Are Rich People Less Moral?

[DamianTV]

http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/27/218258/are-rich-people-less-moral


"New research suggests that the upper classes are more likely to behave dishonorably than those lower on the economic spectrum (http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/02/shame-on-the-rich.html?ref=hp). The rich are more likely to cheat, steal, and even disobey traffic laws than those with less money and power (abstract). Curiously, in one experiment, Prius drivers also behaved badly, regardless of their wealth."

Two words: DUH!

(Ok, so I failed math!)

[NidStyles]

I read the methodology of their testing, and it's highly flawed. They set situations where the researchers "determine" what rich people are by general appearances. They never actually determined whether the people were actually fiscally better off than the other participants, or simply more in debt and extended beyond reasonable measure.

I drive a beat up '89 Bronco, but I make more than most people my age by a significant margin. By their measures, I'm not "rich". However when it comes to actual measure of wealth and fiscal capacity, I'm far better off than over 75% of my age group. Am I alone in this, not hardly. The vast majority of people that make a significant income do not spend on those flashy cars. Spending money on what is considered to be a negative real term investment is not how you stay ahead or become wealthy.

Cars/trucks are sinkholes of Capital, and you'll never get a real return on that investment. If you want to be wealthy, you buy something that fit's your needs and is reliable. I drive off-road a lot, and need cargo room. The Bronco was one of the most reliable trucks to come out in the past 20-30 years, and it's by far the cheapest vehicle that can handle off-road terrain in stock configuration. If something on the truck breaks, the parts are cheaply available, and the after-market support for upgraded parts is quite large. These are the things that people aiming to be wealthy consider with everything they do. You will never become wealthy leasing a vehicle, or buying a new flashy vehicle off of the lot.

From what I can tell generally this whole study comes out of Chicago, and that city is rampant with socialist idealism. The study location is paramount, as a busy intersection in San Fransisco is bound to be image concerned D-bags that are in debt up their eye-balls just trying to give the impression that they are doing better than they really are. When I was growing up, we called them Yuppies.

[Vanilluxe]

what is the definition of rich? The whole world sees America as "rich"

[Johnny Appleseed]

hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom heaven...

[Voluntary Man]

There are many immoral rich, just as there are many immoral poor. It can even be argued, based solely on scale, that there are many more immoral poor; yet, the scale of the crimes of the rich are far beyond the reach and imagination of the poor. Still, it's useless, and even dangerous, to demonize classes of people, rich or poor.

It isn't moral virtue that makes men rich or keeps them poor -- although there are some paths to wealth avoided on moral grounds. For the most part, what separates the rich and poor is knowledge acted upon; in other words, the discipline to construct and work a plan is what is most likely to move men from rags to riches.

[Philosophy_of_Politics]

An old saying comes to mind.

"The rich only worry about staying rich."

[Stinky-thumbs Arfunkle]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=nC-wMcWv2_w

[VoluntaryAmerican]

There are many immoral rich, just as there are many immoral poor. It can even be argued, based solely on scale, that there are many more immoral poor; yet, the scale of the crimes of the rich are far beyond the reach and imagination of the poor. Still, it's useless, and even dangerous, to demonize classes of people, rich or poor.

It isn't moral virtue that makes men rich or keeps them poor -- although there are some paths to wealth avoided on moral grounds. For the most part, what separates the rich and poor is knowledge acted upon; in other words, the discipline to construct and work a plan is what is most likely to move men from rags to riches.

I agree with this post.

The "study" is simply a bad generalization/stereotype. It seems like it was even gamed to get the results they were looking for.

Furthermore as Voluntaryman stated, the fact someone is rich probably has less to do with moral character and more to do the knowledge and intelligence to make wise decisions. And a little luck never hurt.

Paraphrasing Ron Paul - often times people use the Government (immoral means) to gain wealth by imposing beneficial laws, but he also understands they are not the majority, but a very powerful corrupt niche of the rich as a whole.

On one last note: Why do I think that rich people care less about traffic laws?

Well for the sake of arguement, let's assume this is true:

It's obvious they have more money so it's easy to understand they care less about a $75 ticket, whereas that would hurt my wallet 1,000 times more.

Lastly, "disobeying traffic laws" says nothing about your morality. It says more about your willingness to take risks and of course your driving skills.

[Philosophy_of_Politics]

I agree with this post.

The "study" is simply a bad generalization/stereotype. It seems like it was even gamed to get the results they were looking for.

Furthermore as Voluntaryman stated, the fact someone is rich probably has less to do with moral character and more to do the knowledge and intelligence to make wise decisions. And a little luck never hurt.

Paraphrasing Ron Paul - often times people use the Government (immoral means) to gain wealth by imposing beneficial laws, but he also understands they are not the majority, but a very powerful corrupt niche of the rich as a whole.

On one last note: Why do I think that rich people care less about traffic laws?

Well for the sake of arguement, let's assume this is true:

It's obvious they have more money so it's easy to understand they care less about a $75 ticket, whereas that would hurt my wallet 1,000 times more.

Lastly, "disobeying traffic laws" says nothing about your morality. It says more about your willingness to take risks and of course your driving skills.

I think it's important to say, that based on total population, there would be more than likely more immoral poor than immoral rich.

However, what's important to clarify in such research. Is how large of a percentage of each class would be considered "immoral."

If you got 400 Billionaires, and 300 of them profit from wars, and sell war propaganda through the media. Then that's 75%.

Compare that to the average citizen.

But, define morality.

[oyarde]

Matters not , exists in all spectrums , the dollar amount of the immoral crimes is all that changes , the amount of pain on the victims is worse on the poor stealing from the poor than the rich stealing from the rich , nobody steals more than the govt .

[azxd]

Aesop's Fables never sounded so good.