Do you believe that rich people should exist?

[Bumpitybumper]

Having read lots of threads on here, I am starting to wonder about the proportion of people that believe that rich people shouldn't exist at all and that policies should be enacted to ensure a more or less even distribution of wealth.

So out of interest and just to satisfy my curiosity please vote:
YABU - there shouldn't be rich people in this country and that wealth should be distributed evenly to the extent that people aren't significantly richer than others.
YANBU - rich people are a necessary (and potentially even desirable) part of society

Wowzers - that's a bit much.

Just to emphasize not all poor people are poor because of making bad choices.

You make yourself sound like a proper snob - which you probably didn't really mean to do.

Also - not all rich people are rich because they're so marvellously clever and hard working. Donald Trump was born incredibly rich and has still managed to go bankrupt quite a few times; and has he made good choices??

I agree completely. we’d need a radical political overhaul and increase in taxes and I’ve not yet seen anyone mainstream proposing this. I’m impressed with new Labour but they’re only really tinkering around the edges nothing is going to dramatically shift the dial

If we can create extra hours, they should be allocated by need. End of story.

I and my household is in the top 10%. The top 10% contains the largest financial gaps between any other of the brackets. Between the 90th to the 95th percentiles is a canyon, the 95th – 99th an even bigger one. From 1% to 90% you're talking a gap of £0–£65k. Between 90th – 99th, you have a gap of £50m, maybe more – I don't think that's OK. I do have an issue with extreme wealth and I think there should be a cap on wealth. I don't know how one would manage that, but I have thought it all my life.

There are many tasks like picking fruit and working on a production line in a factory where the amount of value a human's effort for one hour barely manages to create £10 of value for the business. There is an infinite supply of people to do the job
An infinite supply of people?
Not anymore there isn't. There is a shortage of working age adults, we don't have enough people to do the basic menial tasks that everyone relies on.
Billionaires can only get that rich if there are enough poor people below them who can be forced to create the wealth for them.

@Radiatorvalves I think that's what alot of high earners and entrepreneurs would do, stop working and stop paying tax.

I don't know im kind of the opposite the more people who are able to paid for health care it would take the pressure of the nhs.

This!
I think very rich people should make a much bigger contribution to society. But it seems that in many cases they do everything they can to make sure that proportionally they make a smaller contribution than people with modest incomes.

I don't think acknowledging that people often have a role in their own financial position is snobby. There will always be some people who are truly the victim of circumstance but most of us have had a hand in our destiny. You see it on MN all the time, people choosing to have an additional child they know they can't really afford or choosing to work the minimum amount of hours in an easy job because they enjoy the work:life balance. It's all well and good but this kind of decision making can't then be completely ignored when these people get into financial distress and point out the financial disparity between themselves and someone that has made different life choices.

We need the rich people as they pay the tax to support the poor people.

40% tax bracket

There will always be wealthy people because we do need people to do the jobs they do.

Nobody is going to choose to do a highly pressurised Global Director position where they never see their family for the same salary as they’d get for stacking shelves at the local Asda.

I think the onus should be more on how to eradicate poverty and make sure everyone is paid a minimum of a living wage rather than trying to extinct the wealthy.

so ppl should just stop earning once past a certain amount?

I would rather benefit from the rich in this country than lose them to another country. Sensible countries compete for the rich to be there.

The first part of what you have said yes - the second part you are just being obtuse.

I don't have any issue with people have more money than others and being able to use that money to buy nice things in life - bigger houses, nice cars, clothes, books - whatever floats their boat.

Healthy food should be available to ALL. Not only the those with more money. Money can possibly buy fancier, tastier, more exclusive things sure, but basic health food should be universally accessible.

I don't think money should be able to buy preferential healthcare or schooling because I believe the best of those things should be available to all.

So in summary, I think its fine, even preferable, for some people to have more money than others, but being poorer should not mean you receive a lesser quality of service, or life chances, or basic needs, than richer people.

The extra hours aren't mustered out of nowhere but made possible due to the amount of money a rich person has. This really isn't difficult to understand.

I would not want to work weekends. I have two young children and really value this time. If you offer me £5000 to work the weekend then I would prioritise work, if you offer me £500 then I won't.

The NHS can't offer the megabucks needed to build this additional capacity. If rich people weren't paying excessive amounts then the additional capacity wouldn't exist and the existing capacity would be put under additional strain as the rich people would join the ever growing waiting lists.

I’m all for a meritocracy, within reason.

However, I don’t think it’s easy to justify someone earning 20 times more than another human being, no matter what the education or innate abilities.

I also think inherited wealth and privilege only calcifies the inequalities. Those without get less and less, those with get more and more.

This isn’t the “politics of envy” because I am fairly privileged myself. It’s understanding that other people’s children aren’t getting the advantages mine get, through no fault of their own. That’s just not fair or reasonable in a civilised society.

Communism / the far left is the system for anyone wanting equalised wealth. There hasn't been a successful communist state to date, invariably its brought greater poverty to a greater number of people.

I can't understand why people want to be rich...I mean millions and billions rich.

How much designer crap, yachts and fancy houses do you need? Doesn't all the responsibility and 'gilded cage' milarky that brings weigh heavy?

I recently went to Highgrove gardens...very beautiful but jeez, what a nightmare...armed guards, can't pop out to the shop and you have to party with the likes of PDiddy, Trump and Al Fayed.

If I was rich I'd want to fund a better society for all and enjoy a comfortable type life myself within a fair, more equal, safe society that provided a safety net for the poorest and the opportunity to be healthy, successful and happy for everyone regardless of income.

Is that 'the politics of sharing out the good stuff' rather than 'the politics of envy'.

It’s flat wrong to have a system for medical care which doesn’t prioritise on the basis of need. That’s it. If people don’t want to work more hours, we need to train more people. But access to them needs to be on the basis of medical need, not depth of pockets.

Millionaires - yes. Billionaires - No.

A reasonably normal house in the south east will run to £600k quite happily. That only leaves a £400k pension pot, which is very achievable for a lot of people given enough time invested and you're at a million quid.

I think a substantial wealth tax for those with wealth over £10m should be put in place.

There’s a massive difference between communism and thinking there’s something wrong with a system that increases the number of billionaires while also increasing the number of people in food poverty.

I don't have an issue with billionaires. Like Bill Gates for example. Many of us have him to thank for windows PCs.

He also donates the wealth he's earned to better society.

I don't agree with private education and healthcare. I don't think anyone should need to pay for extra tuition for their child or a private health appointment because I think education and healthcare should be across-the-board excellent and accessible to all.

I'm not sure that can be true as the median earnings in London are £45k, which mean 50% earn more, and a lot will be on massive figures.

Does it include or exclude people who don't work at all?

I'm not being obtuse. Do you genuinely believe it's possible to provide the best of healthcare and education to all? No country in the world has ever achieved even close to this. The 'best' healthcare possible is extortionately expensive and requires an incredible amount of resource. The same goes for education. It's pie in the sky to think we could ever get close to delivering this to the general population. You seem to assume that everything is infinite when it really isn't.

Even the healthy food example is a good one. The healthiest food is probably organic, varied and contains a mix of inexpensive and expensive elements. We would not be able to grow enough organic fruit and veg to feed the world's population even if there was enough money around to buy it.