# Study Shows Rich People Are Greedy and Lack Compassion **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 10, 2012, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417 "2012-04-10T23:14:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/41 "2012-04-11T15:49:40Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > I don’t think you’ve quantified compassion in these examples at all. I wasn’t attempting to. > [@](#): > > There’s too many ways that compassion can have nothing to do with the decisions to help and what those decisions are, and the degree of one’s compassion is not necessarily measured by the actions one takes in response. Except it did have a major impact in the examples I laid out. Compassion can sometimes cloud our thinking and make us do things that are, in the end, worse. That’s why I said I don’t know what the right amount of compassion to have is. Do you? ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/42 "2012-04-11T16:07:38Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > The notion that a study is invalidated because it did not measure various other types of rude behavior that might exist is the farcical one. It certainly is when that other behaviour is your only control. > [@](#): > > Hmmm. So rich people think it is all right for them to be inconsiderate to others because they make more money than others. Imagine that. Yes, that’s right, just as poor people think it is all right for them to be inconsiderate to others because they make less money than others. That was precisely my point. Thank goodness you got it. > [@](#): > > I drive regularly, I see people get cut off all the time, it’s generally clear cut behavior. I only think of it as “cutting off” if the behavior rises to the level of creating a lot of potential for an accident. If you see “cutting off” as a variation of “passing” your objection makes sense, but I don’t think most people see it that way. Looking at Google, first hits: “a car or a person moved precipitously into my path so I couldn’t continue as I wished” “I would take it to be more forceful and mean that they blocked my way - I could not reach the place that I needed to, for example: I tried to take the slip road for Birmingham but a red van cut me off and so I had to take the next exit.” “When you change lanes to go faster and then the person in front of you starts slowing down, and for no observable reason?” And so on and so forth. As I said, the term is very subjective. For you it means risking an accident, for someone else it means they couldn’t continue as they wished, yet another that the person in front starts slowing down. The question is then how the researchers defined it and how they standardised their observations. > [@](#): > > Yes, that is a plausible hypothesis. A more plausible hypothesis is that people varied in how good they felt about themselves, how hungry they were, how they felt about kids in both groups, and yet, the single variable of thinking rich vs. thinking poor tended overall to make people take more candy and deny them to the kids in the other lab (of indeterminate color and wealth, I believe). That isn’t more plausible at all. And without the most basic control being applied the conclusion is worthless. It’s junk science. There’s no excuse for not having the most basic control. > [@](#): > > I realize that you would like to dismiss the study out of hand, but basically what we have here is a series of studies conducted by academics published in a leading scientific journal, vs. an anonymous Internet person waving his hands frantically in a desperate attempt to discredit them. I’m not trying to do anything frantically. I am pointing out rather obvious flaws with the study. If you honestly don’t think that a scientific study should have a basic control, and you honestly don’t think that appetite or body image might have some effect on eating then that’s fine. Nobody expects you to believe what I write. The question is whether you have ability to critically analyse a study, or whether you simply accept it because it has been published. Simple quetsion: would you have conducted thse experiments in this manner, ie without controls? If so, why break with standard protocol? If not, why do you think these researchers did so when the controls seem so easy to implement? If do you believe that the lack of controls is a legitimate criticism to make of a scientific study? ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/43 "2012-04-11T16:15:20Z")
The assumption that cheaper car correlates to lower income seems questionable to me. Plenty of higher-income people might choose to drive a Prius or a Mini, for instance, for reasons having nothing to do with their affordability. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/44 "2012-04-11T16:18:08Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > The assumption that cheaper car correlates to lower income seems questionable to me. Plenty of higher-income people might choose to drive a Prius or a Mini, for instance, for reasons having nothing to do with their affordability. Real rich people don’t drive. They have people to do that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/45 "2012-04-11T16:26:28Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > The assumption that cheaper car correlates to lower income seems questionable to me. Plenty of higher-income people might choose to drive a Prius or a Mini, for instance, for reasons having nothing to do with their affordability. I thought the implication went the other way. > [@Scientific American article](#): > > In one study, Piff and his colleagues discreetly observed the behavior of drivers at a busy four-way intersection. They found that luxury car drivers were more likely to cut off other motorists instead of waiting for their turn at the intersection. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/46 "2012-04-11T16:27:31Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > A great many people do, however. A great many people equate wealth with virtue. Where are you getting this “a great many people?” I think that, sure, but I’m just one person. All I ever hear about on this board is how evil rich people are, and how they’re all backstabbers, and how they’d eat your babies if paid to do so. So it’s hardly “a great many people.” Second, wealth is just one virtue out of many possible ones. If a person gets wealthy by selling cocaine, they’re not a virtuous person. So I don’t know why you expect to end some imagined hero-worship by pointing out vices. Third, while luxury car owners are probably wealthy, there’s no evidence that the wealthy are luxury car owners. You’re committing a base rate fallacy. It’s like saying I found you in the Yankees dugout (I found you speeding), people in the Yankees dugout tend to be baseball fans (speeders tended to be rich luxury car owners), therefore baseball fans are usually in the Yankees dugout (therefore the rich tend to be speeders). Of course, most baseball fans are in their living rooms or stadium seats, not in the Yankees dugout. Finally, it’s altogether humorous to hear people like you argue “Those rich people are so greedy, we should take all their money for ourselves.” It’s threads like this that remind me how evil liberalism is. ---
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/47 "2012-04-11T16:29:53Z")
I have never in my life heard anyone suggest that wealth was a virtue. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/48 "2012-04-11T16:31:55Z")
Thank god this study was done. Now that we _finally_ know that some rich people are greedy and lack compassion the world can now magically change. The rich people will now start giving all their money away and stop being greedy. Government will now cut all programs that help rich people and businesses and give all that money to the poor. Truely a blessed day. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/49 "2012-04-11T16:34:13Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Thank god this study was done. Now that we _finally_ know that some rich people are greedy and lack compassion the world can now magically change. The rich people will now start giving all their money away and stop being greedy. Government will now cut all programs that help rich people and businesses and give all that money to the poor. > > Truely a blessed day. I think I have a new favourite poster. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/50 "2012-04-11T17:05:28Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Second, wealth is just one virtue out of many possible ones. If a person gets wealthy by selling cocaine, they’re not a virtuous person. So I don’t know why you expect to end some imagined hero-worship by pointing out vices. How is being wealthy any kind of virtue at all? It isn’t inherently so, nor is it a reliable indicator. This reminded me of a great Cracked piece that isn’t so much funny as smart and true: > [@](#): > > [6 Things Rich People Need to Stop Saying](http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-rich-people-need-to-stop-saying/) > > #5. “Hey, I Worked Hard to Get What I Have!” > > **What They Think They’re Saying:** > “I’m not Paris Hilton! I work 70-hour weeks to make this salary!” > > **What We Hear:** > “The only reason I have a hundred times more money than you is because I work a hundred times as hard!” > > … > > Most high-income earners do put in a ton of hours. Bill Gates seemed to never sleep (an employee once said that putting in 81 hours in four days still couldn’t keep up with Gates’ schedule). So yes, it’s unfair that we tend to think that “being rich” means “lounging by the pool while an albino tiger massages our feet with his tongue.” So, “Hey, I work hard for what I have!” is perfectly true. It’s also insulting. > > It’s insulting for the exact same reason “Hey, I love my country!” is insulting: It implies that the listener doesn’t. Otherwise there’d be no reason to say it. > > It implies a bizarre alternate reality where society rewards you purely based on how much effort you exert, rather than according to how well your specific talents fit in with the needs of the marketplace in the particular era and part of the world in which you were born. It implies that the great investment banker makes 10 times more than a great nurse only because the banker works 10 times as hard. > > He doesn’t. > > **And even stranger, it implies that money earned is a perfect indicator of a person’s value to society** – if you’re broke, it must mean you’re a loser who contributes nothing to anyone’s life. And that’s downright bizarre when it comes from the same people who also go on and on about the importance of parenting and family values. Surely they’ve noticed that being a great stay-at-home parent makes you exactly zero dollars a year. > > And volunteering to work at a shelter for battered women? Doesn’t pay shit! Diving into a creek to save a toddler from drowning? It pays infinitely less than throwing a touchdown pass during the Super Bowl. > > So, mister rich person who clearly is not reading this, when we say you’re “lucky,” we’re not saying you’re lucky in the way that a lottery winner is lucky. We’re saying that you’re lucky if you were born in a time and place where the hard work you’re good at (say, stock speculation) is valued over the hard work that other people are good at (say, landscaping, or poetry). > > … > > Or, if you don’t believe me, let billionaire investor Warren Buffett tell you: “If you stick me down in the middle of Bangladesh or Peru or someplace, you find out how much this talent is going to produce in the wrong kind of soil … I work in a market system that happens to reward what I do very well – disproportionately well.” > > So to sum it up: If you make good money, but have to work 80-hour weeks to get it, you’re still lucky. Just swallow your pride and fucking acknowledge it. > [@](#): > > Finally, it’s altogether humorous to hear people like you argue “Those rich people are so greedy, we should take all their money for ourselves.” It’s threads like this that remind me how evil liberalism is. You know what is infinitely worse than liberalism? Hearing what you want to hear to justify your point of view. In this case, I refer to the highlighted portion above. I confess I have not read every word of every post in this thread, so perhaps you can direct me to where you noticed someone saying this, using these or any other words that mean the same thing. Not words that you _inferred_ meant this, but words which actually convey this meaning. I’ll be waiting, but I won’t be holding my breath. (And jokes don’t count…unless of course you were just joking about finding liberalism evil?) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/51 "2012-04-11T17:07:47Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > I thought the implication went the other way. I meant that, even if we assume that the people in the luxury cars are rich, we don’t know the income level of the people in the non-luxury cars. ---
**Author:** ![Eric\_the\_Green](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Eric\_the\_Green](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_the_Green)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/52 "2012-04-11T18:57:25Z")
Blake, your posts remind me of another libertarian i’ve encountered. All he ever does is ask for specifics ad nauseum. You guys are apparently unaware that we have legislators who can work out such details like exactly how high a campaign spending limit should be. You apparently think that unless a bill or proposal is already perfect and has existed for thousands of years, it shouldn’t be passed and can’t be updated or adjusted. You libertarians come on like realists, but you do not live in the real world. Your utopia is a fantasy. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/53 "2012-04-11T20:03:23Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > The assumption that cheaper car correlates to lower income seems questionable to me. Given the frequently-documented fact that most millionaires drive non-luxury cars that are several years old, it’s not merely questionable, it’s _extremely_ dubious. The guy in the newish luxury car is the kind of guy who wants to be _seen_ as rich (whether he is or not), and I don’t think anyone’s surprised to know _he’s_ a dickbag. Horseshit from sociologists is still horseshit. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/54 "2012-04-11T20:21:10Z")
> [@furt](#): > > Given the frequently-documented fact that most millionaires drive non-luxury cars that are several years old, it’s not merely questionable, it’s _extremely_ dubious. The guy in the newish luxury car is the kind of guy who wants to be _seen_ as rich (whether he is or not), and I don’t think anyone’s surprised to know _he’s_ a dickbag. > > Horseshit from sociologists is still horseshit. +1. > [@Stoid](#): > > You know what is infinitely worse than liberalism? Hearing what you want to hear to justify your point of view. In this case, I refer to the highlighted portion above. I confess I have not read every word of every post in this thread, so perhaps you can direct me to where you noticed someone saying this, using these or any other words that mean the same thing. Not words that you _inferred_ meant this, but words which actually convey this meaning. > > I’ll be waiting, but I won’t be holding my breath. (And jokes don’t count…unless of course you were just joking about finding liberalism evil?) > [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > And taxing away **most** of their money and re-investing it in the economy _would_ be a good idea, yes. Posted without comment. ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/55 "2012-04-11T20:35:45Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Posted without comment. Fail. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/56 "2012-04-11T20:50:45Z")
Do you not know the definition of the word “fail”? You asked, “Show me where someone said “Those rich people are so greedy, we should take all their money for ourselves”. You don’t have to find someone who used the exact same wording, but that that was the meaning”. I quoted “And taxing away most of their money and re-investing it in the economy would be a good idea, yes”. Note this part: “taxing away most of their money”. Yes, **Der Trihs** said “Reinvesting it in the economy” as opposed to “Take it for myself” but that’s a nitpick, since if re-investing the money is his decision, he took it for himself. So no, that is not a fail. I believe the proper term is a “success”. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/57 "2012-04-11T21:03:45Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Can you describe some circumstances in which more compassion would be worse, everything else being equal? You haven’t considered the possibility that the rich people in the study candy were doing their best to compassionately fight the obesity epidemic. The same way that they realize (being experts at having money) that money is the root of all evil and compassionately try to keep it all for themselves. You lucky ducks just don’t know how much better off you are to be removed from all of the burdens of being rich. Now get out of my way, my time is way more valuable than yours. ---
**Author:** ![Kearsen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/82dd89/32.png) [@Kearsen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kearsen)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/58 "2012-04-11T21:07:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > No, that isn’t the point, but let me try to make it even simpler for you: Rich people as a whole aren’t better than poor people, and in some ways they are worse. Why do talks about wealth generation eventually devolve into subjective things like :better or worse? ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/59 "2012-04-11T21:09:07Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Do you not know the definition of the word “fail”? > > You asked, “Show me where someone said “Those rich people are so greedy, we should take all their money for ourselves”. You don’t have to find someone who used the exact same wording, but that that was the meaning”. I quoted “And taxing away most of their money and re-investing it in the economy would be a good idea, yes”. Note this part: “taxing away most of their money”. Yes, **Der Trihs** said “Reinvesting it in the economy” as opposed to “Take it for myself” but that’s a nitpick, since if re-investing the money is his decision, he took it for himself. > > So no, that is not a fail. I believe the proper term is a “success”. Only if you think warping the meaning of words is a success. “taxing most” does not mean “taking all” and “re-investing it in the economy” does not mean “for ourselves” I specifically cautioned against inference. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [April 11, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417/60 "2012-04-11T21:45:54Z")
> [@Stoid](#): > > Only if you think warping the meaning of words is a success. > > “taxing most” does not mean “taking all” and “re-investing it in the economy” does not mean “for ourselves” > > I specifically cautioned against inference. I personally think that we should take all of every rich person’s money. Every last dime. Even reducing them to the level of only being able to afford a cardboard box if they timeshare it, that is still leaving them too much. Because clearly reducing them to income parity isn’t sufficient - we’re not satisfied to disincentivize ambition, dammit; we’re punishing them for the sheer meanness of it! And remember, when we do take all their money, we need to give it all to some _other_ person’s country. Because if we kept it in our own country that would effect our economy and that’s right out. . . . **Der Trihs** is a charming and erudite fellow, but he can get a little excited sometimes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/study-shows-rich-people-are-greedy-and-lack-compassion/618417.md?page=4)