To think you can’t buy character?

[MyWaryLimePoster]

Money can buy a lot - status, education, influence - but can it really buy character? You can dress well, speak well, and surround yourself with the ‘right’ people, but if you don’t have integrity, resilience, or depth, isn’t it all just a facade?

Or does wealth itself shape character? Do rich people naturally develop better traits because they have more freedom to refine themselves?

AIBU to think that no matter how much money someone has, true character is something you either have or you don’t?

Good character can be built with self reflection and a willingness to put the work in. Everyone has character whether it is weak, strong, positive or negative. It isn't set and can move with your expectations and experiences.

Actually I think wealth always provides more opportunities and access to a wide range of cultural experiences, these can provide a certain perspective to you. However experiencing poverty can shape your perspective in other ways as you will see and experience the world differently. Essentially I think our perspectives inform how our character is shaped, but it doesn’t always mean things are better or worse. Some of it will also be down to intelligence, both emotional and academic as well as down to nurture and how safe you feel in exploring your character.

Some people get by just fine without integrity. Look at all the politicians and CEOs who are completely loaded and cut throat. They'd rather have wealth and power than integrity.

Isn’t this just a rephrased version of ‘Money can’t buy you class’?

It’s not clear what exactly you mean by ‘character’ — do you mean ‘good character’, or just ‘character’ as a neutral synonym for ‘personality’?

I don’t think there’s any correlation whatsoever between wealth and character in the sense I mean. Though I’ve found the ultra-wealthy are sometimes so cushioned from experience that they can seem rather undeveloped. I was a poor WC kid at Oxford, and some of the wealthy people at my college struck me as having had very limited life experience compared to me. All they’d done was school and holidays

Maybe a lot of us never find out what our true characters are, because they've never been put under enough pressure to really test it. As in, easy to say you'd never commit a crime, but if you've never been financially desperate, you don't actually know. Sometimes money causes the worst in people's characters to come out; other times, it probably stops it.

A facade is enough, for growing numbers of people in these shallow times.

Good character can be built with a lot of will and effort.

For example an ex convict who turned their life around after prison and does good for society.