I think commerce has changed over the decades. It used to be possible to set up a small business and grow it. That's what seems to.have happened during the late nineteenth century with biscuit manufacturers, and the like. Success could be homely and about hard work. Today, most of those little firms who employed local people and delivered have been taken over by multinationals. I think that this gives a bad taste in the mouth about what business is, and by extension, the mistrust extends to all those who have made money. For some reason the success is not identified with hard work and vision, as once it was. This is an unjust conclusion to draw, but I think a fair number of individuals under the age of forty have such attitudes.
I think.people like to see rich people give some money to help others. If this giving is seen to be done, then the hostility disappears somewhat, too. But then, charities don't have a great reputation today, either. People think it's a fiddle, and not all the money goes to the needy. So yes. The good work rich people used to do seems to be overlooked because of some bad press for big business.
We live in an age - and I'm thinking the past fifteen years - where thinking that the poor don't deserve to be poor is paramount, and feeling there should not be a divide is popular. It's a Woodstock/ Age of Aquarius, in many ways. More people buy recycled clothes; they hate the damage which production does to the planet. Economic growth is not fashionable, as it is seen that there is always a loser. Materialism is unpopular. I think rich factory bosses not being local and the rising cost of rents/mortgage and utilities, do make people feel that hardship is not anybody's fault, and rich people ought to want to help more.
Within my family, I'm a bit shocked at how a capitalist model of everyone helping themselves, but not necessarily others, really seems to have taken a hold. It's amazing that they wouldn't particularly want to help a friend or family member. In other cultures to the one I was born into, families do help each other, so I guess that in those communities, rich relatives are not disliked, and in fact they are probably praised for being strong and independent and keeping things going.
I think people feel that the system is less fair than it used to be. It's also fashionable to be an ethical business and the profit incentive is probably less popular than ever.