To ask if you feel you morally deserve your wealth

[Nc1028]

No judgment, genuinely interested (and bored!)

Read about the idea that people want to have money but also want to believe that they morally deserve the money. For example, those who earned their wealth are more likely to believe they deserve it because of hard work, whereas those who inherited wealth are more likely to feel guilty. Stay-at-home partners also tended to feel guilty if their partners are high earners/have inherited wealth when they haven’t earned/inherited wealth themselves. Everyone try to emphasise on their productiveness, not wanting to be cast as “rich and lazy”.

Wondering what people think?
If you have money, do you think you deserve what you have?
Do you think people who have a lot more money deserve what they have?

(Light hearted. Yes your money is none of anyone’s business but money is such a taboo topic, fun to talk about)

@Wearywithteens

Can’t bear all this ‘worked hard...’ bollocks. The knackered piss poor working classes in warehouses, chill depots, hospitals and thankless retail jobs work hard too. Wealth doesn’t mean you’re better.

I don’t think this means people on good salaries deserve less though, it means people who aren’t paid well deserve more! Everyone deserves to be paid a real living wage. It does make sense to base pay on skills and ease of replacement though. It’s quite easy to replace a retail worker and you don’t need to give much training to the replacement. It’s much more difficult to replace e.g. an astronaut, they are highly skilled and thus should be paid more. Even if you have two workers in the same sector this applies - e.g. sommelier vs the person at a restaurant who shows you to the table.

This thread shows why inheritance tax is so unpopular! 😆

It has never occurred to me to feel guilty about being comfortably off.

I'm comfortable but grew up very poor. I worked hard for what I've got but not anything like as hard as many, many people with half as much as me have worked and not as hard as the generation below me will have to work.
I think I should pay more tax.

I always wished my Dad had more than he has but he came from a impoverished background, he lost his father at a young age and had an alcoholic mother trying to raise 5 children, she spent most of her money on alcohol, so there were many days when he was a child, where he went hungry. He ended up going to college and completing a carpentry course, he made good money enabling my mother to raise me and my sister. My mother who had mental health problems left me and my sister as young children, he left his job to care for us and took a low paid job so that he could be there to collect us after school. We struggled massively, we went without a lot but always had a happy childhood and we never went to bed with empty stomachs. He often took on carpentry projects in his spare time to try and earn extra money for Christmas, Birthdays and the summer holidays. He is now at retirement age and still working full-time, he struggles with back pain and his joints are getting worse (mild arthritis). Sadly, he’s never been wealthy enough to retire early to enjoy life and relax! So no matter how much you put in/work, it doesn’t always give you the wealth you deserve.

This thread shows why inheritance tax is so unpopular!
Personally I can't think of a fairer tax and definitely think it should be higher.

@dudsville

I had opportunities. I must say I'm not wealthy but I'm very comfortable and live well (with or without a coma) within my means. So I don't think I deserve it or ideas don't. On my trajectory I wasn't due to have chances, they came by, I grasped. Nothing moral about that.

I'm intrigued

DH and I have worked long hours, paid for extra courses & studied alongside working, taken risky but lucrative contracts abroad in low tax countries, lived away from loved ones for a long time & have lived fairly frugal lives so we can invest for the future.

At the odd time where I wasn’t working, it was to support his career, so I do feel we deserve the position we are in & don’t feel guilty for reaping the rewards of this work ethic.

@KenDodd

This thread shows why inheritance tax is so unpopular! Personally I can't think of a fairer tax and definitely think it should be higher.

I was still living at home when my dad died (my mum died when I was a child). The house was over the threshold which was much lower then..I think the threshold was 250k...so I was effectively orphaned and had to leave my home...the estate agent was called the morning after he died...if you think that's fair, you are completely heartless.

@PattyPan I think you don’t understand relative wealth. If we make people, on the bottom half of the income spectrum, better off, it will not have a neutral affect on those in the top half - we compete for resources - the differential is how resources are allocated.

Not only do I think YABVU to ask, I think you’re being a CF.

probably shouldn’t earn in the global top 5%

What is the global top 5%?

I agree @Wearywithteens
Working hard doesn’t equate to fair remuneration. The system favours the middle classes and their existing network. Fundamentally we have an unequal system that is stacked against working classes

I'm not sure inheritance tax is that fair, as it's tax on income which has already been taxed.

@KenDodd you're not wrong but it's not popular.

Interesting thread. A year ago this week my DP and I drove to the airport in our (albeit old) Porsche, flew business class to the Carribbean for a 10 day all inclusive holiday at a boutique, adult only resort.

Now the Porsche is gone (at a 'distressed price'), we are happy if we can make a soup from a cauliflower last for three meals and I have found that my (substantial) inheritance has been hijacked by another family member. Ho hum. Life swings from being interesting to see how we can live on as little as possible to being terrified of the future.

Still, with no children, we always have the option to check out if there's no other choice.

No. I don't think I morally deserve it. I have been fortunate. Conversely, I don't feel guilty for having it. I made some choices in life which proved to be right and things that I didn't choose have, to date, worked out reasonably well. But it's largely luck in the end.

I will inherit a very large, life changing sum. Will I deserve it, absolutely not.
And in order to get it I have to lose my mum... so in short, I don’t want it.

I'm not sure inheritance tax is that fair, as it's tax on income which has already been taxed.

The trouble with inheritance is that is does perpetuate inequality hence why you have the same people who have so much now as their ancestors did.

I work and have recently done a lot of studying. DH earns x 4 more than me. I am part time at the moment. We are not rich but comfortable now thanks to DH. I do not feel guilty, I do a lot more work in the house. I will also work when he is retired as I'm younger and don't have an amazing pension.He can do the housework then. May get inheritance but don't think about it.

Yes I will inherit a lot. I don't feel in the slightest bit guilty about it.

I have assumed all of my parents wealth will go on care fees 🤷‍♀️

My husband and I are fairly well off, assets of a couple of million, which compared to our neighbours is small change. We earned all of it and have worked hard over the years. We own a few properties and generally enjoy life. Plan on retiring before 50 to our villa in Ibiza.
I absolutely think we deserve it, and not only that but I resent the enormous amount of tax we pay that we give zero to charity, except the odd fiver here and there to sponsor friends running marathons and the like.
Guess I need to name change after that admission!

@boomshakey

I'm not sure inheritance tax is that fair, as it's tax on income which has already been taxed.

The trouble with inheritance is that is does perpetuate inequality hence why you have the same people who have so much now as their ancestors did.

My inheritance was an ordinary house in London...which I was forced to move from when I was barely out of my teens with no parents...I won't feel guilty for what the state graciously allowed me to keep so I could afford a roof over my head

Not read the whole thread but no, absolutely not. It's pure dumb luck. And I say this as someone who has only an average amount by UK standards.

I don't think of it that much day to day but I do periodically feel grateful that I have the means to have a warm, comfortable home and good quality food.

When I go back home to Southern Africa I am gut-punched by the poverty, even though I grew up seeing it, and comparitively poor myself although I didn't realise it.

It makes me feel heartbroken for the suffering and almost sort of sickened at how easy I have things in comparison, and yes acutely aware that I've done nothing to deserve it just as they have done nothing to deserve being born into poverty.