Is the opinion of most Americans that rich people are honest hard working citizens and poor people?

Question

are lazy,incompetent bums who probably are responsible for their own misery?

Answer 1

only the wealthy that were born into wealth... they have never known poverty and it's causes... they tell themselves these things to make themselves feel better and to convince themselves that they don't need to help others and that their greed is justified...

if you have ever been poor, you see so many hard working people just struggling to make it every day...

I'm not poor anymore, but I remember...

Answer 2

No, but can you honestly tell me that they are not responsible AT ALL for their misery?

What is so bad about personal responsibility? We all have access to an education - if someone makes the choice not to take advantage of that, why should you or I have to cover their butts?

I would support welfare a lot more if it required some community service. Giving people money for nothing is never a good idea - it's not good for self-esteem and leads to a false sense of entitlement. Or, why not change things so that instead of supporting deadbeats, we use welfare to help the working poor make ends meet? I think that's a far better idea than how we run it now.

Answer 3

No, this is a fallacy.

The thing is that the US has the most economic mobility in the world. If you look at the people currently in the bottom 20% (lowest quintile) of income, over 70% of these people will move out of that quintile and many will reach the top 2 quintiles in income over their lifetimes.

The few people who never leave the bottom quintile are there, barring mental or physical diseases or handicaps, mostly because of bad decisions they have made. To drop out of school. To do drugs and alcohol. To commit crime. To have children when too young. Etc.

I don't consider them "lazy, incompetent bums" unless they start demanding money from my pocket. They haven't earned the right.

Answer 4

I would say no. Granted, some Americans--mostly the right-wing (neocons) have that attitude. But in my experience most people--including legitimate conservatives--don't indulge in such stereotyping.

The reality is that rich people are just that--people. Some are decent, hard-working--and deserve their wealth. Others are out and out criminals--and of curse, everything in between.

The same is true of the poor. Some are lazy, sure. Most are not--they are hard-working but may not have had the same opportunities or may have had some bad breaks.

And most Americans knowthis--and judge each person on their merits, not on the size of their bank account.

Answer 5

Let's be honest rich people are seen as hard working and productive only because it is secretly en grained in us to believe so. (never mind that most people are rich due to inheritance which is a form of taking credit for other peoples work.) We forget that there are many ways and reasons for either condition and they rarely have to do with the quantity or quality of the work put into it.

Bottom line:We all have to die sometime and you can not take material things with you only memories of the life you have led here and things that you have done here while you where alive. Hopefully one would hope that you left behind a lot of people that remember you as kind, giving and caring which would make you a human being with a great inner wealth.

Answer 6

Not exactly. People are people. Those who've acquired and conserved wealth are dedicated, hard working people who, at some point in time, chose to sacrifice instant gratification to better their condition in the future. Those who're poor continue to choose not to. The rich tend to be self-reliant, believing their situation is a direct result of their actions. The poor tend to blame external sources for their fate. They fail to see how their self-destructive behavior has led them to their state, or how a little PHYSICAL self-denial will pay in dividends for themselves and their children.

Answer 7

Pretty much. There some happy hard working poor people and there are some lazy rich people. There are exceptions to every rule.

Answer 8

you could say most rich ppl worked their butts off...not all the poor are lazy, some have just hit a bump on the road or something.

Answer 9

That's a flawed concept that the Americans like very much. I think their over-emphasis on individual freedom and choice BLINDS them from seeing the truth about the inherently poor people (people born into poor families).

Answer 10

Screw opinions.

Let's go right to the facts.

If you define rich and poor in terms of income, most rich people are formerly middle-class people and most poor people are middle-class-people-to-be.