Rich people steal lollies from children

I don’t normally do this, but one of my regular readers, Jim Van Ommen, wrote a comment on a recent post about wealth today and I found it so thought provoking that I decided to post it separately so people don’t miss it…..

People from wealthy backgrounds are more likely than poorer people to break laws while driving, take lollies from children, and lie for financial gain, a United States study says”,

This article was published on the ABC News website on 29 th Feb. 2012 and can still be accessed just by typing in the above sentence in Google.

An interesting article by psychologists from universities in Berkley, California and Toronto, Canada who completed an extensive seven part study on this subject of human behaviour from various socio-economic backgrounds. Their conclusion was :

“It really shows the extreme lengths to which wealth and upper-rank status in society can shape patterns of self-interest and unethicality.”

I thought this would shed some light on the link between wealth and capitalism that I mentioned before. That does not mean that all wealthy people are capitalists, or vice versa, but if the traits mentioned are considerably more prevalent amongst the wealthy, who at the same time represent the upper-rank in our society, it would be rather naïve for us to assume that they would behave more honourable in positions of influence and power.

The important question is; who of us would behave more honorably if we were wealthy, or should I say; more wealthy?
I know, I could have phrased this in the singular but I did want to have a bit of company.

Yes, that eye of the needle…….it’s a worry.