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?

It's depressing that so many people have that view but it really isn't surprising I don't think. It's the reason Reform are doing so well. People just love to punch down. It's human nature I think to get angry about the small stuff and ignore the actual problem.

Yes that’s exactly what I said.
No point in this discussion is there?

My source was OBR for £160k = top 1% of uk earners so I assume that comes straight from HMRC. As for your proposition that these people consume more of the state resources I can barely believe my eyes. Top 1% would “consume” considerably less. Private medical care, private dentist, private schooling, non council leisure facilities etc and zero benefits and private pensions. They use hardly any state resources compared to a lower income family who will utilise nhs, state schools, nhs dentist, council sports facilities, council swimming pools, universal credit, maybe disability benefit, free prescriptions, child benefit.

Like I said. Earners. We aren’t talking about people who earn big salaries. We are talking the top 1% of wealth.
Wealth hoarding makes us all poorer.

Fuck that pile of rancid old chatgpt bollocks

This is AI pasted below but I think in this case it helps because these are facts, not my opinion. Everyone on here needs to understand this, then the conversation can happen properly!

Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs):

• Own multiple properties, land, or corporations.
• Make money from capital — not wages.
• Often live off investments, rents, inheritance, or tax havens.
• Have access to lobbyists, private banking, and offshore accounts.

Example: The top 1% in the UK starts at around £170k a year…
But the top 0.01% have tens or hundreds of millions in assets — they shape policy, own media, buy up housing, and rarely pay full taxes.

So when we say “the rich”:

We mean owners of capital, not high earners.
It’s about wealth, not income.

its an old essay for uni finance / history course, try reading it you may learn something

Chinny reckon

I created it because I'm a fan of the series "Billions," featuring Damian Lewis.

That is utter bs. If that’s your attitude to creating wealth then I’ll be utterly unsurprised to hear you don’t.

Unclaimed benefits is a red herring. Lots of benefits are unclaimed because the people entitled to claim them don't because they don't need to - I’m one of those and TBH I feel like a mug because so many claim every penny whether they need it or not. Some people just have a moral compass, and yes, i do include myself in that. We were entitled to claim but decided not to because we could manage without and thought the money should go to those who needed it more, but on reading so many MN threads through the last few years where everyone is encouraged to claim everything, I resent my kids having missed out on some things we could have afforded with an extra few ££.

Well actually this is bollocks. Me and DH are in the top 1% of EARNERS. We earn a combined income of around £280k (ish). But we also use state schooling, healthcare (we do have private healthcare that we can use but there isnt really any emergency private so sometimes we have to use NHS) me and the kids have NHS dentists (DH couldn't get one so has to use private) obviously we dont get benefits and we DO have private gyms but we also use council facilities for example for the kids swimming lessons. So it's absolute nonsense to suggest the "top 1%" don't use services. We do. We also pay our way BUT it's not the earners who need to pay more. I'm happy to pay my taxes. It's the super rich who don't pay their way. The wealth hoarding is what's causing the problems. Me and DH have no hoarded wealth. We save into a pension and we have a mortgaged 4 bed semi. That's it. You can't get RICH from work alone. There has to have been some level of exploitation to make it to ultra high net worth level. If you can give me an example of where that hasn't been the case I will be very surprised.

It's not BS. If you can give me one example of someone who is ultra rich without exploitation I'll be very surprised.

How can anyone argue with this? 😂

TBF I think arts billionaires like JK Rowling and Taylor Swift get there without exploitation via the winner-takes-all principle

Fair play. They probably have. But I bet there's a level of exploitation in their keeping / hoarding / investing it now.

She's well of having a house, costing 1 million due to inflation.

Make your mind up! Ultra rich or, as per the quote, multi millionaire. I don’t have to look far for the last one. I’ve exploited no one. Entrepreneurs do not thrive through exploitation. But if you insist on ultra rich let’s go for James Timpson. I think he’s worth about £500m and is absolutely the nicest guy.

JK Rowling. And she is utterly fastidious that she pays every single penny of tax she owes - prior to donating millions to charities.

We spent £900bn of taxpayers money bailing out the private sector. I hear you but please show some outrage to that as well! I am not aware of a single banker or business owner turning down a penny of taxpayer money when it came their way

You are living in denial. I am not saying it is impossible but I have barely met anyone wealthy my age (late 30s) who has not had some help through family. I work in wealth management and have seen the huge sums people generate through passive income, often at a low tax rate. It really is a rigged system

No that would be because of the gross mismanagement of the economy over many years by Tory governments. Do you read newspapers? If so you'll have read about the 194 billion £s Thatcher's sale of council properties cost the tax payer. But go ahead blame people on the lowest rungs of society if it makes you feel smug.

In what way is this evil / cheating / whatever else they have been accused of. Yeh it’s irritating when some people inherit lots of money, but that’s life.

You are out of your depth - perhaps you know that, perhaps you are in denial.

Your background presumably extends to posting effluent on MN, rather than residing in the real world.

I recommend that you stop formulating opinion from the ‘newspapers’, and actually think for yourself.

Then, we can have a proper debate.

I never said it was evil. However there is this paradigm that you work hard and you can achieve financial freedom. Maybe in the past that was true but now you would struggle to find any young person in that position without family assistance. Wealth inequality has grown to a level that it is now damaging our economy and the aspirations of so many people.