What Level of Wealth Do You Consider Evil? [View all]

[vdogg]

Last edited Thu Mar 3, 2016, 10:52 PM - Edit history (2)

There seems to be a common theme lately that to be well off is to be a bad person. To be wealthy is to be elite or part of the establishment. My question is, where is the cut off line? Disclaimer, I am not "wealthy" by any stretch of the imagination but I am well off (>$100k). I do not consider myself a bad person. There was a time in my life, in my late teens, when I was homeless and on welfare. I KNOW that life, I know how hard it is. Thankfully I was able to put myself through college and get a degree and my life improved substantially. I often find myself wondering, however, about the circumstances through which people find themselves truly wealthy. Is it the fact that they are wealthy or is it how they obtained that wealth that disturbs people so much? I would argue that people like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Warren Buffett are a benefit to the world. The Koch brothers, not so much. All of them, however, would be lumped into the 1%. I guess I'm just interested in what sort of nuance people apply in their critique of the wealthy.

Edit: Copying a post I made down thread to clear up some confusion about the premise of this OP.
"I" don't believe wealth=evil at all. I do however sense that people have a knee jerk reaction to wealth. People are critical of the "1%", but there is never any nuance in that critique. I'm just interested in people's opinions on the subject, which judging by this thread are numerous and varied.