Do rich people feel guilty?

[OneWiseAmberOP]

By rich I mean comfortably private school, buying luxury items and holidays on a regular basis witohut having to save up for it.

If you think you've earned your money and people are just jealous do you not see 'your' money came from extactive capitalistic practices and its taken from the pockets of people who are not rich...?

Ridiculous proposition. Do you feel guilty, OP? You live in a society which provides free education, health care free at the point of delivery, a state pension, and a raft of other privileges denied to the vast majority of the world's population. I doubt you've done any more to deserve this than happening to live here...I imagine that the people you have arbitarily judged as 'rich' feel about as guilty as you do.

You don’t have to buy their products. We have kids in private school, massive house because we worked very hard at every stage of life. Earned every penny. Don’t feel guilt at all. Pay all our tax and a fair bit of that goes to feckless people too lazy to work. They’re the people draining our country of decent public services OP. If you want to get angry, direct your ire there!

We have the sort of level of income you mention.

I grew up with nothing in a chaotic environment, DH did grow up with privilege. Neither of us feel guilty, I’m just glad I had the wherewithal to get away from my background. A lot of my relatives are poor, a mixture of poor choices and stupidity plus some bad luck.

We aren't rich but pay a hell of a lot of tax. I feel no guilt for going on a nice holiday. If you don't like 'extactive capitalistic practices', the don't take part yourself. Set up co-ops with friends to cover childcare and food. Noone is forcing you to consume things from Jeff Bezos or the Kardashians or buy Birkin handbags.

I personally love how easy Amazon is to use, it's made my life as a parent infinitely easier and has saved me money. I'm happy for Jeff Bezos to be rich, he has added a lot of value in my opinion.

I personally love how easy Amazon is to use, it's made my life as a parent infinitely easier and has saved me money

It has made my life infinitely easier as a parent.

Me too. I wanted a very specific lunch box for my child the other day. Found it on Amazon. How many shops would I have had to traipse around to try to find it?

Like when you have a closet of birkins but then read about someone who cant buy what their 6 year old wants this cgristmas. That kind of guilt.

Birkins hold their value and some are considered an investment with a 14+% average annual increase in value.

Would you, @OneWiseAmberOP feel guilty taking a pension? Not only wealthy people benefit from exploiting natural resources.

£88 billion of UK pension funds are invested in fossil fuel companies; £300 billion in companies with a deforestation risk.

3% of local government pension funds are invested in fossil fuels.

Chances are the person with six Birkins probably isn’t reading about someone who can’t afford Christmas gifts. They are happy in their own bubble.

Well those examples are not wealth derived from Exactive Capitalistic Practices so why on earth did you use that term? Trying to sound cleverer than you are??
The examples you've given made their money by selling products that people CHOOSE TO BUY!

No-one was forced to give them their money! No-one has been exploited!

You sound very sixth form-y.

Edited to ask - what word is "bravuse"???,
Try using plain English

People shouldnt feel guilty but they should be aware.
Aware that not everybody has their abilities , a good start in life , supportive family and sometimes luck.

Quite. I'm not rich by any means, but I'm much better off than people in sweatshops in the third world, working long hours to make our clothes, or farmers in other countries earning peanuts growing food that we eat.

Do I feel guilty about that? Yes. Do you?

A closet of Birkins 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Good grief that’s enough internet for you today OP. Go and touch some grass

I figure is the same for all high paying jobs.

How do you figure that?

I grew up poor but have enough now due to making sacrifices and my husband doing a bit of a niche job in not very good conditions. We've made good decisions along the way that haven't always been easy. So no, I don't feel guilty. There are lots of people much poorer than me and lots much richer than me. Jealousy is the thief of happiness or some such thing.

Do YOU feel guilty? Because unless you are homeless in a third world, war torn country, someone would love to have what you have. And if you DO feel guilty, what are you doing to mitigate that guilt?

You figure wrong then don't you?
I've never bought a kardashian product in my life.
And no, I don't feel guilty about having money. I have more than some and less than others, just like most people I guess.

@plumpunnet
But that’s irrelevant to the point. China has massive income disparity. Hundreds of millions on salaries comparable to many westerners and then hundreds of millions living on just a few hundred pounds a month. And then at least several million ultra rich. So using it as an example of an equalitarian/communist society (akin to N.Korea) was absurdly inaccurate.

Plenty of rich people don’t send their kids to private school, particularly at primary school age.

Not guilty because I have been taxed to death, hth

I'm not sure why they should be?
Although if you think they should, then on the basis you clearly have a phone and/or a computer and have been educated enough to read and write English, then you are incredibly fortunate compared to many people in the world, so do you feel guilty?

As someone who isn't rich by MN terms, I think the only reason they should feel guilty is if they, and that's they personally not their ancestors, either got it illegally or through causing someone else's downfall.

They only make money because they've successfully developed products and services that people want to buy. They're not holding a gun to people's heads. If the public are daft enough to be impressed by the Kardashians that's their problem.

Can't help thinking that if you'd thought of Amazon before Bezos did, the enormous chip on your shoulder would never have made an appearance.

If you won the lottery OP would you feel guilty? All that money that you didn't even had to do anything to earn.

I'm pretty sure the answer is no, and that goes the same for other people who have earnt their money.

Are you jealous of them? Odd post.
Do poor people feel guilty?

I doubt OP will return to this having made a complete tit of themselves.

Well do you feel guilty for being rich? If you earn more than 20000 pounds (so 26000 dollars) you are richer than 90 percent of the world's population.

If you don't feel guilty and you don't see that your money has come from capitalistic practices and is taken from the pockets of people who are not rich... then please explain why being richer than 90% of the world's population is fine but being richer than, say, 95% is suddenly exploitative.

https://glowcalculator.com/world-wealth-calculator/

I get where you’re coming from.
I’m in a Facebook group that’s all about investing (Rebel Finance) and as well as your average savers there are loads of people boasting about how their net worth jumped by X amount in the last week, how much passive income they’re getting, and how many rental houses they’re going to sell off so they can retire at 40.
Virtually back-slapping and congratulating each other on ‘how hard they’ve worked’ for said passive income, and how they prioritise time and freedom over money, as though the rest of us are choosing to work for shits and giggles.
All a bit sickening and they seem to have no concept that their amassed ‘passive’ wealth isn’t just falling into their laps from this air: if they aren’t working for it, then somebody else is; i.e. somebody much poorer then them who has no choice but to be ripped off for the roof over their head or the food they feed their children.

To add: it's not that I think current levels of wealth inequality are in any way a good thing. I would support taxation and other policies to try to off-set it.

However, it annoys me when people complain about those who earn more than them without showing any insight into how much better off they themselves are than the vast majority of people on this planet.