"If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?"

[LongTomH]

Got this quote from a friend's email:

"What gets me, is that people with a lot of money associate their wealth with super intelligence, super hardwork, and being all around a super person. Like when Bill Gates challenges the World Chess Champion to a game of Chess and loses in 75 seconds. An average player probably could have held out for 15 or 20 moves. Personally I think the part of one's brain that is devoted to making money , crowds out everything else when that's your only goal in life."

[Boom Sound 416]

1. The dollaroplogus? The casholas?

[Awknid]

2. This is my pet peave

I completely agree. It's truly sad to watch them make asses of themselves. I know an idiot. He always was the dumbest one in the class and the least curious around. But he got lucky and got rich and now he thinks he's so smart!

It would be funny if it wasn't so sad!

[hobbit709]

3. Maybe I'm not rich because I'm so smart.

I realized a long time ago that those who make a lot of money usually screw people over. I prefer to face myself in the mirror without flinching every morning.

[Octafish]

10. That's the smartest kind of smart there is...

...It's called love -- the realization that another human being has infinite value and one's own path in existence is determined by that knowledge.

Too many never learn that lesson. For proof: Just look around at the world today and see.

[raouldukelives]

35. + a Brazilian! nt

[Tripper11]

4. Personally...I don't don't associate rich with brains

I tend to associate it more to lack of morals and an outright willingness to lie, steal or cheat anyone they can.
Certainly there are exceptions to that, but overall, I think that's the motivation to achieving wealth.

[badtoworse]

5. Another crapping on rich people, sour grapes thread.

[el_bryanto]

11. Yes - it is pretty tough to be rich in America

It's good that you are looking out for them.

Bryant

[badtoworse]

13. Stereotyping - it's the hypocrisy of the people doing it that I dislike

Rich people are routinely stereotyped on DU by posters who'd be screaming about any racist or sexist stereotypes they encountered. What do you think the reaction here would be if someone stereotyped poor people as lazy? Stereotyping rich people is fine though. Same thing applies to gun owners and religious people.

[el_bryanto]

15. The problem is that the wealthy run everything in our society

It's like posts about White Privilege squared - regardless of whether they are miserable bastards or sweet-hearted saints - the truth is that the wealthy run things. They have access.

Also some Wealthy deserve their success; many do not.

Bryant

[laundry_queen]

16. That's ridiculous.

There are good gun owners, and good religious people and good rich people. But the bad ones make life on earth a living hell for the rest of us. Maybe if there was a little shame in being rich there would be a little more humility amongst that class. And it's not even close to the same thing as racism or sexism. Insulting.

[lonestarnot]

17. Richies don't give a fuck what sex or color, they'll fuck ya.

[laundry_queen]

21. Yup, it's how they got there. nt

[badtoworse]

18. How rich can you be before the shame should kick in?

[laundry_queen]

20. If you can get together with 85 of your friends

and end world hunger, and you don't, you should be fucking ashamed.

[Taitertots]

25. Worse than ashamed, they should be run out of the society that made them rich

Wealth distribution is very close to being a zero sum game. People are poor because they are rich.

[Distant Quasar]

26. Many wealthy people have an unearned sense of superiority

So what if not all of them do? It's a widespread, visible phenomenon. It feeds into the fantasies that support the plutocrats' death grip on our society, because too many non-rich people buy into the line that the rich are better than the rest of us and deserve outsized respect and authority. And of course, whenever anyone points this out, there's always the guy who pops up and yells "sour grapes!"

[laundry_queen]

14. oh, boohoo, won't someone think about the rich people's feelings

while everyone else starves and freezes.

Seriously?

[ck4829]

6. It's social darwinism in it's modern form

Who cares if you got out of every problem because of your daddy and his connections, if you can't function in society, or even if you'll probably starve or blow up your house without all the 'domestic help'? You've got money, you MUST be genetically superior.

They condensed it down from the color of one's skin, how thick their nose is, the shape of their skull, etc. to how wealthy they are.

[n2doc]

7. Justin Bieber is Rich. Paris Hilton is Rich, Lindsay Lohan is rich

Nothing about being rich requires you to be smart. And I won't even get into the political idiots who also happen to be rich.

[Romulox]

8. Then these megalomaniacs get to decide the very course of our society through their "charity"

[Adrahil]

9. Well, there are different kinds of smarts, as well.

I'm an engineer. My wife is an English Lit professor. I'd say we're both pretty smart, but our brains most certainly work differently. Some of the stuff she does makes my head hurt. Some of the stuff I do make her eyes glass over. I don't think either one of us is smarter than the other, though.

[bemildred]

12. I associate wealth with stupidity. It's not a law, but it's the way to bet.

Buying your way through llfe does not require much intelligence. You want intelligence, go find someone thriving in a failed state. But watch out.

[Tom Ripley]

19. The last line in Eudora Welty's "The Petrified Man"

It captures perfectly the mindset of the Yahoo.

[sorefeet]

22. My last two neighbors were rich

family hand me down money. Both were Republicans, racist, selfish, gun loving, losers. They had no friends and both died from alcohol. They both asked me to be friends because they had none and were lonely. BUT you could not befriend them. You could not stand to be around them. So I just stayed away. They died and the money went right back into the family. Whom are all losers in my opinion.
I have no desire to be rich with money. My health and happiness rich is can't be bought.

[Awknid]

23. The rich guy I know tries to hide his money

When he meets anyone, he never wants them to know he's rich (inherited wealth). He says it always makes people treat him differently and he can never trust them after that. Pretty pitiful way to live. No wonder he's an alcoholic. But he'll never have to worry about paying the bill!

I think a lot of rich people would trade places with me any time. But they'd rather die than admit it!

[Nye Bevan]

29. Well, since *you* know that he is rich, I guess has not been 100% successful in hiding it (nt)

[Aristus]

24. Alan J. Lerner once said that just as there are people who have a talent for singing,

and nothing else, there are people who have a talent for making money, and nothing else.

There are smart wealthy people, but IMO, they tend to see wealth as a means to an end, rather than an end in itself.

[Blue_Tires]

27. I don't get why the Bill Gates thing was such a big deal

the kid is a global chess champion...

There are probably dozens of card games or video games I could slap Gates around in if he actually wanted to challenge me...

[Nye Bevan]

28. Being smart is only part of it. It's a combination of being smart, being lucky, working hard,

and being in the right place at the right time. Most of the rich did not inherit their wealth. Alan Grayson, for example, started a successful business (IDT Corp, an internet and telecom company) and made his fortune from it.

[tblue37]

30. Maybe because my moral values limit what I am willing to do

to get money.

[Awknid]

31. And my sensitivity and empathy

Stop me from crossing the lines!

[Distant Quasar]

32. In other words, you're a "loser"

Just ask any Objectivist and they'll tell you.

[LongTomH]

37. And Ayn Rand collected Social Security

My new favorite Facebook page: Ayn Rand collected Social Security. I think you'll enjoy the banner.

The latest post is on Right-wing children's literature:

[Distant Quasar]

38. Love it! nt

[reformist2]

33. Most of the ultrarich are con artists. Of course they can't admit that.

[Xyzse]

34. Actually, it usually is who you know and associate with.

There is a dumb marketing trick, that kinda makes sense.

Basically, they ask people to write names of 5 people they hang out with the most.
After that, make an estimate of how much they earn a year.

Average those numbers, and that number is around the range you make a year.

Thing is, there is some truth about that. Where, the people you know tend to influence the opportunities that you get, and so you earn around that range as well.

It isn't because you are smart or work harder either.

[moondust]

36. Because I ain't a vampire?

Or some other kind of parasite getting fat off somebody else's blood, sweat, and tears?