Does a person's wealth reflect on his or her character? (lawyer, racist)

[CatTX]

Entirely dependent on the individual. Bad character and behavior exists among all social classes.

[vision33r]

Very few wealthy people I know are kind, they didn't get rich by being kind. That includes Bill Gates who some people say is very good because of his philanthropy. He didn't get rich by being kind.

[swgirl926]

Nope. Not at all. For every wealthy person that dodges taxes and behaves unethically, there is a Bill Gates or Warren Buffett that makes extensive charitable contributions. For every poor person that milks the system, there is one who is willing to share what they have. I don't mean to imply that there is a 1:1 ratio, but I think you know what I mean.

[imagardener]

Depends on your definition of character. Wealthy people donate less to charity than less wealthy. Is that lack of character? Some wealthy people think poor people are poor by choice and they (wealthy) owe no one anything.

"Character" is broad, narrow, specific and amorphous in definition.
I was self-employed and worked for wealthy people mostly and had fewer problems than the beginning of my career when my clients were middle class.

[gouligann]

Money does not make a person nice or nasty. Neither does the lack of it.

Whatever a person has on the inside is what counts, not their net worth.

[coschristi]

So it seems there is a general agreement that the wealthy can very much lack integrity & upstanding morals.

Now what about the poor? Is that a geographical thing? Just wondering because on this forum you sometimes see a lot of judgement about poor people, to the extent of : "We should forcibly sterilize them, take away food stamps, etc..."

[justinbro2002]

Wealth or absence of wealth does not make a person a better or worse person. But more times than not wealth or lack there of tends to amplify ones tendencies to be a better or worse person. If you are rich you can get away with being a real ****-heel because people will be very forgiving because of your wealth. If you are poor you can be a real ****-heel and people will tend to forgive you because it isn't your fault it is your socioeconomic situation that made you that way.

[Sarahsez]

I don't think wealth reflects character. You can be wealthy because you were smart, lucky, born into it, are prepared for opportunity, or you stole it. You can be poor because you are stupid, unlucky, born into it, blew your chances or you're not good at stealing. It's easier to be poor than rich. Someone else being rich is less likely to have an effect on you than someone being poor. The rich are usually focused on an idea of what they have and how to contain it or make their wealth grow. The poor minded are more likely looking around to see what others have rather than focusing on what they have and can do to make their situation better. True poor are struggling. The difference you can probably see between the rich and poor that some people may mistake for character is most likely manners. People with manners can seem to be nice when in reality they are not.

[Troyfan]

In most cases I think it's the other way around: character reflects wealth. There are lots of exceptions and because they are so obvious they get lots of attention. And I don't necessarily mean extreme wealth, although for every wealthy person who got that way though crime, rent seeking or good choice of parents there are two who did it honourably.

I don't know many engineers, accountants or doctors who are dishonourable (lawyers are in a class, or lack thereof, by themselves). They had to work hard to get where they are and what they have, which is usually a fair amount.

On the other hand I know many, and know of many more poor people who got that way through indolence, slack, addiction or just plain stupidity. Extreme poverty, like in much of Africa and South America, I don't include because it doesn't exist in the US and is beyond my ken.

So looking between the extremes, either of wealth or poverty, I feel there is a fairly strong correlation between wealth and character: hard work, sobriety, law abiding seem fairly well associated with wealth and their opposites with poverty.

[stan4]

I'd say that overall there is zero relationship between money and character, but sometimes having money makes it easier for you to be nice to other people, if you get my meaning.