Do You Think the Rich Deserve to Be Rich? - Updated

I don't think any of us have the right to say if someone doesn't "deserve" something. We are not them. We do not know their situation. We have not been there.

I'm OK with life not being fair, I learned that a long time ago.

I think everyone deserves what they work for (legally). No I don't think anyone has the right to complain that another is making more when they chose a different route. Why should we penalize those who are successful? Spread the wealth? I don't think so. When was the last time you got a job from a poor person?

I never understood why some people feel they have a "right" to someone else's money. Should middle class people give more to poorer people because to many the middle class seem rich? Just because someone inherits money they don't deserve it? Why not? It was given to them. Just because they are rich does not mean they don't deserve it anymore then the rest of us. We recently inherited some money (that has come at the perfect time for us), do we deserve it more just because we are not rich? I don't think so.
I do believe we should help each other out but I don't believe the responsibility should fall on the rich because they are rich. We should help each other out because it is the right thing to do. Some it is by giving money, others give their time etc..
I don't have as much money as some because I made the choice to go into childcare which is a low paying profession. So should someone help pay my way because I of my choice. NO! Now I do believe we should pay childcare providers more but that is a whole different conversation. :)

Do the rich deserve to be rich?
Do the poor deserve to be poor?
I've known people that are filthy rich and they say that it's not what you know, it's who you know. If you are born well connected, you have every chance of being successful. People who aren't born into that circle are able to make those connections or they aren't.
Where I live, there are honestly employers who want office managers with a college degree in business management, accounting, human resources. One job in particular that was advertised pays $9.38/hr. With gas at $4.50 a gallon, a person can't afford to have that job with the travel time.
Things that happen aren't always a matter of personal choice. I have a friend whose husband was on disability after a work related injury. His hospital bills were covered thankfully, but they lost their house. Did they deserve that?
I had one very wealthy boss that told me he didn't care if gas hit $12/gallon because it wouldn't affect him.
By the same token, is it a bit selfish for the wealthy to expect everyone else to have the same lifestyle or be able to afford as much as they can?

The divide between the rich and poor is just getting bigger, in my opinion. College educations required to make less than $10/hour? In my county, this is pretty much the norm. Smart, educated, good stable job skills and still can't make enough to support a family.
I have no answers, I just know that something is wrong somewhere.

Just my opinion.

My Sister is one of those that has worked her tail end off to be where she is today. She went to MIT and then Stanford. Her education is astounding and has landed her a fabulous job. I think she deserves every penny she makes and more!! She pays more in taxes than I make in a year. I chose a different route. I am person #2. I did got to college, but I don't work in the field in which I got my degree. I don't make the kind of money she makes but she also has to sacrifice time with her family which I would never consider. We are both happy with our own lives and for each other!!

Haha. Your FIL's problem is not rich people. His sense of entitlement is the reason that he's not financially successful.

We work our tails off for our money and we don't want to share it with big babies like your FIL! :)

I think rich is all in perspective. My mother always told me we were rich. We were by American standards firmly in the middle class and sometimes at the lower end. She told me we had good family, food on our plates, and a warm/cool place to sleep every night therefore we were rich.

And when you look at it from a global perspective even some of our poorest poor are rich compared to other countries.

But to answer the question yes if you make money legally and ethically you deserve to keep it. However you do it, college degree or invent a widget or high tech gadget.

I do also believe in a flat tax...we should all be taxed the same...we all have the same rights as American citizens so we should all bear the burden equally. If you make more you will contribute more but the same percentage as everyone else.

Most of my extensive community of friends and associates are, like me, earnest, hard-working people who have given up a lot of earning potential to work in fields that help keep society functioning in various ways. Educators and child care workers, health care providers, social workers, and visionaries who bring new possibilities and alternative views about what could be for all human beings.

I don't know one single person, no matter how poor, who begrudges the rich their higher incomes. And I know a lot of people, richer and poorer.

What does cause us real dismay is the observable fact that the wealthier a person becomes, the more likely he/she will fall into the mindset that "What's mine is mine, so keep your greedy hands off of it."

They begin to "protect" their wealth and possessions, spending astonishing amounts of money to do so. If that money went toward the good of society as a whole, so that the situation were more equalized, a great deal of suffering and "perceived" resentment would simply vanish.

And they often lose any sense of obligation to the common good. They lose any memory (seemingly by choice) of how real and exhausting the struggle is for the larger part of society to make it from one day, or one year, to the next. Many of the poorest people I know are the hardest working, often holding 4 jobs between 2 adults, with no downtime, no relief, and no lucky breaks. They are on a fragile edge where ONE more bit of bad luck could send them into total failure, no matter how hard they keep working.

Once a person has some real wealth, they have the means to find the loopholes that they can slide through to avoid any burden for the welfare of the nation, or their neighbors, or their employees. The idea of a flat tax is absurd, unless you can subtract the true cost of living first. Then flat-tax the remaining disposable income of everybody, rich and poor. I'll bet the rich would end up paying considerably more than the poor.

Sure, there are lazy poor. And lazy rich. And entitled rich and poor. Unmotivated and greedy people will always exist among us. But I can't tell you how many people I've known in my 50 years of working life who have ascended to those "higher planes," and how shockingly their world view changes from "we're all in this together" to "I am more deserving than the unwashed rabble." They not only spend inordinate amounts of emotional energy polishing their halos, but they also denigrate the less-advantaged as lazy, stupid and completely responsible for their condition. And they'll find a few choice examples to back their arguments.

I've crossed paths with other people who have never really tasted poverty or anything close to it. They were born into families of means, have great educations, opportunities and connections handed to them throughout their lives, have government policies solidly in place to protect their positions, and have not the slightest idea of how many obstacles are thrown in the paths of those who are struggling to build a better life. Nor do they have any awareness at all of how many opportunities and advantages they have received. There is very little possibility of finding compassion when they are so well guarded against it.

Particularly when the poorer are working for the richer, the rich have every incentive to keep wages and benefits as low as possible to concentrate their profits further. But this practice is painfully short-sighted, because history shows that when that disparity becomes the greatest is when we have great economic recessions that hurt everyone, including the rich.

The Bible warns that it's easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (that's also been translated as 'rope' and not 'camel' – still impossible), than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Still true. Accumulating wealth is not a satisfying reason for living. Those who fall into that mindset tend to get lost in it, and find little genuine contentment – they simply never have "enough." (I was once married to one of these men.) Many of the happiest people on earth are the poorest, contributing to each other's welfare for the survival of all; living in true community with each other. Satisfactions may be simple, but they are also profound.

We could create something much closer to heaven on earth if people cared more about people, education, equality, and opportunity for all than about protecting their own wealth at any cost.

The attitudes of the times are apparently calling for an ever greater concentration of wealth in ever fewer hands. Do I resent this? No, but I find it profoundly sad. I've worked with a lot of at-risk teens, trying to help them find hope for moving forward, trying to help them believe in themselves. I grew up poor, and believed that many opportunities were either out of reach or are implicitly "for" people of means and social standing. It took me a lot of living and surprising experiences before I saw myself as worthy of even walking through a lovely park, or exploring an art gallery, or using a gracious public library in a beautiful neighborhood. Amenities like those were "for" the rich, not for people like me.

And right now, with the job market still so shaky, I know of dozens of solidly middle-class young adults who have very little prospect of a good job in the near future. Most of them have degrees and are trying to pay off huge student loans with a patchwork of odd jobs. This is a very hard time to be a new graduate – perhaps unless your family has the right connections.

So, as I see it, human society still has some big lessons to learn, and more than likely, big consequences to pay. But for now, those at the very top are able to protect and maintain their profits, while the poorest people are paying the biggest consequences – in many cases, going to fight the wars that protect the investments and raw materials the wealthiest need to grow their profits.

Honestly, I think this issue is just too complicated to be a yes-or-no question.

I mean, there are all different ways or organizing societies economically. You can have 100%, government-mandated income equality, e.g., say, the former Soviet Union. That generally hasn't worked very well (though, FWIW, there are actually a fair number of happy, healthy people in Cuba who like their economic situation the way it is.)

Or, you can have, say, Equatorial Guinea, an "oil rich" nation where a tiny percentage of people are multimillionaires and the vast majority live on the edge of starvation (if not in literal starvation) with absolutely no health care, no education, and no social mobility.

Or, you can have something that's somewhere in between -- which is what you see in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, East Asia, Australia, etc. Some people are a whole, whole, whole lot richer than others, but these people do pay taxes, and those taxes go toward some kind of a social safety net, so children can have a hopeful future and people aren't destitute in old age.

The thing is, the United States is somewhere on the continuum between the Soviet Union and Equitorial Guinea. The other countries I listed above are just a little to the "left" of the U.S. And, guess what? People live longer in those other countries. Kids there come out with a better education. Statistically, a higher percentage of people report being happy than in the U.S.

What I REALLY don't like is that if someone suggests that super-wealthy people have some social responsibility relative to the rest of society, that's tantamount to advocating for a Soviet system. It's not. It's advocating for a ... Canadian system.

So, do the rich deserve to be rich? It depends. I personally feel a lot better about doctors, who save lives, being rich, than I do about say, oil company executives, whose profits come at the expense of catastrophic damage to the planet. But really, most debates about taxation and income (in)equality center around the possibility of taxing super-wealthy people at a slightly higher rate. In the end, I think you can have a society where there's plenty of economic incentive to work hard but where people who aren't in a position to work for a living (say, young children and the elderly) are valued too. And, sorry folks, those values are expressed in the form of taxes.

yes. and it's unfair to tax them to death too.

A couple things- a college degree does NOT a rich person make. My parents never graduated college and make way more money than my husband's parents, and they both have college degrees.

People get rich because they have a skill, they are willing to work hard, and they are good at marketing themselves. Period.

Having said that, YES, I absolutely do think that if someone figures out how to get rich, they deserve to be rich.

But then what? There are some seriously rich douche-bags out there, but there are some poor douche-bags as well. There are rich people who are incredibly giving, wonderful people, but there are poor people like that as well.

I will say that people put way too much emphasis on socio-economic class and THAT bothers me. Rich people don't bother me, but THAT bothers me.

I want to add, I disagree with Mommyof2 above- Dave Ramsey released some statistics that only a very very small percentage (something like 1%) of the rich got that way by doing nothing (inheritance, for example). I do agree with her in that we have a serious problem with distribution of wealth though, because I also read a statistic that the top 2% of income earners in this country account for something like 95% of the country's wealth overall. It was shocking.

But, if any of you hit it rich, would you say "Well, this is just wrong. I don't want millions. I'll just take a modest salary, thank you very much!"

Everyone is entitled to what they work for period. Some jobs pay more than others that is the fact of life. If someone wants to be making six digits and and have huge investments you need to figure out how to get there....

Our government does not have a right to redistribute wealth because someone else covets what you have.

I think a better question back to your FIL is whether people deserve a hand-out?! Why should someone else's dedication, education and sacrifices help support him... He isn't a child, the government isnthis parent. Why should tax payers make everyone equal? Should the doctor who toiled away 15 years in college, medical school and residency and who races to the hospital in the middle of the night have the same economic class as someone with no college or professional skills?

I abhor that mentality! My own Mom feels like your FIL. And, like another poster said, "it stems from laziness". I can remember working 2 jobs to help support her, because SHE deserved it after "working so hard" as a single mom. I'm not as a gullible as I sound, but WAS a sucker for her manipulation. Now that I am a stay home home and have a husband that earns in the top 1% income bracket in America, she feels like we should pay her way through life and give her what she needs, along with the rest of our family members! I helped ALOT until she threatened to sue me for emotional stress because of an email I sent her about getting her life together and supporting herself. This mentality blows me away. Rather than improving their situation and bettering their skills, they choose the easy path and b*t** about THEIR choice! My family has a lot of this, and I worked my @ss off to avoid being like them and married a successful man that apparently owes my entire immediate family a piece of the pie! I also want to mention that my husband grew up in a single low income family, and worked his way through college washing dishes for a restaurant.

I think the "right to be rich" is the same as a person's "right" to be a concert pianist.

To be either requires BOTH luck and hard work.

Your FIL's perspective promotes laziness. It is a big part of the reason America is the way it is. Hmmm. Let me (the government) penalize you for hard work. You go get an education (or don't), make lots of money, and we will charge you HIGHER taxes for working hard and making more money than your neighbor. Makes sense! Really makes you wanna go work hard, right!?

DH and I worked our butts of getting professional degrees, and now we work our butts of at work using those degrees. And we pay for others to sit around and not work - I mean, talk about a good time!

The idea that because someone earns more they should have to give that money to someone else who earns less is so unreal to me! And I am NOT rich! Not yet at least. =)

There are plenty of people who make more than me, whether they "deserve" to or not. Regardless, it doesn't mean they owe me a thing, nor do I think they should have to pay higher taxes simply because they make more than me.

It is no accident that I do well (not saying that I am rich). I have spent years moving up into higher paying positions. I could not do my current job (or any that I have had) without multiple college degrees and have worked my butt off and taken risks to do well in scientific sales. Many people do well without the college degrees but ultimately we are in charge of our life and income by the choices we make.

Honestly, America is the land of opportunity. I don't buy the whole mess about not having opportunites to get a better job etc. The people who are rich deserve to be rich. They worked for it and earned it. I think not only the rich but the poor should all be contributing to society---helping others, donating money,time etc. to charities etc. There is no excuse for being greedy with money, but they should be able to keep it if they like. I just think Americans need to have a more global view of the world-instead of focusing on "me, me, me". People should want to help others who are less fortunate and contribute to society. But they shouldn't be forced to. Everyone is responsible for their own happiness. If your FIL is unhappy with the career he has chosen, he should get out, get a new job and set of skills if he wants more. There isn't any excuse for just complaining about it. What is HE going to do about it to better his life??? The rich are NOT responsible for his happiness or anyone elses. Everyone is accountable to themselves and responsible for their own future. If they don't like what they see, change it! Thats my opinion anyways, ok...off the soapbox now. :)

M

I believe that you should keep what you earn, I also think that you should be taxed accordingly, basically no breaks or special treatment for being rich. With that said, there are many professions where 10yrs on the job can teach you the same and sometimes more than one who went to college ... I understand that someone who has a degree has a "leg up" but with many people who do not it makes them work harder to show you too are capable of the job. I am not always a fan of "Sally has a degree, even though you are more qualified for the position, maybe next time you will get the promotion." In my experience, "Sally" typically gets replaced by me with in 3 months because I have had years more "on the job training" and am better for the position. So, yes if you earn your money and pay your taxes properly you keep your money - however just because you have a college degree does not always make you more qualified just because.

Before I go off on my response, I have to note:
Many people who went into their family's business are multi-millioniares.
Many people who went to college are still paying off college debt 10 years later.....and unemployed.
Check out "The Millionaire Next Door" for more info on this subject.

But on to your basic question:

Yes, many of the rich worked hard to get where they are. Many of the "not rich" also work hard.

When I was a child, my mother was working literally 24 hours a day (she did overnight childcare) in order to make ends meet. No one could have worked harder than she did. Yet, our income was 150% of the poverty line.

Our current economic system does not have room for everyone to be at the top. If we have a society of all lawyers and no farmers, we starve. This is not to say that lawyers are bad. My brother-in-law is a lawyer and a fine man. But saying that the poor should just "work harder and get a better job" is problematic. If everyone followed that advice, it would be disastrous (and ineffective). The only reason lawyers are well paid is because there are few lawyers and lots of customers.

The corollary of "the rich deserve to be rich because they're smart and hard-working" is "the poor deserve to be poor because they're stupid and lazy." This attitude causes serious problems.

One of the problems with the educational system is that the administrative rules (at the political level) are often made by people who have never been teachers and do not consult with teachers. Why don't they consult with teachers? Well, because teachers are poorly paid. Any anyone who would be willing to work for so little money is obviously an idiot. So why should they be consulted? This is especially true when politicians are making rules for the care of young children, because childcare workers often make little more than minimum wage. So they *must* be idiots. Right?

Real example: "Toothbrushing should be done as a group activity at a table, not individually at a sink. This will enable teachers to work more efficiently and allow the children to set a good example for each other." Riiiiight.

Statements like "all the rich are greedy bastards" are false too, of course. It is perfectly possible to be a honorable, honest, hard-working, intelligent person at any income level, including incredibly wealthy.

What we really need to do is to create a different economic system where teachers don't have to personally subsidise a decent educational system, and where farmers don't have to starve to feed the nation.

But there still need to be inherent rewards for excellent planning and hard work. Because yes, some people are lazy.

What are the answers? I don't have a clue. But I do know that judging people's personal worth by their income is not helpful, either on the individual level or on the societal level.

Am I "Less fortunate" because I chose to be a teacher? I didn't make much but I CHOSE that path and I KNEW when I decided to be a teacher that I would never make a lot of money. I have siblings who make a ton of money and their spouses make a lot, too. They have pools and huge homes, fat college funds for their kids, etc etc. Should I expect them to give me part of their income because I will make peanuts as a teacher compared to them? That is ludicrous!! I guess I should stop by their homes on payday and ask for my share. That is how stupid it is to argue that the rich should pay more/higher taxes to help the less fortunate. I think you are entitled to keep what you work your butt off for and we should all pay the same percentage in taxes. JMO.

If they earned it - yes....or it's family money - great..

If you don't like what your life is right now - change it - (not YOU specifically but a statement in general) just because I work my a$$ off and have six months of salary saved - it doesn't mean YOU are entitled to MY HARD EARNED MONEY.

If I chose to go to college and such and I make more $$ than you - great...what if you invented something that everyone wants and make more money than me? I am entitled to that?! HECK NO!! I didn't EARN IT. You want it - EARN IT.

It is SOOOO a personal choice what YOU decide to do with your life...attitude is everything...if you feel that you will fail - then you will.....if you set out to be the best and figure out a plan - then IT WILL happen for you.

There will ALWAYS be someone with more money, brains, looks, etc...but there WILL ONLY BE ONE ME....I plan to do the best I can with that...and what God has given me....

Everyone deserves the money that they worked hard for. Taxes should be a straight percent across the board- no matter your income. Its your money- you get to keep it. Plain and simple in my world of thinking. But, I dont see it happening any time in the near future... Come on 2012 election!!!

I think working hard and having money is a blessing. I don't think it is for me to judge whether or not anybody should have what they have. If most of us had it we would think it was awesome, I believe most of the negative attitudes toward the wealthy come from jealousy. People think the rich should just want to pay more in taxes and give all their money away, yet the folks with less, are they givers? What you have should not dictate generosity, that every man's task, to be generous no matter what his income level. I think the wealthy, if they choose to share that wealth can do wonderful things bc they have the resources, but they are not more required to do so than anyone else. If I were to spend my time worrying about who has the right to wealth and who doesn't I would make myself the judge of everyone, who has time for that when I have enough of a job figuring myself out!! So I guess my answer is I am happy for anyone blessed with wealth, whether or not they deserve it is not my issue ;)

Yes, as long as they made their money legally. If you work hard, live frugally, save and become wealthy then yes you deserve it. Those people also deserve to keep their money. Most of the poor people I know also deserve to be poor. Like the saying goes, poor people have poor ways. I own a 10 unit rental property. All of my tenants are poor. They also all deserve to be poor. They do things that keep them poor and then complain they have no money. Not one of my tenants has a full time job. They all smoke pot and play video games. All of my tenants are in their 30's to early 40's. They are all able bodied, not one of them has a physical disability. They just believe that life is unfair and everyone should shell out money to help them. One of my tenants got a non-profit organization to pay his rent this month. If they only knew that his income went to pay for pot and wine maybe they would think twice about paying it. So, yes every single one of them deserves what they get. My husband and I on the other hand work our butts off and have every day since we got married 17 years ago and we should be able to keep what we make. And yes, we deserve it!

I think that people who have earned wealth "deserve" it - those who are just sucking off of an inheritance, not so much but that's for their family to deal with. What I don't like is how tax laws in many ways favor the wealthy. Now my sister, who has a much higher household income than I do and who feels unfairly taxed, would strongly disagree with that LOL but she probably plays by the book. But my husband has worked with and for a lot of small business owners who (allegedly legally) manage their books in such a way that they end up claiming a small fraction of their huge income as earnings. Some of the guys he knows can pay for property in cash, have car collections worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, multiple homes, and enough income to provide for not only themselves but their well-dressed, never-lacking-cash spouses and kids but claim meager salaries for themselves and report barely profitable businesses that are minimally taxed. That irks me.

It also irks me when the heads of "non-profit" entities like health insurers accept salaries of many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. Sure, they are allegedly making what they would make in the private sector but really, isn't, say, $300K enough of an annual salary for a non-profit director? The head of BCBS in Massachusetts makes $800K a year in salary (with the potential of an even bigger bonus), which is half of what his predecessor made (whose severance and retirement packages were worth $11M). Part-time board members were paid tens of thousands a year (they gave up their 2011 payments amid public outrage). So it does irritate me when people earn in excess of what anyone really needs to live on in a year (or several years), especially in a time when things like health insurance costs are out of control and banks are receiving money from the Fed to bail themselves out.

I personally think ALL wages should be geared upon how they help others like:

Highest ranking salaries should be medical professionals, police, military, teachers, etc

Middle ranking salaries should be retail sales ppl, managers, custodial, construction, administrative, Politicians, clerical, support staff, CEOs, personal care (hairstylists, makeup artists,etc), etc

Last ranking salaries should be athletes, actors, models, real estate brokers, insurance providers, etc.

You get the picture. Sadly our rankings are completely in the opposite direction. People who choose careers to better the lives of others are not paid for their choice, people who do nothing but physically train and play games or create movies get paid the most. When it comes to those factors - NO, I do not think it's fair that some careers and choices garner people so much more obscene wealth than those who are actually doing something to help the lives and paths of others.

i definitely feel like NOBODY should be given handouts, rich or poor!
everyone should work for the things they receive in life. but i also believe in helping people who need it!
i am a poor college student right now. my husband and i are both from poor families all the way back! We are currently working very very hard and making lots of sacrifices to get a good education to get a good career to be able to afford food and clothes and a home for our kids, who we intend to teach how to work for everything they need.

First, I think your question is really about a specific person, not an entire class. I am not certain what you mean by rich. If you mean the top 1% of the earners in the US, I think the data supports a No. Too few people make too much money.

Lets take your suggestion to the obvious conclusion, if the rich deserve to be rich, then the poor must deserve to be poor. I wonder even with the amount of welfare available how far anyone is from begging. I know several examples of invidividuals who sacrified, went to college and worked hard having unexpected life events (personal illness, spouse dies, kids get sick, job loss, etc) lead to financial troubles. I realize you should save and plan for these events but how many off us can survive multiple stresses?

I always remember the case of a local man who lost his wife, house, job and fortune all in the same week. (The first two in a wildfire, the later due to the Enron failure.)

I know everyone also knows the opposite. Someone who barely graduated getting handed an easy job or marrying well and seeming to have incredible luck.

For your FIL's case, he should be greatly for the luck of having a father had a business to allow him to work at. You can see the glass as half full or half empty. His choice.

I just can't hold onto that sort of judgment. That's like asking if the poor 'deserve' to be poor. Everyone's situation is different. Sometimes, it's being born at the right place at the right time. It's all chance.

I'd also say that while some of it is 'chance', the rest is life circumstance. Our families of origin likely contribute a bit to how our fortunes turn out. I'll just take myself: I didn't go to college. I was discouraged from it by my parents. So do I 'deserve' now, nearly 20 years into my career, to fight to make just as much money as someone who just graduated with an ECE, only because we can't quantify life experience and independent study? (I'm not knocking anyone for getting an ECE by the way... just that we've moved too far away from honoring experience via apprenticeship/journeyman programs and focused a little too much on academia). I wouldn't say it's about "deserving" at all. It's just a combination of the hand we're dealt when born, personal ambition and limits of all kinds: time, finances, abilities...

As for 'it's not fair'... no, nothing is. There are millions of people who work their asses off and go hungry every night and countless other atrocities visited on completely undeserving people. Not fair. I've always got it a heck of a lot better than someone else. No such thing as 'fair' in the grand scheme of things.:) Just sounds like whining when I hear that from an adult!

As some have mentioned, college degree does not equal rich. Bill Gates didn't go to college. Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college when he launched fb. Many of the truly wealthy entrepreneurs did not go to college. They went to work instead. But, they did work hard. I don't think it is right to say that someone doesn't deserve what they have. It is my belief that people have what they have by the gracious hand of God. So, I would never say that they don't deserve it. Sometimes wealth is a huge curse to people. Did you hear about that lottery winner who ended up losing everything, including his family, because of his winnings? It destroyed him. Drugs, crime, etc. consummed his family. What I do think is wrong is coveting what others have, and feeling that the money needs to be redistributed to others through taxation and welfare. That is socialism, and I think it is wrong. People *should* be willing to give it freely to those in need. I have heard that some people think that the wealthy need to be taxed at a higher rate so that they pay their "fair share." What?!? Why is it fair for them to pay a higher percentage? If people pay the same percentage across the board, then that is fair. The rich will automatically be paying more since they have more to begin with.
People who think it isn't fair that others make more than them are so wrong. They should go live in a communist country to see how "fair" it is for the entire population to have nothing. It is greed, covetousness, selfishness, and often, laziness. People don't want to take responsibility for their choices in life when they end up poor due to lack of diligence and work ethics.

I try not to worry about what others have or don't have. When I was in college, I dated a guy that was always making comments about $. (My family was in a larger house, nicer cars, parents paying for my college, ect..) At first I felt like I had to feel bad, but then I was like, "Wait a minute! My Mom and Dad worked their butts off to provide for our family. Why should I feel bad about that?" My husband and I are not nearly as blessed as my parents income wise, but I try not to worry about those who make more and have more than us.

This is almost a ridiculous question in the sense that I don't think anyone thinks that people do not *deserve* what they have planned for and earned!

It's all about personal responsibility.

This question is kind of like asking "Do you feel it's wrong to kick a puppy?" Of course everyone says "Yes, it's wrong!" but there are some puppy kickers out there.

When you reduce the argument to 2 people in 2 different spots of life- then it comes down to personal, individual choices that were made.

When you look at society at large and you have 5% of the population in control of the majority of the wealth, then that's another story. I think in this argument the situation is unfair because of massive disproportionate distribution of wealth. With such a massive disproportionate distribution of wealth it makes cycles and cultures that are extremely difficult to escape and makes the potential for individual grand scale success very implausible.

Yes they deserve to be rich IF.... they have earned it the legal and ethical way.

I don't feel like they should be taxed out the wa-hoo to protect those who don't care and just want handouts.

I feel like anyone who has money should have to work for it. It should be earned... you respect it a lot more if you earn it.

Look at some big lottery winners and some children who win or inherit millions... Most of them lose that within years because it takes WORK to keep it going, self discipline, delayed gratification and a level head.

I do not think those who make money by going around suing people just to sue people should be rich or those who play tax games that ultimately hurt the middle and lower incomes families.

Just because someone gies to college doesn't mean that they will actually make more money that someone who doesn't.

Your FIL clearly got the stick end of the lollipop here. BUT there is only so much time he should have spent sitting around feeling bad for himself. There are many people in this country today that cannot retire because they lost their shirt in the economy. So now those people who were close to retirement, or even in retirement MUST work.

I graduated from college with a bacholors degree in psychology. That degree got me 12 dollars an hour. Wow. I went back to school and got an associates degree in nursing and was able to increase my income almost 50k. I made a CHOICE to better myself and increase MY quality of life.

If he was 'rich' how would he feel if he had to hand out his money to anyone who came knocking on his door? Tell him to start a reality show called 'My mother screwed me out of a job'......those reality stars make a killing. Oh and if his show does really well, gve him my address!

Education doesn't equal wealth. I spent 7 years in college, worked VERY hard, graduating with a 4.0 gpa in undergrad and graduate school. I have a Master's in Education, and I make a fraction of what some people who never attended college make. You can't say that ALL of the "rich deserve to be rich" when there are people who are rich, and have never worked a day in their life... too many factors to account for, including inheritance, etc. Sure, if all people who were rich worked very hard to get where they were, it might be a different argument. Sadly enough, distribution of wealth will always be very unequal in this country, and it isn't dependent on how hard one works.

It depends....my brother in law worked his tail off, has a PhD and has a great job with lots of money. However, he works long hours and travels all the time. His family suffers as he is gone a lot, but if you are into "things" then they don't want for anything. My husband doesn't make nearly as much as his brother, but we don't complain, he chose a different field. We do fine and he is here for suppers, weekends, etc...
What does bug me is someone who pitches for mlb every few days and makes millions. I admit, that bugs me. Or a reality star who has no talent and makes millions. I have a master's and don't make a
lot so it irritates me a little that I worked so hard and am not better off than someone with a bachelor's or maybe no education. I can't fault people who inherit a family business or create a great product and make lots of money.
My problem is it seems like all the help is for the really poor and that's it. The rich don't need it, the poor get help and the middle class who are on the fence with not quite poor, but not rich either, don't get assistance at all.
We have to adjust our budgets to pay higher gas prices or higher insurance premiums and we don't get help. Anyone who is middle class I'm sure knows what I'm talking about. We've had to adjust our lives to be able to pay more for food, gas, etc...

I wonder if your FIL would have the same opinion if he was given the family business resulting in wealth. Would he share all his wealth with someone less fortunate to make it even?

Who is to say whom deserves to be rich or poor? What about the poor sole that worked hard all his life and ends up loosing everything due to illness or some other tragedy, do they deserve to be poor?

How about the thief that does not get caught and goes on to live a life of leisure. Does he desrve to be rich.

How about Paris Hilton - everthing handed to her on a silver spoon, who is to say she does or doesn't deserve it?

I work hard and my husband works hard, we are far far far from rich - but yeah, I think we deserve to be. We are good people.

My neighbor not very nice but very hard worker and wealthy, does he deserve to be rich? Well, I guess he worked for it.

So, my answer would be relative to the individual situation.

Personally I see have any more than "enough" to a burden. We do a lot of donations to charities and such because of that.

I am also a person that thinks that personal choices should just be let to lie.

If it was this situation how would you think:
Jim is a heavy drinker and ends up needing a liver. John doesn't want to share his liver with Jim, even though John could live with half of it and allow Jim to live until Jim needed another liver. Should John be forced to share his liver?

It is a choice. Jim did what Jim wanted to do and now wants to make John fix his life. But Jim isn't going to change.

If only it wasn't complicated. I have found that people that want to believe everything should be equal will pick and choose criteria to show how it is not fair.

An example, I am wicked smart so I could go to college to get a degree in actuarial science (damn I wish I had known about that field before I went to college) and I would make more than someone who is less intelligent that could maybe get a 2 year degree in hospitality management. Those that would say it is not fair would point out that it was not person number two's fault he was not born with my intelligence. (though I bet he could spell better :p). Then again the flip side is it isn't my fault I was born with intelligence.

Was I lucky, no, I was born of two intelligent people, was #2 unlucky, no, he was born of average parents.

Still speaking in terms of my life, for four years my older two practically raised my younger two. I raised those older two to be the kind of adults that would help out mom so I get the checkmark for that being part of my work. I hardly got to see any of them but in return I still had a roof over my head because I worked, and had a degree because I spent all my free time learning.

So do I deserve a better income and job than the mom who said well I can't make that sacrafice, my kids need me. Yes! My kids needed me too, but I raised them to accept sacrafice as well. Between the five of us we have a pretty good life and we all earned it.

Tell your father in law to grow up! I mean seriously! My son decided to skip college and work for the family business. He knows and accepts that if that doesn't work out he is running to the nearest college because he likes the finer things in life.

I think it depends on the situation. Yes, some people worked a lot and put tons of sweat equity into their "riches" and I believe they deserve it. But I think as a society we have placed our values and payroll in a lot of the wrong places. A person who whacks a ball with a stick and runs around a square of pillows (baseball) makes millions but the teacher that gave the education to those people who go on to make millions can barely make a living. People who play dress up and make believe all the time(actors) make multi millions but firefighters and police officers that put their life on the lines to save people don't.
I don't believe that people that made their riches at the expense of others deserve it either.
On the flip side, if someone expects money to just be handed to them while doing nothing at all for it then they deserve to be poor.
So I have a broad answer of, it depends :)

I'd suggest your FIL read about communism and how it just doesn't work. Redistributing wealth takes away incentive and then no one gets anywhere. Also, Ayn Rand books are excellent and are about individual responsibility and motivation. Of course there are instances of somewhat not "deserving" to be rich - ie: drug dealers or other criminals who are getting rich and even some that inherit their money may not be the most deserving. But those tend to be the exceptions versus the rule. Most people who are rich are because they either worked harder or are smarter or both and often do something that they don't find personally fulfilling but do it for the money. I work for a company that is still somewhat family owned. The family is literally full of billionaires. Guess what - they still come to work everyday. It's astounding and inspiring. I always say if I had that much money, I wouldn't still be working. And then I finish with "that's one reason I'll never have that much money..."

My opinion is it doesn't matter weather you are rich or poor; God is maker of all. I think if person # 2 enocourages, edifies and speaks good of person #1; then person number #2 would make different decisions to be proactive in getting ahead financially versus taking up his time complaining about person#1. Then again this is just my thoughts and they may not mean anything to anyone else. Thanks for putting this out their; it will be interesting to see what everyone says....

Ok my apologies; I did not read all the details... I think it is unfair that your FIL did not receive the wishes of the deceased. He should investigate the issue to see if he would be entitled to a share of the profits of selling the business since it was sold out from under him.

If they are getting rich legally and using ethical business conduct then I think they deserve it whether they go to college or inherit the family business. Unless they grow up with a silver spoon in their mouth and act like they are better then everyone then I don't think they deserve it (some of the bridezilla episodes are going through my head right now lol).

To me, if you get handed the money from parents and get rich you don't really deserve it (I'm not talking about inheritance but parents who coddle their kids with money) but even when you inherit a business you are still working for the money to keep the business alive. I think they should get taxed fairly too... the whole if your rich you have no taxes bs the govt tries to push is bs.

I agree with Hazel though, every situation and individual is different so I wouldn't automatically say oh he/she does/doesn't deserve that money or being rich.

I think sometimes, it isn't fair how much some people make. Charlie Sheen made like 1.8 million an episode of 2 and a half men, then asked for more. Meanwhile, teachers (which is probably one of the most important professions ever) are making close to nothing. However, I think if someone goes out there, works hard for their money and does something great, then yes they deserve it. There are people that sit on their butts and expect to be taken care of. Not to make this more political, but most Democrats think that money should be dispersed evenly. I go back and forth between parties depending on topic, but this one just is so wrong. If someone works hard for what they have, they definitely deserve it and do not need to spend it on someone else not willing to put forth the effort. I have been working hard since I was 17, paying taxes and all. There are people my age collecting welfare while not working. Is that fair? Not in the least.

I don't have a problem with people being rich or poor, you can be poor and be a lot happier than someone who is rich so I don't think that matters. I think what matters is when people who have money lord over those without or seriously beleive that because they have more money they are better than a person without. I very much beleive in helping those who are in need but I also love that we we live in a country where you can work hard and be rewarded for pursuing your dream. So I guess with your FIL, he had the skills and the know how to start a new business himself, but he chose not to. I'm sure he could have "stolen" back the customers from the business they sold so he could have a business himself, that he started.

Reminds me that we all have to strive for our goals and dreams even when they seem so far away or impossible to achieve. For example, there is something in my life that I want very much and I can see it in my future. I used to see it like I was standing on one side of the Grand Canyon and my goal/dream was on the otherside, with no way across, and it just sat there staring me in the face. Then one day I realized how to reach that goal that seemed so far; by a leap of faith. You just have to go for it, and not be afraid of falling. Maybe your FIL was afraid of falling, maybe thats what holds so many of us back, and makes us envious of those reaching their goals/living the life we want.

Anyways, sorry for the long post.

I think everyone has a right to the money they earn for themselves. That being said, I do not think it is right that rich people get better tax breaks. I think a flat tax would be much more fair. I think this society needs to better police the money they DO give to people. I know many people who just work the system and could make their own money but are too lazy, and then I know honest people who really do deserve help and they can't get it! Something is wrong with that!

Sounds like my mom. She has never worked very hard at anything, was always buying into "get rich quick" schemes and is now struggling with a very low paying job in her early 60's. She resents how "rich" I am, and thinks I should help support her (which I do in a small way, $100 a month.)
But of course the thing is my husband has worked very hard at his job for many years. It took him about five years after college (which he worked through himself) to establish a profitable business, and lucky for us his business has continued to do well. I have supported him by taking care of all things domestic so he can focus on work.
Not all rich people deserve it, and not all poor people deserve that either, but that is life, often unfair and no guarantees. The biggest complainers are usually the ones who know deep down they have made poor choices :(

Well your FIL was obviously traumatized by his mother's choice...very mean. Lots of anger in him, no doubt, but he reacted (sorry) like the perfect child of wealth: feeling entitled and acting as the rebel of the situation. Too bad he ended up hurting himself while making "the point" clear to his family through totally boycotting his own success. Yes, rich often deserve to be rich as becoming rich is as hard as keeping rich (if it's inherited). You all know the stories of those people who became millionaires overnight (lottery or other huge success as in the show business for example), who did not have the education, the savviness and the drive to handle wealth, well..they lost eveything and their life became hell. Wealth often equals to worry and hard work, making hard choices and big sacrifices. Oh yes, rich deserve to be rich as much as many many people do not deserve to be poor only because they do not have the opportunities to change their situation. I guess TALENT is the key and the difference between rich and poor is OPPORTUNITY and how to make the best of it.

Rich is not about how much you make. It really is more about how much you keep. College and a job won't necessarily equal becoming rich or equal the scenario you mentioned here. Inheriting the family business will not guarantee riches either. Everyone is free to complain about anything, this is a country of free speech, however, complaining about someone else doesn't make your situation any better.

Side note: Sometimes things happen in life to you that are out of your control. You try to be as prepared as we can for the endless possibilities but sometimes you get the unexpected and just end up having to play the hand you have been dealt. It is our ability to make lemonade out of lemons that makes the difference and is real success only measured by the amount of money we make?