228 Rich People are NOT Special

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Humans hold a reverence for money, however it was obtained, inherited money being the most common. Lots of money provides a sense of inevitability, the assumption that whatever The Rich do must be correct, and gives them an air of invincibility. This makes commoners reluctant to question them out of lack of conviction in their own thoughts because they are not rich, and fear that The Rich will punish them for their impudence. It must be a manifestation of evolution: the human willingness to be subjugated by physical strength has morphed into a willingness to be subjugated by those with money; to curry their favor, to stand in the shadow of their social dominance because, in the end, status is the ultimate achievement.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A lot of folks think rich people somehow deserved their money: they were the best at what they did, or worked harder than everyone else, or some other justification that made them more special than all the losers who didn't succeed. Then there's the canard that wealth trickles down from The Rich investing their money: they are even considered catalysts of the economy. The Rich exploit this myth to claim their money is special too, and in fact, The Rich are taxed at a lot lower rate than a guy who works in construction and has to make the mortgage every month. Of course, it's The Rich's special access to power that promulgates this hogwash, and the public's desire to believe in their specialness. Certainly people who inherited their wealth are no more special than you, and virtually any CEO can be replaced by someone else from the top quarter of the population. Conversely, there're lots of people who are the best at what they do but they didn't get rich. The only thing special about rich people is their inordinate luck.</p>