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

[Lilith7]

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]

[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."

Some good points there and some continuation of stereotypes.

You are right that "people don't always have the same opportunities, abilities & luck" but the biggest hurdle is that those who do have those opportunities don't take them. and that can be simply because they don't want to which is fine. But they shouldn't later be jealous of those who did.

On one level no one "needs" 51 properties, but a businessman at that level can do so much more, which he, at such a young age, seems to be starting out on. I recently read Branson's biography. You could argue that he didn't need any of what he attained, but the world sure needed all the social good that he was able to do.

I disagree with your quote about the cars. That is using the car as a status symbol, not showing actual wealth. Some of the wealthier people I know are driving the equivalent of the old Toyotas. It's the wannabees who buy the latest and greatest (or lease them) and try to look "the part". That lesson was pointed out to me in the late 70s when I was spending time at the farm down the road and my father said "do you realise that [the farmer] is a multi millionaire?" He drove a car cheaper than ours, and we were poor!

Also, the comment about family connections, money and education will undoubtedly be true for some, but what of those who had none of those and still ended up in the top brackets. Although I still don't see an actual definition of "rich".

Not sure why you think anyone is 'jealous' of those who are wealthy. I think probably the unfairness of our society is what rankles.

The cars were used as an example.
However, not every wealthy person is inclined to get the trappings of wealth.
This chap is a good example.
https://en.as.com/en/2019/10/17/soccer/1...22970.html

Sadio Mane
"Why would I want ten Ferraris, 20 diamond watches, or two planes? What will these objects do for me and for the world? I was hungry, and I had to work in the field; I survived hard times, played football barefooted, I did not have an education and many other things, but today with what I earn thanks to football, I can help my people," Mané explained. "I built schools, a stadium, we provide clothes, shoes, food for people who are in extreme poverty. In addition, I give 70 euros per month to all people in a very poor region of Senegal which contributes to their family economy. I do not need to display luxury cars, luxury homes, trips and even planes. I prefer that my people receive a little of what life has given me".

Back home in Senegal, Mané has funded the construction of a school in Bambali, work on the new school began before the summer."