Assuming, of course, that one is creating jobs at all and not getting rich by streamlining and firing, or closing factories here and reopening them overseas.
1- See Jesus, Mother Teresa, virtually every religion.
2- Nobody says it isn’t
3- Not a question of which is better, we need both
4- Didn’t say it was. We need the government safety net as well as private charity
I forgot to call you on this:
I call BS on the 99%. Many people work for government agencies, universities, and the like. Many are farmers and fishermen. Many work for religious organizations. I really don’t think 99% of the people work for corporations.
Indeed, apart from the public sector, small businesses employ 49.2% of private-sector workers, and only 19.5% of small businesses are corporations.
I would say that one’s socio economic status has little bearing on people’s hearts. There are poor compassionate people and there are wealthy compassionate people.
There are poor stingy bastards and there are wealthy stingy bastards.
“Job creators” usually don’t do what they do to help society, they do it to help themselves (that’s how capitalism works). They don’t create job because someone needs a job, they hire people because hiring them will make them more money.
So being a “job creator” doesn’t relieve you of any moral obligation (if any) to help society in other ways.
The “rich” in the DC area tend to be highly educated. So maybe that might have something to do with it.
There are honest used car salesmen and cold-call Florida land speculators, and dishonest used car salesmen and cold-call Florida land speculators.
It’s the percentages that matter.
If anything due to the more highly educated nature of Greater DC’s population, it should reinforce their humane tendencies. Are all metropolitan areas similarly unrepresentative or just DC in your opinion?
Therefore the more highly educated are less compassionate ?
Well the DC area and those types of people who are attracted to work in government where ever they congregate. Again that is my opinion.
Also another question. Why is it that people who tip well are considered compassionate ?
I, for one, do not see an association there.
For me, it’s a question of being able to relate to people who make such a low wage that requires them to need tips. If you can relate to them and think there but for the grace of God go I, you might tip well. If you think why don’t they just inherit wealth like I did, then you probably don’t care if they can’t pay their rent.
That is an unfair generalization. Lots of rich people were once broke entrepreneurs working 100-hour weeks and shilling their products door-to-door or whatever.
There was a link in a recent thread about charitable giving by wealthier as opposed to poorer people, but not about amounts. It was about the types of charies each support.
Wealthy people tend to support institutions that cater to elites – private schools (Harvard was specifically mentioned), museums and the arts, for example. Poorer people tend to give more to direct service institutions like the Red Cross.
How would this factor into which group is more compassionate?
Still does not relate to me. In this case I think of my father notoriously stingy in tips. In fact we in the family would always circle back and add in money to make it right.
However the same man sent 4 kids, not his own, to college because, in his words, they had promise and deserved a chance.
Compassion can be defined in many ways.
I’m not sure that “catering to elites” is the takeaway. It’s more that those donations are possibly motivated by vanity. The Red Cross is probably not going to name an air ambulance after you but the art museum might give you a wing.
I recall it as stating that lower-income people tend to give to their churches…any idea which thread it was? I read it too, but am drawing a blank.
Nope, but the OP can probably find it if interested. I’m pretty sure it was within the last month.
As the great Misato Katsuragi once said “Those who know pain are kinder to others”. (as with all discussions about human behavior, I preface the following that yes, we all know that there are no 100% true statements about humans, especially concerning their minds, there are always exceptions, this is merely a description regarding what’s more likely to occur or what happens the majority or plurality of times)
Anyhoo…
I think rich people, owing to the way they are able to and often insulate themselves from the poor, are less caring. Some who are born rich may be this way from birth, and some who achieve wealth may learn it. Instances where a rich person does a lot of good for a lot of people are often self-serving, and, let’s face it, they have more available wealth to give therefore a rich person giving 1% of their wealth to charity would be able to outdo a poor person giving away 50% of his wealth, so it only seems like some of the super-rich are also super generous.
Humans are social creatures and by not being in the muck with everyone else, by not seeing squalor every day or dealing with the effects of poverty, one will naturally grow distance from that and be less sympathetic. Its natural, but it doesn’t mean its a good thing. I can’t see how anyone who lives away from the projects or skid row can ever truly have the same appreciation for how the poor live than someone who’s closer, like living in it or living next door, who has to walk to the bus next to homeless shelters and tent cities, or people sleeping on the street
A lot of this isn’t really exclusively a rich/poor divide, simply a lack of information. If you live in some apartments downtown, you’re going to know what its like to get up at 5am to take a bus and not be home until past midnight from your 2nd or 3rd job. A rich person trading stocks in an air conditioned corner office is simply not going to have that information or first hand experience. Its not necessarily his fault, but he shouldn’t try to say that poor people lazy or bad people because they can’t personally hop into their luxury cars and drive off on vacation. That’s what upsets me when people make these stupid proclamations that devalue the effort and intelligence of poor people: sometimes there are barriers, physical ones that prevent you from climbing up the socioeconomic ladder.
Society can create better understanding and hopefully more compassionate rich people by using education and trying to eliminate the harmful stereotypes of the poor. We’ve moving in the right direction if we compare generations, but this group of conservatives (many of whom are poor) seem hell-bent on turning back the clock
Even allowing this, for the sake of argument, it has nothing to do with compassion.
People getting rich and creating jobs aren’t doing it out of the goodness of the hearts. Their *intent *is not to increase social good. Their intent is to make themselves money. Any good is just a side effect.
And even if you work for a corporation, it does not support you. You provide labor for it for compensation.