First Class, Baby

A-TEAM

SEPARATION OF THE CLASSES

Debra Polchek

Managing Editor

Poppin’ bottles Baby that is what the A-Team lifestyle is all about. From private jets to huge homes, driving luxury cars, going on expensive shopping trips, and getting priority entrances sums up the A-Team life. Living life in the high-class fast lane is a desire achieved by some, while others dream about it. Keeping up with the Joneses…hmm, or is it the Kardashians now? Well, that is a thing of the past, it is now replaced with keeping up with Social Media lifestyles just to belong to the new A-Team. Entertainers like Rhianna, Jay-Z joined by his wife Beyoncé, and even Kanye West are now certified billionaires according to the Forbes list, meanwhile, other entertainers like Nicki Minaj, Robert Pattison, Zoe Kravitz, Cardi-B, and Zendaya are all A-listers who enjoy a lifestyle created by wealth. Do you ever find yourself asking the question of how people with money live? I know I have asked myself that question numerous times as I have driven through Beverly Hills on occasion, hating on all of the mansions that I have seen on my excursions. A-list people don’t think in terms of being poor, especially if they come from money, uh hmm (couching) the Hilton sisters, because they know that at the end of the day money is plentiful. “Greed is good,” says Gordon Gekko played by Michael Douglas in the movie Wall Street, but how good can greed be when you are rich? A study done by the University of California, Berkley reveals upper-class individuals behave more unethically than the lower class. This study was broken into seven parts, the first and second studies showed wealthy people are more likely to break the law while driving, and study number three showed wealthy individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies. Study number four showed the rich were more likely to take valued goods, study five showed the rich are more willing to lie in a negotiation, and study six showed that wealthy people are more likely to cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize, and the final study, number seven showed that the rich are more likely to endorse unethical behavior at work.

In conclusion, according to the study, the rich are more likely to break traffic laws, exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies, take things of value from others, lie in a negotiation, cheat to win a game, and endorse unethical behavior at work, so as long as it serves their purpose, not to mention exploit the lower-class for their own growth financially by any means necessary. Moreover, the data showed that a positive attitude toward greed was the main driver for the wealthy’s tolerance of and participation in unethical conduct.

Don't get me wrong this does not mean that all rich people are greedy, back-stabbing, stingy misers, there are some who are philanthropic, magnanimous, and honest. I mean just look at Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, these two men exemplify those adjectives, and they are billionaires. They have collaborated with nonprofits and created The Giving Pledge, which is a pledge by philanthropists who commit to giving a majority of their wealth to charitable causes, whether during their lifetimes or in their wills. Bill Gates created The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation with his soon-to-be ex-wife Melinda Gates to help fight poverty, disease, and inequity in the world. This is just to name a few, but then you have billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk, who are consumed with greed, and only give measly amounts to “save face”, in PR stunts. Take for example Elon Musk, who recently acquired Twitter, his actions have done nothing to help this world positively and were only done to show his financial mite. He told the world, in my own personal opinion, that “look what I can do with 44 billion dollars, I am wealthy enough to buy whatever I want, and destroy everything within my reach.” I think it’s safe to say that I do not think very highly of this man. I have seen the Tweets he has written, and from what I have read and come to know about him through various interviews he’s done, articles I have read and news expose on him, I think that he is a self-serving, trust fund baby, who only seeks self-gratification by tearing others down, and uses his immense wealth to keep his employees needy by paying them very little, condoning alleged racism in his plants and using union-busting tactics in order to make it harder for his employees to achieve financial stability in their lives. Having money doesn't equate to happiness, but it can make life easier when you don't have bill collectors knocking on your door, as someone once said” just remember that wealth is forever, and rich is temporary".

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RESOURCES PROVIDED COURTESY OF:

University of California, Berkley

Paul Piff, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology at UC, Berkeley

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

ARTICLE WRITTEN BY

Deborah Polchek

Managing Editor

CO-AUTHORED BY

Jeff Hoftenleft