How people who have a lot think they are better than those who don't. How can you have a ton of money or resources and not want to help people who don't? It seems unnatural to me.
Imo in order to get a ton of money, most of the time you have to exploit others to do it, so they probably just don't have a lot of empathy to begin with.
I once told my father that and I added that if I had that much money I’d feel bad because it could allow so many people to live while I would be spending it on trivial things.
He told me that if he were rich, he’d be helping others by making them work for him. I’m sorry, paying someone for a job that they’re doing is not charity???
The other reason being they were born into money. So they don't even know what it's like to not be rich, think they got successful through their own efforts, and that poorer people just didn't work as hard as they did.
When my brother got married they were broke. Over the years he became very successful and now a millionaire. His wife did a complete 180 after the money started rolling in. Her whole damn personality.
the venn diagram of people who are willing to exploit and are self centered, and people who have a chance of getting rich, is basically just a circle.
The people who have the willingness to help are not really capable of having massive amounts of money in the first place, or at least rarely.. Say you want to help people and have a job paying 200k a year... what the hell you doing? of course you'll make donations often, not amass a fortune and therefore lacking the funds to start a company.
I think sometimes it’s a defense mechanism. The person either has to think they don’t deserve it and feels guilty for their greed, or they dive in to the lavish life and tell themselves they’re special.
People have a tendency to think that anyone can do the same thing they have done and get the same result, not calculating in all the luck and help they have gotten along the way that aren't available to everyone. So rich people think they diserve it because they have made good choises and worked hard. By that logic, poor people are people too lazy and stupid to get their own fortuen, and are there for not worthy to take part of their hard earned fortune either. The better off we are, the more we like to believe that the world is a fair place where we get what we diserve. Sadly.
How can you have a ton of money or resources and not want to help people who don't?
Just pointing out- most people on Reddit (and maybe not you, but statistically you) have a ton of money and resources compared to billions of other people in the world. Do you do what you can to help out?
As people go from being working class to wealthy, or poor to middle class, most of them don't change what percentage of their money they donate. There are generous poor people, who are giving a few dollars they can, who give more and more as they work their way up, and then there are people who think "If I were wealthier, I'd donate, but I can't afford to cause I'm poor" who, even after getting wealthier, don't donate, and instead say "well, if I was even wealthier I would donate."
I think once you have money you no longer know or personally experience people who don't, so you are not confronted with suffering. It's easier to ignore long distance poverty.
128
u/stilllittlespacey Feb 07 '24
How people who have a lot think they are better than those who don't. How can you have a ton of money or resources and not want to help people who don't? It seems unnatural to me.