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 don’t want this to sound like a criticism … it’s a genuine question just to clarify. Are you talking about Tory politicians or people who vote Tory?

A ridiculous sweeping statement! A lot of rich people have worked harder than you could ever imagine thank you very much

I simply do not believe that rich people manipulate the laws as much as the OP claims they do. That's close to a conspiracy theory.

Moving on from that, there are the two different behaviours here.

1. Trying to get away with paying less.
2. Expecting other people to go out to work, so you don't have to.

Of those two behaviors, it's behavior two, that annoys me the most.

Just to point out, by no means every single person on benefits comes under point two. The wording in my post was very clear. I did not say those on benefits. I very specifically said benefit cheats.

Have u heard about fractional reserve banking? It's how banking works, allows them to create money out of thin air then charge us interest on it. It's never taught in schools.

????????

Well, you wont have to worry about the rich any longer, as most have bu**ered off to places such as Dubai, Monacco as the taxes are so high here. This leaves the rest of us ' moderate' tax payers to pay for the 4 star hotels, food, mobile phones, pocket money, free health, free taxi services, free gaming equipment etc for those huge numbers of 'boat people' that keep coming over every day.

This. There is no specific context to this at all. If I was homeless someone with £10 would be wealthy. This thread will turn into political bollocks.

I don’t think you can call it theft; but you’re right the system is to their advantage.
I do think that often people assume wealthy people are lazy and that in the cases of entrepreneurs that’s just not true- I think many people underestimate the risks taken on the way to wealth, and the hard hard work involved in most cases.

even hedge fund traders that already make millions are still grinding the daily grind to keep up the results,

You asked for an example of rich fraudsters. There are plenty. The first and amongst the most egregious include Michelle Mone of the Covid PPE scandal, for which she won a peerage even as her shoddiness may have cost lives. Did she have the grace to return it? I think you can guess.

She is worth about £20M and her husband Douglas Barrowman (sp?) is said to be a billionaire. He is also said to be offloading property, so I don’t know whether that claim should be taken with a grain of salt?

Edit: the first to come to mind and amongst the most egregious…..

Another one brainwashed into worrying about the tiny proportion of benefit cheats compared to the huge value of tax avoidance. Why would that concern you more?

Top 1% in UK earners is £160k p/a - far, far, far away from even TV personalities, yet alone global elite .

This is not superwealthy. It is just working people on their business because if they don't, they won't have the income

we all know it. When they cannot get it legally, they start wars or bully tactics. It is not news. Also am glad I believe in the supreme Giver of justice

No stranger to the relevant authorities is Mr. Barrowman.

According to data from the Tax Justice Network, only 0.3% of UK millionaires decamped in 2024 (2025 figures are not available). Roughly 9500 of over 3,000,000 millionaires.

This is not a tragedy.

I don't really think the OP is here to have anyone change her mind, but fwiw, rich people are not the reason growth and real incomes have been falling further and further behind other nations. I'm sure there are bent billionaires, just as there are bent plumbers. Crime and corruption are bad and hugely damaging to society and the economy, irrespective of your background or financial situation. Untaxed low value work has a far bigger cumulative effect simply because there are millions of people doing it. That's still a bigger tax loss than a billionaire quite legally investing his money somewhere other than the UK. Which is what will keep happening and we'll be even poorer, and then whose fault is it? Eventually you're at someone who earns 5k more than you being rich and demanding they be paid the same as you coz fairness
...

@TizerorFizz no the wealthy one owns. The other one rents. They both chose to spend their money differently hence the one with the cheaper wedding dress owns and the one who spent £6000 (she told us all at her hen do) was very pleased with herself - is the one that rents. It could be that rich people are just rich because they spend their money differently x

That's what seems entirely lost on most people.

The beginning of this post is very sensible, thank you.

I agree we need more long term inward investment but I think the best way to get it is to incentivise it very carefully. The Tory schemes were misused by their pals.

I don’t know which class is responsible the largest amount of tax fraud, do you?

Statistically that isn’t true. Tax avoidance is perfectly legal and I have no issue with it. The top 1% of tax payers account for 13% of income but 29% of tax income. So, whilst without tax avoidance that 29% would be higher, it’s not correct to say they’re relying on others to pay tax.

Yes, but almost every one of those claimants is either working, looking for work, or cannot work. Benefit cheats make up such a small minority of the welfare budget that they're barely worth talking about.

Your eagerness to blame the poorer people in society rather than the disgustingly rich (whether what they do is legal or illegal) is incredibly sad.

Dry your eyes, princess.

Life is tough, always has been, always will be.

The velocity of circulation is though, which is essentially the ratio between “money” and “cash”. They both broadly explain the risk of a run on a bank.