Are rich people heartless?

It also makes me wonder which direction the primary causalities runs. Are rich people more likely to be heartless, or are heartless people more likely to be rich? Or is is a vicious circle. You are a little heartless and it allows you to be mercenary enough to get a little rich, which then allows you to further remove yourself from others, which allows you to act more mercilessly, which allows you to stab a coworker in the figurative back and get a promotion that makes you more rich, which makes you more removed and more heartless...

I think rich people often go out of their way to avoid any type of unpleasantness and have the money to do so. It can make them less empathetic. On the other hand, the really rich can be very charitable (Bill Gates, Oprah). Maybe the super rich have the time to be charitable whereas the working rich are focused on making more $$?

My impression of the article was that it was referring to extremely wealthy people (and maybe you are, GOF, I don’t know!) - not necessarily those who are well-off but still have to earn a living. I’m thinking of people like Jeff Bezos, who could probably solve the Flint water crisis ten times over and not feel the dent in his bank account.

Yeah I would be curious to know what the definition of “wealthy” is in the article, especially because it uses the terms “wealthy” and “rich” interchangeably. Obviously the top 1% of income earners are rich compared to the majority of the population, but there is a big difference between the top 1% and the top 0.1%. There is also a big difference between income and wealth. So, it’s hard to know whether or not I agree with the premise.

I know people who make a lot of money (mid-high six figures). They tend to work long hours, and their jobs are their lives.

The wealthy are a different kettle of fish! In my early 20s I chummed around briefly with some Canadian money royalty (think beer and other historical commodities), who were childhood friends of my then boyfriend. They were, to a person, chill and unstressed. They got into the schools they wanted to, they got jobs where and when they wanted to, they bought houses and cars whenever they wanted to. Like, one went to Stanford Law, spent the summers following the Grateful Dead, came back to our nation's capital to article at the Supreme Court, and bought in the swankiest neighbourhood as a "starter" home. It was a fascinating experience for me, having grown up working class military. It was like we spoke a different language when talking about our childhoods. I kept my mouth totally shut about my current life! (Had job trouble, shared a run down rental house with 3 other people, had a rusty 10 year old Honda Civic I couldn't afford to fix...)

The super rich people were lovely and fun to hang around with. But yeah, they had noooooo idea how the other 99.9% lives, and didn't concern themselves with it too much. Not to say they didn't do charity! They did tonnes of charity work (aka giving money, going to galas). They didn't work on the front lines of volunteerism, though. Not that I think they were heartless, they just had no life experience with "others".

Seems too simplistic to be a rule across the board. It depends first how you quantify things like wealth and heartlessness. Someone living hand to mouth may be more likely to give you the shirt off their back they can least afford, where the super rich are more likely to fund a new wing of a hospital or a library. Who's more generous, relatively speaking? I also think the super rich may be more likely to hoard most resources but they pay the bulk of the taxes, while the homeless with a minimal carbon footprint is more likely to go in your yard and steal your kid's bike they bought with all their birthday money.

The premise of the debate seems like a way to divide people against each other. What's the point?

its debate! the point is to argue two opposite sides and convince an audience you are the right side! Of course its "divisive"! lol!

I do think there is something to this. The higher up on the "food chain" you are I do think you become more detached, in the sense of having farther to fall. Losing a job or getting hurt or sick sucks for everyone, but its "easier" the more money you have. My husbands accident would have bankrupted us and we likely would have lost everything 20 years ago. It was a lot less horrifying now that I have savings 20 years later, I was never afraid I was going to lose my home. ( and I also had equity..)

I think even the nicest most giving people can still not be able to understand what it's like to be poor in comparison.

I have an Aunt who I love dearly. Her dad has a wing of a university named for her. She is hugely charitable, a wonderful person, but it is amusing how easy she thinks we all can do what she can do. And I think some people do end up desensitized depending on other factors.

Or for those who come from lots of money, they have never personally experienced hardship. They can be very isolated from reality.

We have a friend whose wife worked first as a nanny then a personal assistant to an extremely wealthy family that comes from multigenerational wealth. The stories... LOL