What Level of Wealth Do You Consider Evil?
Last edited Thu Mar 3, 2016, 10:52 PM - Edit history (2)
There seems to be a common theme lately that to be well off is to be a bad person. To be wealthy is to be elite or part of the establishment. My question is, where is the cut off line? Disclaimer, I am not "wealthy" by any stretch of the imagination but I am well off (>$100k). I do not consider myself a bad person. There was a time in my life, in my late teens, when I was homeless and on welfare. I KNOW that life, I know how hard it is. Thankfully I was able to put myself through college and get a degree and my life improved substantially. I often find myself wondering, however, about the circumstances through which people find themselves truly wealthy. Is it the fact that they are wealthy or is it how they obtained that wealth that disturbs people so much? I would argue that people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett are a benefit to the world. The Koch brothers, not so much. All of them, however, would be lumped into the 1%. I guess I'm just interested in what sort of nuance people apply in their critique of the wealthy.
Edit: Copying a post I made down thread to clear up some confusion about the premise of this OP.
"I" don't believe wealth=evil at all. I do however sense that people have a knee jerk reaction to wealth. People are critical of the "1%", but there is never any nuance in that critique. I'm just interested in people's opinions on the subject, which judging by this thread are numerous and varied.
= new reply since forum marked as read
Ridiculous hide. 
I am glad you were able to improve. 
threads like this are so simplistic 
Last edited Thu Mar 3, 2016, 12:32 PM - Edit history (1)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7655216
BTW, it's evocative of a scene from Mississippi Burning where Gene Hackman's character tells Willem Dafoe's
character his poor racist dad killed his black neighbor's mule because he couldn't bear to see a black man doing better than him.
Just kidding. 
In all seriousness, I don't think any sum of wealth makes people evil or bad. I do, however, think that wealth can create divide in experience due to privilege. It is a bit like being white vs being black in America.
If you're someone who is white you are going to have a number of built in advantages baked into the system. Just as one example, you are going to be seen as an individual rather than a group. No one will look at a white mans name and make assumptions about him--no one sees "Sam" on a job application and immediately thinks, "he must be uneducated." Though that might be the assumption that some people make when they see name the "Jamal". No one is going to look at a white man in an Ivy League University, and assume that he doesn't really belong there due to his merit. No one is going to look at a white man and immediately assume thug or criminal, simply because he is wearing a hoodie.
None of this is the white mans fault. He didn't ask to be treated differently. The culture and its institutions created it. This means that he ends up having a different lived experience than someone who is black, and therefore may find it difficult to empathize with the black mans struggles. This assumes that he is aware of them at all, because to be aware of them, he actually has to take the time out of his day and life to learn, study, and try to understand them.
The same type of situation exists for the well off, and we aren't just talking about the mega rich here. Even those who, by our standards, live in abject poverty are better off than others elsewhere in the world. So, privilege is always relative.
For example, it may be hard to understand what it is like for a single mother with two children who is working two fast food jobs trying to make ends meet. It's hard to understand the struggle of the mother who has to ration out food to her children, decide whether or not she can pay the electric bill, the mother who lives in constant fear of eviction from her home, all the while working a job with no benefits and no future potential. It's hard to imagine what it is like for her when she learns her children are getting out early from school, and she can't take off of work to be there when they get home. So, she has to trust that her ten year old will take care of her six year old until she gets off work, because she has no one else to depend on. (And the fact that many people would judge her as a bad mother for making that decision.)
It's hard to understand that mother, if that is not your lived experience. However, even she has more privilege than another single mother living in a third world country that is in the middle of a civil war, the privilege derives from living in a first world nation that is not torn apart by war.
I believe that anyone who genuinely cares about others spends time thinking about other people who have different lives than themselves, and assesses what privileges they may have to others. Then, rather than resenting that privilege, finds a way to use that privilege a leverage to help others without it. Thus, as a white man, I actively look for ways to amplify the voices of African Americans as well as creating space and opportunity for them in ways that I can. I try to make myself aware of the social prejudices that may effect me due to culture, and bring them to the forefront of my mind when I am making evaluative judgments--so that I can make honest and fair judgments based off of merit rather than prejudicial assumptions.
Sadly, most people do not think or act this way. Thus, wealthy individuals end up acting in ways that are harmful to others. In some cases it may be intentional, in the same way a white supremacist might view himself superior to someone simply due to his race, someone who is wealthy might assume that their wealth makes them superior to someone, as they see it as a mark of their status and success. However, in most cases I believe the inflicted harm is unintentional, in the same way someone might make an implicit racist judgement on a job application without really thinking about it--simply because they've been socialized by the culture to make such assumptions.
He asked me to add this for historical context:
How is his post hide worhty? Stop alert stalking. This thread wasn't even remotely political and he still got a hide. Must be something in the name.
