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Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

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Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#11

Rich people are assholes in my experience. They may have better manners and stuff, but their intentions are evil. A lot of the time, their interests directly conflict with the interests of the middle class.

>Rich people are assholes in my experience. They may have better manners and stuff, but their intentions are evil I'd keep that attitude in check, if you are in a western nation you are likely in the top 1% - 2% in terms of income globally. Things would end pretty badly for you if 98% of the planet decided people like you are evil.

Sometimes I think we Western people are basically evil, or to be more precise, willfully ignorant. We live in our sheltered world eating organic food thinking about how good we are for drinking "fair coffee". At the same time a lot of our companies are polluting the third world and exploiting poor workers there. We finance civil wars often for economic benefit and destabilize countries.

So I wouldn't be surprised if one day the global poor would say "enough is enough".

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#12
I was super interested to read how they defined "rich". Is it just networth greater than X? Is someone who saves diligently for 50 years to get X also rich in their definition?

Sadly those details appear to be behind a paywall and it seems what they really wanted to determine was the relationship between greedy attitudes and social economic status although their summary does use the word rich plenty, again, without defining it.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#13
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Rich people are assholes in my experience. They may have better manners and stuff, but their intentions are evil I'd keep that attitude in check, if you are in a western nation you are likely in the top 1% - 2% in terms of income globally. Things would end pretty badly for you if 98% of the planet decided people like you are evil.

I upvoted you because it's a good point, but if you're discussing interpersonal behavior, does it really matter if someone living in poverty in the American deep south is in the top 2% globally for PPP? Studies like this are not looking at the world as a whole, they're looking at interpersonal relationships, by definition very local or regional.

The super wealthy proclaiming without citing evidence that the mega wealthy are evil or cheated somehow is a pet peeve of mine, it just seems petty when you put it into a global context.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#14
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Rich people are assholes in my experience. They may have better manners and stuff, but their intentions are evil I'd keep that attitude in check, if you are in a western nation you are likely in the top 1% - 2% in terms of income globally. Things would end pretty badly for you if 98% of the planet decided people like you are evil.

Sometimes I think we Western people are basically evil, or to be more precise, willfully ignorant. We live in our sheltered world eating organic food thinking about how good we are for drinking "fair coffee". At the same time a lot of our companies are polluting the third world and exploiting poor workers there. We finance civil wars often for economic benefit and destabilize countries. So I wouldn't be surprised if…

Just remember that the difference is in circumstances, not humanity: it’s not westerners who suck, its a majority of people. Whoever is on top at the time just had the opportunity to hurt the most below.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Rich people are assholes in my experience. They may have better manners and stuff, but their intentions are evil I'd keep that attitude in check, if you are in a western nation you are likely in the top 1% - 2% in terms of income globally. Things would end pretty badly for you if 98% of the planet decided people like you are evil.

Sometimes I think we Western people are basically evil, or to be more precise, willfully ignorant. We live in our sheltered world eating organic food thinking about how good we are for drinking "fair coffee". At the same time a lot of our companies are polluting the third world and exploiting poor workers there. We finance civil wars often for economic benefit and destabilize countries. So I wouldn't be surprised if…

Who's we? Not everyone in the western world is ignorant of their actions externalities

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#17
People often conflate nebulous “evil” with more specific rational self-interest, good investments and cheating/underpaying/stealing from people.

There are a lot of middling rich people whom do underpay people because it works and don’t care about long-term views of themselves or of the relationship... this can sabotage greater opportunities later on or current income streams now (it’s a small world and a hyperconnected one). There are many whom don’t because it also reflects poorly on them and their associates, and it turns off their friends, potential customers, investors and partners... also some people have integrity and wouldn’t dream of it.

In fact, the more connected someone is, the less likely they are to screw people over because it’s a bigger risk. The big headlines of harassment or scams are the exceptions. Certainly, there are instutions like many banks whom obscure their wealth extraction from less rich and transfer it to their investor/owners. They are culpable but may not believe or realize they are.

Wealth is a spectrum, as are integrity and personality. How is squishy “science” going to “measure” take those nuances or mentally-compartmentalized/hidden wealth transfer into account?

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#18
post #12

I was super interested to read how they defined "rich". Is it just networth greater than X? Is someone who saves diligently for 50 years to get X also rich in their definition? Sadly those details appear to be behind a paywall and it seems what they really wanted to determine was the relationship between greedy attitudes and social economic status although their summary does use the word rich plenty, again, without d…

Sci-hub FTW

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior: https://sci-hub.io/http://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086.a...

A 4-study replication of the moderating effects of greed on socioeconomic status and unethical behaviour https://sci-hub.io/https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata2016...

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#19
post #12

I was super interested to read how they defined "rich". Is it just networth greater than X? Is someone who saves diligently for 50 years to get X also rich in their definition? Sadly those details appear to be behind a paywall and it seems what they really wanted to determine was the relationship between greedy attitudes and social economic status although their summary does use the word rich plenty, again, without d…

Equally important is how you define "unethical." I'd imagine people in higher socioeconomic levels are more likely to lie in a negotiation or ignore traffic laws (traffic penalties fines are regressive in the sense they are fixed, skill in negotiating is probably correlated with skill in lying), but less likely to commit violent crimes or engage in drug abuse.

Re: Are rich people meaner? Two teams find errors in each other’s work

#20
post #15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sometimes I think we Western people are basically evil, or to be more precise, willfully ignorant. We live in our sheltered world eating organic food thinking about how good we are for drinking "fair coffee". At the same time a lot of our companies are polluting the third world and exploiting poor workers there. We finance civil wars often for economic benefit and destabilize countries. So I wouldn't be surprised if…

Who's we? Not everyone in the western world is ignorant of their actions externalities

Right on! I'm merely apathetic.
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