Affluent Altruism The idea of money and wealth is an integral part of the dreams and aspirations of Americans today. More money means more opportunities, and more opportunities allow us to better fulfill our dreams and desires. Our want of money, however, contradicts our views of those with money and of those with power. We as Americans view the rich as; lazy, greedy, arrogant, uncaring and without empathy. Due to the fact most of us have not experienced these traits first-hand, these dispositions just become simple biases; and to confirm or disprove these biases, we must do research, case studies and experiments. These experiments are what led to the discovery of the links that exist within materialistic wealth and morality such as the apathy of the rich, and the corruption that runs rampant within their society. The lazy and arrogant A common predisposition towards the affluent is that are lazy, arrogant, and undeserving of their money and status in life. These biases, while shown to be true in some cases, have also been shown to be equally false in others. This is due to there being a variety of people that comprise the top 1% in America. People like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs were self-made people. They started out from humble beginnings and through hard work and dedication they were able to climb their way up in life. Gates and Job’s worked hard for their money and status, and they deserve everything they get. People who inherit their power and wealth though, are usually the ones seen as lazy, selfish, and arrogant as they have done nothing to deserve their money. Some of these people decide to give away their parents money to charities and research organizations while others decide to hoard that money to keep for their own, and most do a little bit of both. There really is no clear definite answer on whether or not the rich are lazy as it all depends. The top 1% compromises of multiple people, all with different personalities and desires and it is these desires and personalities that shape who that person is. Statistical Philanthropy By a statistical standpoint, however, the argument of Morality vs Wealth can be seen much more clearly. By looking at the number of rich extensively involved in philanthropy, we are able to see whether or not the wealthy are really just greedily keeping all the money to themselves, or giving it back out to the people who need the money more. People like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet who have given away multiple billions are good examples of the wealthy who give back to the people for the greater good. These people are rich, but they choose to spend their money in helping humanity towards a brighter future by donating to charities and research labs that will better benefit humanity. While there are a few rich who choose to use their wealth and affluence for good, unfortunately there are also many more that use it in extravagantly selfish ways. In a survey among the top 1% in America, it was shown that the majority of the survey takers were opposed to giving better work conditions and to equalize the distribution of wealth in America. A study by “Chronicle” found that each year, the affluent are giving less and less of their money to charity, which means less support for the people in need and more money the middle class must dig out and spend to support the American economic infrastructure. These studies have sadly confirmed that the majority of the wealthy might just be as corrupt and selfish as we think they are. Psychology of the rich The debate over the correlation between materialistic wealth and morality has been viewed from many angles; but when it is looked through by a psychological standpoint, we see something different. In an experiment, a scenario was shown in which you have two options. One option is to push and kill a man next to you to save multiple people, while the other option is to not do anything and keep the man close to you alive while you watch the other people die. They presented this scenario to a variety of people belonging to different financial classes, and they found that the higher the financial class, the more people were willing to push the man next to him. Repeated studies have further reinforced this finding, but this discovery doesn't mean that the wealthier are “evil”. This study shows that the rich are, on average, more apathetic, but this apathy isn't necessarily a negative quality. The wealthier person was able to separate personal feelings from the equation and make a decision that would be more beneficial to the whole. This is a reflection on how business owners handle their business, as while they may give up on a few people, it is for the good of the company as a whole ergo for more people. On average, wealthier people are better able to make hard choices that would turn out to be the most beneficial for the most number of people involved.Biased predispositionsThe statistical and psychological findings mean that the wealthy may be a group of misunderstood people. In general, a wealthier person has more responsibilities and power than those of a lower class and with that power means that they must make choices based on different factors than those of the poor or middle class. Their lack of empathy may stem from the fact that their decisions have to be based on the good of multiple people and not just based on personal feelings. The corruption and laziness that runs “rampant” among the rich may not be running rampant at all. There are people who worked hard and poured their life into what they believe just so they could climb up to the top in life. These people deserve their money and yet, in some of these people are the ones that also decide to just give most of it away to help others in need. On the other end of all the samaritanism are the ones who didn't work at all for their power and possessions, the ones who decide to be greedy and not care about others around or below them; and In-between this spectrum are the ones who don’t devote their life to always being good and who aren't wholly evil either. This diversity among the 1% show that instead of asking whether or not all rich people are moral, we should instead be asking which people are moral.
( Santiago Uriarte )
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