Miser Minded

If you ask a waiter or waitress working near the Wall Street lunch crowd who tips better, the rainmakers or people who also wait tables for a living, you can guess that it’s not the money-mavens! California Berkeley psychologist Paul Piff was interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR) on April 5^th. His is additional research on the subject how people change their values, develop social calluses if you will, as they become wealthier. After all, why do mega-millionaires fight so damned hard for relief from paying taxes, even for a few percentage points, when they know that there are needs for education, research, infrastructure and social support systems for people who would otherwise fall between the cracks? Why do they fight environmental regulations that may cost business a bit more but save lives and improve our health?

So here’s Piff’s little experiment. A Monopoly game was set up for two players, and a flip of the coin secretly decided which of the duo would be “rich” one and which would not (yes, Mergatroid, the game was rigged!). The rich one effectively was awarded double the money of the other. The moneyed player was basically the beneficiary of ultimate randomness, that silly coin toss. But the rich guy got more mobility on the playing board, more perks and recognition if you will.

Piff on the attitude of that random “winner”: “The rich player started to move around the board louder - literally, smacking the board with their piece as he went around. And when the rich players talked about why they'd inevitably won in this rigged game of Monopoly, they talked about what they'd done to earn their success in the game. What we've been finding across dozens of studies across this country is that as a person's levels of wealth increase, their feelings of compassion and empathy go down and their ideology of self-interest increases.”

That swagger of success, that powerful belief in “I deserve it,” is part of that transition into a differing lifestyle that comes with money. So does becoming insulated from the rest of the world. Even a little more money makes a difference, but big bucks just amplify the result. Piff: “[Having more money means] that you could afford a bigger home where the people in your family would all occupy separate bedrooms. You'll have a bigger yard potentially or more space between your house and other people's homes. When you go to work, you may be less likely to take that bus or that carpool. In all sorts of different ways, wealth affords you space from others. You become less attuned to other people in your environment, less cooperative, less charitable, a whole slew of other things.”

People treat the wealthy differently. Think of that Rolls Royce pulling up to a restaurant when you arrive in a Chevy Cobalt or even a pick-up truck. On an airplane? Long tiring international flight? Stuck in coach? If they’re not in that private plane that just whizzed by 10,000 feet above your flight, think about those who didn’t have to upgrade or use miles to fly in first class, sleep in full beds, have caviar and champagne while you are wondering if someone actually cleaned the blanket you’re using since the last person slobbered in it. Trust me, first class ain’t thinking much about you.

How you were raised, your religious and ethnic background also factor into your willingness to be kind, humble and even charitable. But when you have money, earned or inherited, there is often a notion that you are above it all, that the quality of your life is just the way it should be, and the concern about those who have to suffer lesser lives, earn lower wages to support your wealth just doesn’t merit a lot of your conscious time. But then there is this tax shelter that could drop your marginal rate by 5 full percentage points! Got your attention, huh?

 I’m Peter Dekom, but push the mass of people too hard… and sometimes they get pushed to the breaking point.