Biggest ever recorded jump in weekly earnings as median NZ wages rise

[Lilith7]

There was a survey done somewhere - possibly the USA I think, - which showed that those who are wealthy often believe that its due to their own efforts when in reality they've often been helped along the way by their family's money. One thing's for sure; if we don't fairly soon move to narrow that yawning gap between rich & poor, we will have trouble.

I couldn't find the survey but to say that some people have been helped by parents is reasonable. If parents are in a position to help why wouldn't/shouldn't they? Like this guy https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/aucklander...G5ONB24BM/ who has apparently already paid them back and rewarded their input with a great deal of success, which he is clearly also paying forward. Just because some people get help doesn't mean all do, and the tone of comments like "think they got where  they are by just shear hard work" is part of the problem we have. Young people who don't see a need to work to achieve something in life because they see the tall poppies around them getting torn down.

And yes, "everyone else [does have] the same equal opportunity". Plenty of people come from nothing and achieve a lot. Why should they be criticised for that? They should be held up as role models to help push others out of the benefit go-round.

I don't see any definition of "rich" being put forward here, but do see people that seem to think that anyone who has done better than they is somehow greedy and shouldn't have what they have achieved. As with any generalisation there are of course some who deserve criticism, but by far the majority don't.

There are very few people who don't see a need to work.
Really, I don't think anyone needs 51 properties.


I'm referring to those who, having made some money conveniently 'forget' having been helped by family & claim that 'anyone can become rich if they work hard.'
People don't always have the same opportunities, abilities & luck, & not 'anyone can do it.'




http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jul/08/the-age-of-entitlement-how-wealth-breeds-narcissism

"Call it the asshole effect. That is the term coined by US psychologist Paul Piff after he did some stunning new research into the effects of wealth and inequality on people’s attitudes.
As we ponder Joe Hockey’s budget and his division of the world into "leaners" and "lifters", as we learn from Oxfam that the richest 1% of Australians now own the same wealth as the bottom 60%, we would do well to consider the implications of Piff’s studies. He found that as people grow wealthier, they are more likely to feel entitled, to become meaner and be more likely to exploit others, even to cheat.

Piff conducted a series of revealing experiments. One was remarkably simple. Researchers positioned themselves at crossroads. They watched out for aggressive, selfish behaviour among drivers, and recorded the make and model of the car. Piff found drivers of expensive, high-status vehicles behave worse than those sputtering along in battered Toyota Corollas.
[i]They were four times more likely to cut off drivers with lower status vehicles. As a pedestrian looking carefully left and right before using a crossing, you should pay attention to the kind of car bearing down on you."





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https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/the-rich-are-different-and-not-in-a-good-way-studies-suggest.html<!-- @page { margin: 2cm } P { margin-bottom: 0.21cm } -->


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"Psychologist and social scientist Dacher Keltner says the rich really are different, and not in a good way: Their life experience makes them less empathetic, less altruistic, and generally more selfish.


[url=https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/the-rich-are-different-and-not-in-a-good-way-studies-suggest.html]

[font=Times New Roman, serif][size=small][color=#0000ff][url=https://www.psychologicalscience.org/news/the-rich-are-different-and-not-in-a-good-way-studies-suggest.html]In fact, he says, the philosophical battle over economics, taxes, debt ceilings and defaults that are now roiling the stock market is partly rooted in an upper class "ideology of self-interest."


“We have now done 12 separate studies measuring empathy in every way imaginable, social behavior in every way, and some work on compassion and it’s the same story,” he said. “Lower class people just show more empathy, more prosocial behavior, more compassion, no matter how you look at it.”


In other words, rich people are more likely to think about themselves. “They think that economic success and political outcomes, and personal outcomes, have to do with individual behavior, a good work ethic,” said Keltner, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.
Because the rich gloss over the ways family connections, money and education helped, they come to denigrate the role of government and vigorously oppose taxes to fund it."