Why “The Rich” make me sick, part 5 (of 21)

[ebenbrooks]

Continuing the analysis of the Yahoo! Finance article 21 Ways Rich People Think Differenly, a condensed “interview” with Steve Siebold, author of How Rich People Think.

5. Average people long for the good old days. Rich people dream of the future.“Self-made millionaires get rich because they’re willing to bet on themselves and project their dreams

Comments

[neo_tanuki]

You'll probably be getting into this during the course of your series, but one of the biggest flaws I see in the article is that Siebold interchangeably refers to "The Rich" and "Self-Made Millionaires" as if they were the same thing, implying that ALL wealthy people earned their own fortunes. Which is simply not true, as you and I discussed earlier.

[ebenbrooks]

Yeah, that conflation occurs a lot, which is another example of affirming the consequent: All self-made millionaires are rich, therefore all rich people are self-made millionaires.

[kishiriadgr]

I commented on that in installment 1. Self-made millionaires tend to be more gracious than those who started rich and just got richer. Elizabeth Warren started out poor and made good. Mitt Romney started out rich and got richer.

[ebenbrooks]

And there ya go. Although that doesn't always hold. Steve Jobs started out dirt poor and turned into a ruthless rich guy. Warren Buffet started out rich, but is surprisingly egalitarian for a billionaire.

[psybelle]

*bwah ha ha sob*

And this is why so many rich republicans want to turn the calendar back to the bad old days of no unions, only white people voting, womens' sexuality existing solely for the benefit of men, and so on?

(You knew somebody was going to say it...)