to think that in the UK we love to hate rich people?

[InTheNameOfAllThatIsHonest]

Looking at a few threads here it seems that there is a definite trend that sees a lot of us in the UK loving to hate rich people. Why is that? Why do we resent them? Sure, I'd love to have lots of money and not need to worry but I don't resent those who do have it.

And yet there is so much vitriol on MN directed at people with money. Odd when without their tax money we'd be in a lot of trouble... Enlighten me please. Because I'm almost embarrassed IRL to admit I'd actually love to be rich!

Jeff Bezos as an example

JB and the like are not the 'average' wealthy person, he's a billionaire, same as other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs

@mustlovegin

Jeff Bezos as an example

JB and the like are not the 'average' wealthy person, he's a billionaire, same as other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs

Having billionaires skews the system massively.

But I can think of other examples 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

For example, my ex boyfriend’s dad was a successful business man. Not a millionaire. But - he had employees and he didn’t do all that work himself to earn that money.

Also came to say that it's the poor we seem to hate not the rich,

@mustlovegin

than they’d ever need

Define 'need'

If there are people out there working every hour under the sun and still can’t feed themselves, while billionaires are lapping you the profits, why should I need to define “need”.

Isn’t it obvious 🤨

Wtf are you on about? We are a nation of pathetic cap doffers.

I think the problem in the UK is there is an entrenched elite. We still have an unelected second chamber, an aristocracy and a monarchy. You can literally trace people across centuries and basically the more your ancestors earned the more likely you are to earn more. There will always be individuals who buck this trend and i am always very pleased for them - id love to be richer too but i do think that backdrop makes for a funny attitude to wealth in the uk.

@Elephantsparade

I think the problem in the UK is there is an entrenched elite. We still have an unelected second chamber, an aristocracy and a monarchy. You can literally trace people across centuries and basically the more your ancestors earned the more likely you are to earn more. There will always be individuals who buck this trend and i am always very pleased for them - id love to be richer too but i do think that backdrop makes for a funny attitude to wealth in the uk.

^this

And as that wealth stays in a small group of people, it’ll never be released for the rest of the population and we will always have a poor underclass. Which is absolutely not necessary.

I’d rather have a system where wealth was better able to be recycled and gave other people a chance.

And much inherited wealth, still buoying "family businesses" in the UK today, comes from the humongous payouts given to slave owner families when slavery was abolished hundreds of years ago. The equivalent of hundreds of millions today, was handed out to each....! Which formed the basis for quite a number of big successful businesses today*

Eealoty could you give some examples of these successful businesses which were started up with slave owners compensation?

@thefourgp

Rich or super rich? I don’t think anyone works hard enough or is talented enough to become a billionaire without some morally bankrupt practices Eg. Having staff on zero hour contracts, paying lower level staff minimum wage whilst those at the top earn millions, having your staff have to claim universal credit because you don’t pay enough for them to comfortably live etc.

This. Most highly successful people have -

Done morally bankrupt things
or
Had their parents drive them 40 miles each way to football training 5 days a week for 10 years
or
Got lucky
or
Gone years barely seeing their kids
and
Got lucky with genes and upbringing

And not only that there is a damn good chance that they think it's all them, not the SAHP, or the luck they've had, it's all their hard work.

When I see someone struggling on benefits my starting point is to have sympathy, even though I know some are lazy scum who deserve no sympathy.

When I see someone extremely rich and successful I assume that they've been very lucky or bad, even though I know some are simply good hard working people.

I don’t hate rich people, but I wouldn’t like to be in the company of someone who is rich. We’d have nothing in common and I’d feel really intimidated.

My idea of hell is going to a family wedding and seeing rich relatives who I haven’t seen in years. I just wouldn’t enjoy their company at all.
Some rich people are also absolutely clueless about how poor people live, which makes it bloody annoying when they try to “picture it” and give advice and have opinions. Please just fuck off and stick to what you know as you look and sound like an idiot.

Even middle class people make me feel uncomfortable. Again it’s not that I hate them, they’re just living a different life to what I am so I just find it a lot harder to connect to them.

I don’t hate rich people, but I wouldn’t like to be in the company of someone who is rich

Do you think they would enjoy spending time with you?

And the Englishman looked at the other Englishman and he said, "He's got a bigger house than mine and a bigger car and has more money. That isn't fair, so I'll grouse and I'll do everything in my power to stop him from having what he's got."
And the American looked at the other American and he said, "That guy's got a bigger house than mine and a bigger car and has more money. So I've gotta see what work he does and get some of that myself and strive to get what he has,"

I don't know if that's true but it's a tale I was told a long time ago.

Of course we haven't shaken off class in this society. I was taught that class is only a matter of money. I don't know if I agree.

I once saw a bookmark bearing these words:- The pain of the poor is that no-one needs their friendship.

No honestly I don’t. Which is why a social gathering that brings us together eg a wedding would be painful.

I don't know how much social and political understanding you can have if you don't hate rich people. Or don't understand why people would. I can't imagine being this naive. Have you seen the world and what a tiny proportion of people having loads of money does to it?!

Having billionaires skews the system massively

I think the problem is not the billionaires but corporations that have become (global) monopolies too quickly and that no government has shown any willingness or ability to regulate properly. Think of what happened with Whatsapp last week, for instance.

That's what we should be worrying about

Why do we still have a royal family then? We actually pay for them to be rich.

@Hoolihan

Wtf are you on about? We are a nation of pathetic cap doffers.

Yep. And if anything, it's the poor who are hated unfairly.

In a nutshell, the rich hoard wealth to the detriment of society.

For example, you could take roughly £6.5 Trillion from the world's billionaires, which would be enough to end global hunger and homelessness (and then some), and still not reduce the total number of billionaires in the world.

So essentially the world's billionaires could do something amazing for the humanity, and and still be rich, but chose not to.

What pisses me off is when the likes of Holly Wiloughby and husband claim 10k in furlough whilst being multi millionaires and she has no shame, doesn't look one bit coy about it

I know rich people and I know poor people.

All are nice people.

I lose my rag when rich people forget what it was like to have nothing (if they've worked their way up) and say "people need to work harder if they want more money."

The reality is many people work very hard for not a lot of money....so little in fact that they need benefits to simply afford the basics like housing.

But those of us who have to claim benefits are seen as scroungers by too many rich people.

@upinaballoon I agree with the moral of your tale.
There is a large portion of society with a huge sense of entitlement. Who don't think the rich deserve to be rich and yet want society to pay for them to do nothing. Further confounded by delusions that they have got no opportunities to better themselves. Their poverty of thought means they love pretty dress lives and pass on that hopelessness to the next generation. Looking on at the wealth of others with a sense of unfairness and entitlement whilst choosing to ignore the hard work put in.
I've seen what real lack of opportunity looks like. I'm afraid I have little sympathy for those who come from a country with free education and endless apprenticeship/ training courses and yet chose to sit on their arses doing nothing but smoking and drinking all day and pointing to the wealth of others with entitlement.
And before I get accused of being a middle class snob, I'm from a council estate with a 1 parent working family.

It's impossible to become rich without exploiting the labour of people poorer than you and paying them less than they are worth. People are rightly waking up to this reality and getting rightfully angry about it.

And thats an absolutely ridiculous statement.

I think rich is relative.

I feel rich, even though most on MN would think I am not.

We like to moan & rich people are a target

@Kljnmw3459

I think the opposite is true, everyone hates the poor.

This, well, the establishment publishes hate material to rile up the middle classes against the poor. We wouldnt want the 2 to band together in league, and realise they're both being screwed by the elite, would we?

Also, "rich" people would be more popular if they paid the same rate of tax as the rest of us and did the same time for the same crimes.

I think (just my opinion) that a lot of time of here the wealthier get a bit of hate as it always seems to go a little like this... My net income is 10k a month but we're not well off at all as our mortgage is 4k,we both put 1k into our pensions and school fees are £3k a month
Or we can't afford really basic things and we're on a huge income and it then transpires that the reason they can't is because they are investing 3k a month...
I have a family member who does exactly this. Huge joint income but spends a lot. Huge gas guzzling cars, gardener, nanny, school fees, haircuts, private trainer, weekly food shop at m and s, plus overpays mortgage, invests hugely. But tells another family member how poor they feel whilst this family member is working around Aldi with a calculator everytime they do the food shop