BiggerPockets

This is my first off-topic thread (I think) and I am starting it because I think it has a valuable lesson for newbie BP members who want to make it big.

As you guys know, I travel a lot internationally and, as a result, have to go through security-check and immigration at airports throughout the world. (I am writing this from the lounge at Houston after having just cleared security.) As you guys can imagine, the people who work at airports are not highly paid and are often government employees. As I typically travel by First or Business, I am often viewed by some of these people as a rich guy. (although I certainly don't feel that way)

One of the interesting things that I have noticed in my travels is the correlation between GDP growth and respect for the rich. I have noticed that the airport staff in countries with a high GDP growth rate are very respectful towards me. And the airport staff in countries with a low GDP growth rate tend to have a bit of an attitude.

Could that be a cultural factor that causes countries to decline? In countries where the poor look up to the rich and admire them and want their kids to become like them, it appears as if GDP growth is good. And in countries where the poor resent the rich and feel that the rich do not deserve their wealth or respect, growth seems to be poor.

Do you guys agree with me or do you think I am under the influence of the Chardonnay served by the cute girl at the bar? (She is quite pleasant and respectful!)

I certainly can't add any perspective, but my guess would be that GDP growth is highly correlated with social mobility and thus this is why you observe this.

BTW...You are a stone's throw from Austin. Why didn't you stop in and say hello?

Sorry, Bryan, I had just an hour's stop-over at Houston on my way to Doha. (I am writing this from Doha.)

Bill, I was referring to attitude towards the wealthy in general and not towards Americans. Most of these people have no clue that I am an American citizen and, thinking about it, most of the countries that I travel through generally have a favorable view of the U.S.

But you make a very good point about the age issue. I must admit that most of the attitude issues are from younger people. Older people generally seem to either have a good understanding of what it takes to succeed or, perhaps, they were raised in an era when it was not appropriate to show someone an attitude.

It seems to me that there are two ways in which poor people view the rich. On the one hand, we have the "resenters" who envy and resent the rich and feel that they got their wealth at the expense of the poor. These people probably support policies that are more focused on dividing the pie than on growing it.

And then there are the "aspirers" who look up to the rich and want to be like them or to have their kids be like them. I think these people are more focused on raising their standard of living than on dividing the pie.

A country's growth rate probably gets affected by the proportion of resenters to aspirers among its voters. The resenters may also be less likely to succeed as entrepreneurs because they focus so much on how much the other person is making.

I think the premise of the thread is a bit off from my perspective too. I don't really consider MANY of the rich people I know "winners." In fact I know a lot of rich people that are simply rich because they inherited wealth. They contribute very little to society and are spoiled to death.

The people I consider successful are the ones that made it on their own while adding tangible value to society. I know a ton of people I consider winners that are not classically defined as rich.

Agreed!

V, any American is wealthy compared to most everyone in some other countries.

Well, if you're wearing Hagar slacks and a polo shirt.....(and look at your shoes!) they know you're an American.

You can go to many countries where the average citizen does not make enoung all year to pay for what some of us wear in a day.

Do you think the people working at the airport make enoungh money to fly somewhere and take a vacation?

But when you get to Quatar, the attendant in the mens room probably makes more than the average American! Any looks you get there will probably be motivated by politics and religion rather than being based on your polo shirt.

I certainly don't have the array of experience you have internationally, but the people I talk to pretty much respect group 1 people above. The second group could be the best folks in the world and they are robbed of respect because it is assumed they were gifted wealth. I guess that is the price they pay for having it good! Group 3 people are common criminals and should be behind bars.

How many of the group 2 people do you think would give up their inherited wealth so that they can make it on their own and command respect? If we taxed everyone's inherited wealth at 100% and just let EVERYONE make it or their own merits how would that be unfair? Do you think group 2 people would be okay with that setup so that they could gain respect? Perhaps that setup would eliminate the disdain for wealthy people you find frequently.

That is fine and I understand the point. However, you were originally asking about the attitude toward the wealthy. My guess is that MANY people have a healthy disdain for folks that they ENVY because they inherited wealth. I don't share their disdain, but I can certainly appreciate where this argument comes from.

We have already had the death tax debate so you know where I stand on it. Any system set up to encourage a meritocracy, even if it is at the expense of discouraging wealth accumulation in the waning part of one's lifetime is a good thing in my opinion. I am an extremely competitive person and think that people should succeed or fail based on their efforts alone and not on the backs of their family.

In general I think the most successful people "make it" even if they start with a smaller set of initial conditions. People are bound by their abilities, but raw passion goes a long way in this world. Your story certainly demonstrates this.

I know a lot of people who inherited money.

Unless they are widows, or extremely elderly, they work hard at maintaining the family fortunes.

If they do not, if they just lounge around spending the wealth, they very soon have nothing. Multi-million dollar estates can be lost in a decade, never mind in a generation. I've seen it over and over. I know the people who have done it.

I also know families where the family wealth is centuries old. They put in long hours, and their children are hard-working and not spoiled brats.

The persons I know who squandered the family fortune were inevitably the children of new money. Sometimes those families make it, and sometimes they spoil their children to the point that they can not hang on to a fortune.

You don't have to take a family's wealth to make people prove their merit. If they have no merit, the fortune is going back into the general pot, anyway.

And Crikey, Bryan, I feel sorry for your widow, if you think she should be thrown out into the gutter with nothing as soon as you die.

[[[[......unclear what would happen if someone died with a 100% estate tax and their spouse was still living.....]]]]

Oh come off it, Bryon. How many times do couples die, both of them at exactly the same time? There will nearly always be a surviving spouse. There are sometimes handicapped children or elderly parents that survive and need to be cared for.

You are a very hard hearten person to be advocating that all their survivors be tossed into the gutter (the deceased probably even paid for his handicapped child's wheelchair, so the fed will take that too.)

And apparently, you believe that all the family pets should be shunted off to the pound and put to sleep, and no arrangements made for their care when their owner dies.

A good parent makes sure a child can make his own way. That is no reason to give all the acquired wealth to the government, so that they can hand it out for free to all the little welfare mamas who have done nothing of value but take drugs and watch the telly.

My heir is a hard-working businessman in his own right. That is NOT a good reason why Uncle Sam should get what I've worked for all my life instead of my child (or my church, or my best friend, or my favorite charity, or even my bleedin' dog, who happens to be a more worthy and honest being than our give-it-all-away president)

Perhaps…time will tell. I certainly don't expect my new baby daughter to get a free ride on the parent's express though. Clearly there are issues that would need to be worked out.

It is hard for me to believe that I will change my mind about people making their own way in the world without being gifted the keys to the kingdom. Regardless of my views…I think that the reason "winners" are not treated with the respect they think they deserve is that they are robbed of some of this respect by a system where financial success is not perfectly correlated with having made it on one's own.