Do the Rich Have Feelings, Too?

Does having piles of money make you less compassionate?

According to a U.C. Berkeley study, well-off individuals show less empathy and sensitivity to distress in others than working-class individuals do. 

The rich “seem to be more absorbed in their own lives,” says the study’s co-author, Michael Kraus. He also notes, “Thinking about the self a lot, it becomes easier to ignore those around you.” Feelings are kind of 99 percenty, anyway.  

Or so says Heather Havrilesky in a super-brief piece in the New York Times Sunday Magazine.  But didn't at least two of the three people pitcured with the piece (above) give a big chunk of their cash to others? (I have no idea who the guy in the armless tee is, but he seems to be assocoated with the Heat, whoever they are.) I'm told the guy in the armless tee is Le Bron James, a basketball player with the Miami Heat basketball team. He apparently made $14.5 million last year and has a host of lucrative endorsement deals.  Like Facebook's Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey, he supports a host of philanthropic endeavors.  Maybe they're the exception that proves the rule?

Anyway, isn't the Times' "One Page Magazine" feature terrific? It reminds me of some front-of-the-book material in the old Harper's magazine before Lewis Lapham got his hands on it.

 

Comments

[Ellen]

We are definitely a family of affluence, and i can tell uou that i would agree, for the most part, with the assertion that the wealthy, even those who indulge in philanthropy, have a certain obliviousness re others' plight. They give with one hand and are staggeringly self-absorbed and self-indulgent with the other. Their children get whatever they want without ever Having to choose one coveted thing over another.

While my children are products of private schools, having a vacation home, etc. they most certainly do not get whatever they want, and the older child held (a teen) had her first "real" job last summer and the younger (pre-adolescent) collects and redeems bottles, weekly, without fail. Both kids are hardworking students and, generally, not spoiled brats, especially considering they are being raised in one of the highest income per capita enclaves in the country. And they have very developed practical skills, something that has been lost on te current generation.

[Dick Martin]

Ellen - Thanks for your comment. It adds a lot to the discussion -- being affluent doesn't have to be a sentence to a life of self-centeredness. Your family is proof. All the best to you and your family. Dick