To think rich people steal money all the time and that’s often why they’re rich?

[MyAmusedOpalCrab]

We hear so much about “hard work” and “smart investments” but let’s be honest, so many rich people didn’t get wealthy by being ethical. From dodgy business practices to exploiting workers, tax dodging, insider deals and straight-up corruption, wealth often comes at someone else’s expense.

Governments bail out billionaires while ordinary people struggle to afford rent. CEOs cut wages and benefits while pocketing massive bonuses. Huge corporations find loopholes to avoid taxes while the rest of us get squeezed.

Obviously not every rich person is a thief but AIBU to think that a lot of them are? That the system is rigged in their favour and they keep getting richer by bending or outright breaking the rules?

I'm more upset about benefits cheats.

Of course the system is rigged in their favour. Generally means they don’t actually have to do anything dodgy as all the ways they extend their fortunes, bankrupting everyone else in the process, are legal.

Really? Because it’s a tiny amount compared to tax fraud.

And this is a party political broadcast by.....

Oh yeah once someone has a sniff of money they want to keep it all for themselves and not share it.

It astounds me, genuinely, that people get so upset at the 'boat people' while the Tories lined their pockets and their mates pockets during a pandemic to muted public reaction. This should have been a huge people out in the streets protesting situation... But they got away with it. Because they always do.

What do you consider to be rich OP?

I don’t have an issue with people paying as little tax as possible. I have an issue with the people who are fully reliant on others paying it, who could be working more but won’t.

It’s because money makes money.

Whilst interest rates are still relatively low, they will still make money in their ISA or investments.

Wealthy people inherit more money, and their accountants will help them find legitimate ways around inheritance tax etc.

I agree.

The super-rich have brought up all the worlds resources and are selling them back to us for 20 x what they paid for them.

I don't know when we as a country began cowing to the people with power and money and turning on our fellow 'regular' citizens but it's pathetic to see. The men ( and it is mostly men) in power have got us all fighting amongst ourselves and blaming everybody else for our problems but them.

And we have people pathetically claiming we need these people or we'll be even poorer when they're keeping us poor and even on this post people thinking people on benefits is the real problem.

Until we lose this attitude we'll get nowhere.

Wealth & power accumulate by default and (as said) they dont need to break the rules because the rules are made by them & in their favour.

You think noticing that wealth is being accumulated by top 1% is a party political issue? If only, to be honest. There’d be a way to counter it if someone in power recognised it.
Have a look how much greater the top 1%’s wealth has got since, say, covid.

Do you mean just high net worth individuals, sort to have accounts in the Cayman Islands and may be able to afford their own island ?

Or do you mean people with a million or two or possibly even less?

Don’t know about the OP, but for me the top 1 or so %. Multi millionaires and billionaires. They’ve got all that in assets and nobody can outcompete them so nobody else gets a look in really.

I disagree. The two wealthiest people I know have put in extreme hours to get there.

They both took second degrees and MBAs while working full time. They put in absurd hours in their 20s and 30s, took a lot of risks, and then sold companies in their 40s and 50s.

Another inherited a large country house but now runs it as a country house hotel, doing 7 day weeks, while also running a dairy farm to pay for renovations.

They all employ people.

My 9-5 looks pretty relaxing in comparison.

Which rich, the £100k rich as loved on MN, Beckham type rich or really rich, it's a bit hard to guess.

Fair play to them.

Plenty of poor people are thieves too, they're clearly just not as good at it.

I’m talking more about the very wealthy, the ones with resources, influence and connections far beyond what most people will ever have. The scale of their wealth means they can bend systems in their favour and that’s where you see the kind of behaviour I mentioned in my OP.

They are high paid workers. That’s not what I assume the OP means. It’s certainly not what I mean. I don’t mean the middle class, professional, entrepreneurial high earners. I mean the very top percentage point or so. Multi millionaires and billionaires. If we don’t deal with increasing wealth inequality then the welfare state (at the very least) is doomed.

Not high earning workers, no.

We had a local businessman who really worked his way up, helped out a lot of local people on the way, used to do stuff for the local school free of charge, gave to charity etc etc. As he got more well off the local community cheered him on then when he became properly rich, people started slagging him off, his house was regularly egged, his car vandalised, he’d be shouted at all the time and he finally moved with his family to Dublin. I don’t get at what point people change from ‘well done’ to ‘that must have cheated the system somehow, eff them’. I find it really sad, I write books and work all hours of the night as I have a retail job and four kids. If I ever do (please god😅) make it, people will call me names and say I must have stepped on people or fiddled taxes to get there. It’s so unfair!

Quite the rich generally contribute to society in a lot of ways and operate within the rules, benefit cheats don't contribute anything and don't operate within the rules.

The rich write the rules to their own advantage. No need to break them is there?

Benefit fraud totals less than unclaimed benefits I believe.

They're not gonna shag you sorry give you money you know

The tradies who make up the majority of tax evaders annoy me more tbh. I can’t think of any way in which the ultra rich have cheated, and OP has given no solid example.