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...?

I think it's normal for people (in this case Bezos) to make the most of the system they're in. The system is pretty terrible, however, for the reasons you outlined along with the way taxes are set up so that the ultra rich can basically avoid paying any at all.

Massive corporations like Amazon are also given all these special allowances and tax breaks to attract them to a certain country/region, while the small entrepreneurs don't get any special deals.

So no, I don't feel guilty for being richer than many others but I would be in favour of reforming the tax system (just closing loopholes would be a good start). I would also be in favour of some sort of mandated liveable wage, especially if a company has more than say 50 employees.

The system is clearly not working well for everyone and so we should keep trying to improve it.

Utter bollocks.

I certainly did along with all 4 siblings. All of us successful in our careers and now all homeowners. All my classmates achieved good GCE's and CSE's.

The key is not the Area - it's the Parenting. My parents made sure we did the homework, were disciplined at home and absolutely expected to behave at school, or else.

I was also looking at the profit margins these companies makes. The margins are razor thin. They cannot afford to pay them more

I think it's moreso the costs are going up.

If the profit margins are so thin, how can e.g. Tesla afford a trillion dollar pay package to Elon Musk?

If you are not well off financially and COULD study, apply for promotions or jobs with a progression, retain, upskill or use talents which are currently not using, or could really push yourself to make sacrifices to better your employability should you feel guilty at the self waste?

Obviously we cannot al be surgeons, but is it ok to be unwilling to grasp the nettle IF YOU ARE capable but just don't wanna?

I’m not rich, but I do feel guilty I am clothed, housed, fed and safe when a large amount of people all over the world are not.

DH and I came from India to here. We didn't have much growing up. We just studied hard because both our parents valued education. Moved to the UK and have built success here.

Tesla doesn't pay minimum wage you doofus. Tesla even in the US pays well above minimum wage.

The trillion dollar package is done only if musk meets certain performance targets.

And I find it so hilarious all of the smug people who would never send their kids to private school whatever money that have as it’s morally wrong! You can just TELL the sort of state school they went to!!!

Not really, mostly I don't feel rich. I earn a good salary and work full time to do so. We have a modest house, a 10 year old car that works and 2 foregin holidays per year. What we have that many don't is savings and options. I worked hard to get a college education although I am aware that I am privileged to have had parents who could afford to support me through Uni (at the expense of their foreign holidays). I guess I feel lucky but not guilty. I give to lots of charities, particularly around Xmas and help out family / family friends with things like buying cars or paying for large and unexpected expenses if needed. I care about those worse off & vote for parties / policies that support all the people and not specifically for things that would just benefit me. I donate regularly to foodbanks.

On the flip side I have a disabled daughter and health issues myself that make life hard and I know that I'll be supporting my daughter financially a lot longer than many parents would have to so it's not all roses.

Not sure what anyone would want me to do? Give up my job in healthcare to work Tesco shelf-stacking so I can feel the poverty first hand? I don't set the salaries.

No, I have a very valuable skill which I studied hard for many years to acquire. At school, uni, and training on the job. If I didn’t exercise this skill many people would be worse off. I work hard, do my job well and professionally, train others and make sacrifices.

I give to charity and also give back to the community in other ways (chair of school governors at local state school, etc).

I live in a beautiful house which I saved up to buy, my kids aren’t spoiled but get a lot of advantages and we do go on nice holidays, but I do not feel guilty at all.

Definitely don't. We did and feel the same as well.

I didn't say Tesla pays minimum wage. You're being incredibly rude for no reason.

Tesla does however dislike their employees unionising and don't want to follow the normal employment practices of the country they're in. https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/norway-union-warns-it-may-block-tesla-cars-meant-sweden-2023-12-06/

I was very rude. I apologise. I'm sorry.

The margins in retail are tiny.

Tesla has good profit margins.

net $60bn profit means they could pay more. Margins might be thin but profits certainly aren't.

Most of the rich people I know inherited their wealth or were very much helped by a wealthy background and don’t feel one jot of guilt!
I can’t think of a single rich person I know - and I know a lot via work- who earned it all themselves.

They they have a high volume of sales that's why profits might be nominally large. They cannot afford to pay all employees more

I know many who don’t come from wealthy backgrounds - by wealthy I am referring to wages of £100k+ and in £1m+ homes, which they now earn/have - but have got to where they are by a combination of parental support/upbringing, hard work, resilience, intelligence, people skills, sacrifice (time, initial money, social life etc) and some luck (good health etc). Some had struggles to over come - born in unsafe countries and some had to leave for safety. Some couldn’t speak English and had minimal education in the native countries etc.

They are now able to provide and comfortable life for their children and are in a position to support them.
That is normal parenting and is a good thing.

They use minimum resources from the state, pay higher rate tax, spend money (more tax plus money into the economy), will fund their own care when elderly and their children will most likely go on to be higher tax payers etc.

Potentially. My parents were very relaxed about my non attendance in school in the 6 months before GCSEs. My dad did shout at me when I dropped out of college to work full time but other than that there wasn't much guidance

I think it will depend on your friend group.

In the field I work in most of my peers are from not privileged backgrounds at all. Of my 6 closest friends in the same profession 5 went to state (very normal) schools, 3 from single parent families others from very low income households. We all went to good unis but mostly self funded, and then did professional qualifications and training at big organisations. To a certain extent I think it’s because you have to have a certain level of aptitude in the early days which no amount of privilege and spoon feeding can give you!

I’d say the difference is that we all
have good brains but also common sense so we knew we had to knuckle down and pass exams to get on in life. Loads of my classmates from my “home” town frankly pissed about at school, bunked off, drank, partied didn’t bother to revise- just had fun. Background no different to mine just didn’t bother to put the same level of work in.

No, I enjoy a glass of the tears of street urchin with my bugala caviar. The saltiness really complements it.

No, me and my husband worked our asses off for what we have. We pay at least £50,000 p.a. in income tax alone which I consider to be more than adequate.

Kudos to you both.

There's always the crowd here who will respond with the fact that they work hard yet only get low paid jobs.

Which is true. There are certain jobs that are hard work. I'm not sure I could hack being a care assistant or a coal miner. But I chose a career that pays reasonably well, definitely not my dream job, but one that can feed the family, with no hint of vanity. I worked 8-5 an hours commute away and stayed an additional 2.5 hours 3 out of 5 nights a week for 5 years to get the qualifications that got me where I am today.

When I say hard work, I don't mean a physically demanding job, I mean the additional hours, the pushing outside of my comfort zone, the willingness to commute, the expense of self financing courses and exams.

People may have a point about certain companies exploiting workers, but this £250k household accepts no guilt whatsoever.

What do you do if you don't mind me asking?

I work in finance, husband is a surgeon.