slightly derailed the flow.

It's from Martin Lewis' set your budget wotsit so I'm assuming NI is included, yes.

Sparechange I'm talking about the super rich whose families are based in the country - principal home, goes to schools here, use the hospitals etc but the tax exiles fly in and out (at will).
One of 'our' billionaires gets huge media attention for a tournament he holds that brings the rich and famous and he donates money to his chosen charities.
He is a tax exile.
I'd like to choose where my money goes too... but I pay my tax and the government spends it for me

the problem is that the super rich are a law unto themselves.

It's jealousy pure and simple.

Regarding tax avoidance, my take on it is that perceived unfairness of the tax system. Take income tax for example:

Everyone gets to earn £8k tax free (although I think this is changing soon), then from 8K to 35k is taxed at 20%, 35k to 150k is taxed at 40% and top rate of over 150k is taxed at 50%. (Then you get taxed on your SAVINGS interest - that's money you've ALREADY paid tax on when you earned it by the way.)

Take someone earning 30k, they will be paying about 5,200 per year in income tax. So surely someone earning 60k a year should have to pay 10,400 per year income tax right? I mean, that's fair isn't it? You earn double, you should pay double.

So will somebody please tell my why the hell that person earning 70k should have to pay nearly £18,000 in income tax? Why is that fair?

The person earning £70k would still be contributing double the amount of money to the treasury and if you think about it, is probably taking less out as well. People with more money are less likely to use subsidised public transport, are more likely to have private healthcare, more likely to use fee paying schools and so on and so forth.

When you look at it this way and then go and watch some of the tv shows like 'benefits street' where you see money being thrown at layabouts left right and centre, it's easy to see why the 'rich' decide they want to employ some clever accountants and reduce their tax bills.

It's really unfashionable to be seen as 'rich' in this country, as if being successful is something to be ashamed of and punished for..

I have no issue with earned wealth. Good for them. I do have a problem with people who don't pay their share of tax. However I don't blame individual taxpayers, I blame the government. I had a very unseemly rant at the telly when David Cameron did a mea culpa about tax avoidance and said he couldn't do anything as it was within the law. You are the one person who can CHANGE THE LAW so stop pissing around pretending that you can't do anything. Get on with it before we vote for someone who bloody will.

It's jealousy pure and simple.

I came on here to say exact sentence!

"When you look at it this way and then go and watch some of the tv shows like 'benefits street' where you see money being thrown at layabouts left right and centre, it's easy to see why the 'rich' decide they want to employ some clever accountants and reduce their tax bills."

That is of course if you are thick enough to believe that heavily edited pile of shite. At least one couple were graduates of the local special school hitch means they had significant learning difficulties. Of course the media did not portray that fact...far easier to think if them as "layabouts" isn't it? And far more lazy to do so.

Hope you can read this

@ The demographic of this site is mainly left wing/6th form political ideals (in a champagne manner) so it is trendy to hate the rich.

Very true, hilarious so well summed up,

Yes I think its a socialist bitter.....trend not a general one.

This is my main point.
The very people who get arsey, and rightly so, about people generalising about the poor or immigrants then do exactly the same thing and generalize about the rich! And don't see the irony!

It depends what you define as rich, indeed.

I must admit having once been on a millionaire's yacht and bored stiff, surrounded by everyone else who was bored stiff, I object to their need to have all these possessions which they do not even enjoy at the expense of so much misery.

And sometimes we do talk generically without actually meaning that we hate everyone from that group. In the Ireland of my youth we used to always talk about the English as baddies, but never felt or directed any animosity towards our English friends and neighbours.

Fact is though if you are rich - you win! You really do. So why give a shit?

It is not jealousy 'pure and simple'.

I don't deny that jealousy (or is it envy?) can play a part.

But to dismiss everything wrapped up in that one little airy phrase makes it highly ironic that people who disagree with you are sneered at as 'sixth form debaters'.

I must admit having once been on a millionaire's yacht and bored stiff, surrounded by everyone else who was bored stiff,

it wasnt the yacht that was boring, it was all the people on it. thats like going to a boring restaurant.

at the expense of so much misery why did misery pay of the yacht?

The only really rich people I know are bankers. They are rich because they earned enormous bonuses whilst bringing their banks to the brink of collapse and then being bailed out by tax payers as 'too big to fail'.

Do you really think the problem is 'jealousy - pure and simple'.

As with most things, its a little more complicated than that.

A lot of rich people got rich by profiteering and exploiting, not simply by the honest sweat on their brow.

also i dont think is jealousy, well not all the time(/often?).

a lot of people dont like someone else's work/efforts being worth more than theirs.

i see it like an athlete training since childhood. their entire body and mind is differently wired, differently developed compared with someone who did no sport.

the same with the brain. if you stretch and change your brain throughout childhood, you are different than someone who does not challenge themselves in financially valuable ways.

so it makes as much sense to say that its unfair Ussain Bolt is a faster runner than i am, as to compare two people's salaries and say they are unfair.

Read this and tell me 'its jealousy - pure and simple'

You ignorant fools.

highpaycentre.org/blog/what-would-the-neighbours-say-how-inequality-means-the-uk-is-poorer-than-we?

Thebogqueen

It's that very attitude: that if you are rich you can't mind if people slag you off because "you win". That is exactly what my OP is about.
People with this attitude that even if someone rich pays all their tax they can still be slagged off are showing their inability to see people as people as opposed to rich bastards.