The Rich Are Not Like the Rest Of Us…

…thus spracht Fitzgerald in the opening lines of “The Great Gatsby.”

Rather than rehash that story, this link finds twenty ways the rich vary from the poor.

http://www.daveramsey.com/blog/20-things-the-rich-do-every-day

No. 11 bespeaks self-discipline.
Nos 13 and 14: GIGO.
No. 17 speaks to intergenerational success and failure.

None of this stuff is particularly new. Henry Ford made a similar list a century ago and Dale Carnegie codified such habits in the late 1920s.

And they still work.

 

You think those differences between the rich and the poor are the reason(s) leftists envy them and seek wealth redistribution of their monies because they know they can never measure up to the successes of the rich?

 

Yeah. I think there is a lot to that assertion.

Bill Gates did not inherit his vast wealth, but his middle-class parents imbued him with the habots of sucessful people.

 

Smarter people make more money; it's simple math.

 

Well for the most part. Oil rig people make more then college professors. Oh...OK I see your point.

 

The government made him rich.

 

"The government made him rich."

Taxcutter says:
Because he made a better mousetrap for them.

 

According to the Bible, the rich will all go to hell.
THAT's a pretty big difference!!

 

I see a lot of statistics, but no sources. Who is he calling, "rich"? Where does this information come from?

 

No, in fact, he didn't; and even if he had, that's not how or why the government made him rich.

Gates got rich because government gave him a privilege of pocketing publicly created value. Like almost every other rich parasite.

 

Apparently, rich people don't speak their mind, and that's considered a good thing. Hmmmm.

 

" Like almost every other rich parasite."

Taxcutter says:
Gates was not particularly rich before DOS. Certainly not enough to impress bureaucrats in the Jimmy Carter days.

 

It seems to me that the "rich" simply display characteristics of intelligent people.

Alternatively, I could come from a, "the poor are unable to recognize their true potential based upon their current financial situation," point of view.

 

"Apparently, rich people don't speak their mind, and that's considered a good thing."

Taxcutter says:
In most situations that affect one's economic well-being that is entirely sound strategy.

Behind closed doors, rich people are as opinionated as any, but they don't rub potential customers' noses in those opinions the way poor people do.

 

So what you are saying is that a lot of teachers, professors, academics, even IT people, lawyers, cops, soldiers etc. are dumbassses because they have not gotten rich off of their skills? I mean there are doctors that make less than $100K pr year depending on the circumstances, they aren't all rich. Are these people dumb for not going into finance or becoming a CEO?

On the other hand, my salary puts me in the top 10% of US earners, within just a few thousand of the top 5% so that makes me really smart based on your criteria, thanks!

 

Good question, what $ amount resources or income do you define as rich? I find statistics that say I am somewhere between the top 5-10% richest in America, based on annual salary. But in my view I am firmly middle class and not even upper middle class, just average with lots of bills to pay. I have neighbors who talk about salaries half of mine and they think that is rich and wish they had that! So I wonder do they consider me rich? That's a joke if true.

 

Studies also prove that rich people are more likely to steal, lie, cheat, swindle, and screw over as many people as possible in the name of the bottom line.

So which area should we focus on? The hard work? Or the ability to lie cheat steal and screw others over?

 

Source your studies.

 

"Studies also prove that rich people are more likely to steal, lie, cheat, swindle, and screw over as many people as possible..."

Taxcutter says:
If you had stated as follows:
"Studies also prove that rich people are AS likely to steal, lie, cheat, swindle, and screw over as many people as possible as anybody else." I would agree.

They are human. But MORE likely? You're gonna have to produce some evidence for that one.

 

what the bible harps on more than anything else in this matter are the means by which wealth is acquired and the uses it is put to. in an age when wealth could and often did buy life and death, the concept of buying justice takes on an entirely different meaning than is has today. it should also be remembered that, in that time and place, those with the most wealth were, more often than not, firmly entrenched in the political structure of the day. with that in mind we could see such condemnations as being aimed at abusive authority rather than merely wealth.

but then, i don't suppose putting things in context is a particularly popular concept with some people.

 

That does not alter the fact that he got rich by privilege, not production.

 

How do you figure "privilege?"

 

The rich are the only important citizens of the United States. All others, citizens or not, are simply excess baggage that can be eliminated at the whim of the very rich.

Christianity has instilled the fear of God in conservatives and neoconservatives, and they worship and fear the one percent in the same manner. This has been evident in their posts for many years, as they tremble before their betters.

As more and more Americans call for equality and condemn the greed, corruption, and complete lack of ethics of the very rich, the conservatives and neoconservatives defend their super rich gods, in hopes they will be spared the wrath when the one percent become angered by the gall of the peasants.

The right-wingers will jump to defend the financially powerful whenever any opportunity to prove their devotion presents itself. This thread is a perfect example.

 

Farther and farther from plausibility, much less reality.

 

Wha, wha, wha, boo hoo.