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?

As a wise person once said, philanthropy is the enemy of justice

But it’s not 1 person claiming UC is it? It’s hundreds of thousands if not millions. In many cases it’s completely justified. In others, it isn’t.

Benefit fraud is still a fraction of the cost of tax evasion. Unclaimed benefits also exceed the amount of benefit fraud.

It’s because they perceive benefits money as ‘theirs’ paupid from their taxes but don’t recognise that the wealth being hoarded would also be ‘theirs’ in a fairer society. These massive inequalities are new and it’s why nobody can afford a house, for eg.

https://qz.com/1723454/this-is-how-long-an-average-us-worker-needs-to-become-a-billionaire

Ten times the length of human history to earn as much as Bezos. Anyone excusing or wringing hands about that is a useful idiot.

It's obscene. And the people defending this, saying it's hard earned are frankly idiots. And THEY are the reason the country is going down the pan. Because they vote for stupid policies that do nothing to stop the mega rich hoovering up absolutely everything. That's why the government is basically bankrupt. It's not Tracy down the road whose exaggerating her anxiety.
We're all propping up business owners, allowing them to underpay their staff and take huge profits,while we make up their staff's wages with our taxes so that they can afford to feed their kids. How some people can't see that I really don't know. The mega rich are absolutely thieves. They're just managing to do it within the law because THEY make the laws to benefit themselves. And no we're not talking about you if you earn £300k. We're talking about those with a massive net wealth. Who likely dont actually work any more than the "scroungers" anyway because why would they when they have passive income that's bigger than most people who actually DO work on top of their hoarded millions.

That’s because benefit fraud only means somebody claiming in the name of someone else etc - it doesn’t mean ‘exaggerating symptoms to get a PIP application over the line’

Don’t think so.

https://www.gov.uk/benefit-fraud

@poetryandwine there are 3 millionaires if you include the value of primary residence ie their home, if you exclude primary residence only (not second homes or BTL etc) then the number of millionaires drops to around 285,000 ie less than a 1 in 11 are millionaires in terms of actual wealth as opposed to owners of a valuable home as everyone has to live somewhere
so the 9500 leaving are actually out of 225,000 which is 3.3% as opposed to 0.3%

Heads up: This is going to be a lengthy rant, so proceed at your own risk.
Is the system flawed? Definitely. Are there wealthy people who’ve gained their fortune through questionable or outright shady methods? Of course — just like there are sketchy individuals in every income bracket (Karen from HR didn’t need to “borrow” the office mug, but here we are).
However, labeling most rich people with the "they must’ve stolen it" stereotype feels a bit… “I skimmed one headline and now I’m an expert on global economics,” doesn’t it?
Sure, some people inherit wealth, and yes, some CEOs are basically cartoon villains with private jets and zero shame. But plenty of financially successful people got there through — wait for it — actual hard work, smart decisions, and a bit of luck (which, by the way, is the same formula we applaud when someone from Love Island lands a PrettyLittleThing deal).
The idea that being rich automatically makes someone unethical is just reverse snobbery mixed with conspiracy theories. It oversimplifies things, disregards economic diversity, and gets in the way of meaningful discussions about addressing inequality — which is what really matters.
We should concentrate on holding people accountable for bad behavior and pushing for better systemic oversight, not labeling anyone with a second holiday as a 'THIEF!' Honestly, you’ve gone full 'tax-evading cat-stroking villain' and I need a gin.
I completely understand being angry about inequality — I really do. Rent’s ridiculous, groceries cost more than my car did in 2006, and my energy bill has me contemplating a candlelit medieval lifestyle. Sure, some of the ultra-rich are definitely up to shady stuff behind private gates and layers of shell companies.
But claiming most wealthy people are just legal pickpockets? That’s giving “watched one Netflix documentary and now I’m ready to storm the mansions” vibes.
Wealth comes from all sorts of places: inheritance, smart investments, creating something people actually want, sheer luck, or yes — working 90-hour weeks and missing every school play. Not all of them got rich exploiting orphans and dodging taxes with unicorn tears.
Can we stop acting like “hard work” is a myth? My neighbor built a thriving business from scratch while raising twins and weathering two recessions—and trust me, the only thing she’s ever stolen is the last slice of cake at the PTA.
Sure, be mad at the system. Question why billionaires get bailouts while we’re handed £3 off our water bill and a condescending pat on the head. Let’s not swing so far that every ounce of success becomes suspicious and anyone with a wine fridge gets cast as the next Bond villain.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to sneak five minutes of peace in the bathroom with an M&S biscuit and the last shred of my sanity.

But as we now know, schools have not been set up to cater for everyone. A lot of people ‘failed to apply themselves’ because they were neurodiverse, or had learning needs the school couldn’t meet, caring responsibilities and chaotic or traumatic home lives - no space to do homework or had to care for siblings or work in the family home etc. it is easy to blame without understanding not everyone starts from a neutral point.

That's another question I have, are some of these in work benefits needed. I was on a comments thread the other week about disability reforms and a guy told everyone that he works full time, gets disability on top and uses it to fund a season ticket to regularly go and watch Leicester city games! Why does he need that money!

The BBC ran an article on it, there was a girl with autism who'd sat on benefits not working because she didn't think she'd like it. When she got pushed into work she got a job as cabin crew and she loves it but they still give her money to pay all her commuting costs even though she is fit, healthy and fully mobile! That's money being wasted!

So you're blaming the people who receive the in work benefits rather than the business owners who pay such low wages that people are entitled to those benefits? That's an interesting way of looking at things. The tax payer pays those top ups so that the business don't have to.

Why Billionaires Are Politically and Structurally Indispensable

The raison d’être of billionaire indispensability lies in the fusion of concentrated wealth with concentrated power—a fundamental feature of modern capitalist states rather than an accidental anomaly. This fusion serves multiple interconnected purposes:

Preservation of the Status Quo:
Billionaires finance political campaigns, lobby governments, and influence regulatory frameworks to safeguard policies that protect their wealth and market dominance. Their financial muscle ensures political elites remain beholden to their interests, preserving a system designed to perpetuate their privilege.

Economic Stability and Market Confidence:
Financial markets equate billionaire success with systemic health. The collapse of a billionaire empire—often a proxy for a large corporation or entire sector—can precipitate panic, capital flight, and recessions. Governments prioritize bailouts to prevent cascading failures that threaten employment, pensions, and national economic metrics.

Control of Critical Infrastructure and Innovation:
Billionaires often own or control pivotal sectors—energy, technology, finance—that underpin everyday life and national security. Their investment decisions dictate technological progress, supply chains, and global competitiveness. This concentration centralizes risk but also concentrates decision-making power deemed too critical to decentralize.

Legitimation of Inequality:
Their existence provides a narrative that justifies vast wealth disparities as rewards for “innovation,” “risk-taking,” or “merit.” This ideology discourages redistribution and critical examination of systemic flaws, maintaining social order through aspirational myths.

In essence, billionaires are indispensable not because economies must rely on their wealth but because the political economy is structured such that their survival is conflated with national economic survival, and their power sustains the hierarchical order underpinning contemporary capitalism. It is a deliberate arrangement—not an inevitability.

Because I'm not wealthy and I'm a tax payer and I don't agree with benefit fraud! Too many of them look for excuses not to work, pop a kid out every couple of years that they can't afford to feed! Too many people put themselves in this situation and do nothing to try and get out of it. Benefit fraud shouldn't be excused or encouraged.

So you think it’s totally fine for someone to work full time and their wage not pay enough for them to continue with their hobby?

Who said they were getting paid low wages? I'm taking about disability money! Why do full time workers who are fit, healthy and fully mobile and can enjoy flying around the world need disability money! What do they need that money for? It's not a top up for low income, it's disability money!

Jesus fucking Christ, are you honestly sitting there stating that the disability system should be defrauded by fit, healthy, mobile people just so they have extra money for luxuries?? Thats illegal fraud and a great big insult to all the honest workers that don't take the piss!

Anybody on here questioning the abuse of system only needs to look at your comment to see the issue! Your mentality is what the government are seeing and why they want reforms. People that don't screw the system often don't have money left for luxuries either.

The majority of tax is paid by a small minority of people. In the UK that means that the top one per cent pay 30 per cent of all income tax revenues. Tax reduction strategies exist, but are mostly created very deliberately by the government to encourage certain activities/types of investment. The idea that the rich 'steal' their money is largely ludicrously naive. HMRC investigate about 15000 people for potential tax irregularity each year, and fine roughly 4,000 evasions of varying degrees of seriousness. The largest form of financial crime is fraud, with over 3m cases but that's not what most people would consider rich people stealing to get richer... it's organised crime focused on phishing, romance scams, etc. Maybe I'm rich, it's not clear what your categorisation is. How did I get rich? Luck was the main factor, then a high tolerance to risk, and lastly a willingness to live for may years in a way most people wouldn't accept in order to get to an eventual lifestyle most people would dream of.

My partner came from a pretty rough background and has a very good career, you are right in what you say, it's hard to have sympathy for people who don't make much of themselves so are limited to low skilled or unskilled work, they'll often pop out more kids than they can afford. People with poor finances always seem to have more kids than those with comfortable finances.

Pretty sure you're not the "rich" that people are talking about or you'd know!

I think your title is a bit goady, but in general I agree with the gist of what you are saying. Once you have real money it’s easier to keep it and to have accountants find all the loopholes to avoid paying tax etc . I think it’s shocking that there are people like the first reply on here who are more upset by poorer people cheating on their benefits than hugely wealthy people who are able to do pretty much the same thing but to the tune of so much more money, they they don’t really need.

Is your partner a multi millionaire? If so then it's highly unlikely that they made their money through "hard work". It's basically impossible to make that kind of huge amount from working yourself. You'd need to have benefited from the work of others (who you probably paid too low wages to, meaning the tax payer had to top it up for them to be able to afford to live) to get there. Or I guess have had ancestors who did so and inherited THEIR wealth. Either way it's pretty much impossible to become a multimillionaire / billionaire from your own hard work, you need to be screwing over your workers / the tax payer / your tenants or have had ancestors who did so.

Absolutely. The more time I spend on MN recently, the more I worry about humanity.

You’d be surprised - read this thread and you’ll see a few who people who don’t met your criteria for a brain!