And rich people are just more intelligent, which makes them more able to play everyone else. (According to the article).

That sounds about the way it is in real life. 

One aspect that I didn't notice in the article is that tendency richer people seem to have to think that they 'deserve' to be waited upon, given extra advantages, use more than there share of the world's resources etc.  The richer folk I know really do seem to operate from a stance that 'they are God's gift to the world and therefore entitled to have God's gifts dropped in there laps'. 

One of the comments given in response to the article was that high-end cars handle so well that it's easy to manuever around clunkers in traffic!
Yes - maybe a sense of entitlement comes into play. The idea that wealth is a sign of societal virtue.

I tend to see this behaviour from people living beyond their means.  The article didn't really specify, but it would be interesting to see if this is true for net worth, or just the 'class' people were in.

Jeremy Clarkson has said that driving a Lexus is like sitting in a bucket of warm wallpaper paste.  Rich people who don't like driving will buy a Lexus.  As Top Gear logic goes, if you don't like something, you won't work at it.  If you don't work at it, you won't be very good at it.  Therefore, Lexus drivers are bad drivers.

Personally, I've always felt that the worst drivers were Pontiac drivers.  Pontiacs are mostly rebadged Chevys that are styled to look faster but real drivers know they are not faster than the comparable Chevy.  Only people who like "aggressive lines" are attracted to them, and people who like "aggressive lines" tend to be aggressive people.  Therefore, stay away from Pontiacs.

Truthfully, bad and aggressive drivers own all sorts of cars, come from all walks of life, both genders, all ethnicities, and from what I can tell, they're all from Vaughan, Ontario.  Expensive cars make an impression when they do something idiotic because they're expensive cars and if they don't make an impression wherever they go, they aren't doing their job.

But I live in the hills north of Toronto, where the odds of being run over by a Ferrari are better than anywhere else in Canada.  A Lexus here is not all that remarkable.  Certainly, I don't find Lexus drivers all that remarkable, inside or out of their cars.

But don't get me started on Pontiac drivers....

/I also know a guy with a Hummer and a vanity plate with his name on it, who drives exactly like you would expect him to.

I drive a Pontiac.

I think the most inconsiderate drivers drive VW Jettas.  They stink if you get stuck behind them.

It should comfort you to know that diesel is now more expensive than gasoline.

On a side note:  Anybody read Steinbecks' "The Grapes of Wrath"?

February 28, 2012 - The day I received my first bit of evidence that there is a God, and that he has a sense of humour.

Amen brother!!!

That diesel Jetta will go twice as far on a tank.  That smell is generally being emitted from the tailpipe of a car driven by a rather smart (if boring) motorist.

Well they should either put an elbow in the tailpipe so it does not go straight back, or better they should run the tailpipe out the front so the driver would know what he has been doing to the people behind him all these years.

Seriously?!?

What do you do when you follow a transport truck?  Call the police?

Diesel Jettas are less common on our roads than transports, produce probably 10% or less of the exhaust that a diesel transport or dump truck does, and are driven by people who wear sandals.

You sound like you were caught behind one after it started up on a cold day.  Diesels need to warm up a bit to run optimally, but the technology is improving rapidly, and new clean diesels hardly smell at all.

They're making more and more diesel Jettas, for good reasons.  Just like Christians, the number of Pontiacs is on the decline.

Many of our purchases arise from our personality.

When I buy jeans, let's say, I need them to cover my legs. My wife says "you bought jeans with zipper pockets?" Or, "you bought jeans with no stitching on the pockets?" My wife needs denim leg covering that is cost effective but also stylish.

Some folks need stretch fit or a certain leg cut. Some just need them to cost over $100.

One person will want good gas mileage and be ok without a sporty look and another needs the appearance as well.

Some want a car to say "I have arrived" and not because they are parking it.

Transport trucks have stacks that are not pointed directly at my grill. Most diesel pickups have a respectful bend in their pipes unless aftermarket modified.

Jettas may not bother other people as much as they bother me, but they have a distinct smell.  I don't pay much attention to car makes and models, but I smell that smell and my brain says Jetta, and I look and there it is. I also think migrain.

Are you aware that exhaust that flows through a pipe that exits toward the side of the vehicle will not, in fact, act as if it was shot out of a cannon and will instead mix with and begin to disperse into the air as soon as it comes into contact with it?

Hi chansen,

So very true.

I know when we returned to Ontario from NL and decided to ditch the Windstar we looked around.  And after all of that looking I said to my wife.  I'm not going to drive the Chevy Aveo, look at it!  It is an old person's car!  Then I pointed to the Pontiac Wave and said, "See, this is a car.  It screams power.  Those sharp lines and chiselled contours tell all other drivers on the road, 'get out of my way or I'll eat you for breakfast'."

Ultimately I let the Wave go for my Mazda 2.  It doesn't have the sharp lines and chiselled countours.  It also isn't a piece of crap like the Pontiac Wave and its uglier sister the Chevy Aveo

Grace and peace to you.

John

The Mazda2 is a terrific little car, by almost all reports.  Shares a platform with the Ford Fiesta, which is also well-liked.  Here's an unbiased review of the Ford:

http://bcove.me/cpwtz857

I don't know any rich people. Not of the 1% class. But I have read numerous stories that less well off people are more likely to donate to charity.

I also heard it's evangelical Christians that top out with charitable giving. I wonder if that's tithes though.

I have certainly known people of every economic level (except the 1%) and I truthfully find no real difference in hospitality etc. but I think anyone who's struggled at all is a bit less insulated about how the other half lives. 

Like most farmers, my wife and I have been land-rich but cash-poor for most of our lives. We had to skimp and make do and live frugally, with maximum self-sufficiency, during our years in farming. Recently we sold one chunk of land and retired to town, with our house in town paid for and a small pension and a small cash reserve for old age security. But we still own two parcels of land worth about a million. We would like to keep those and pass them on to our children and grandchildren.

Does that make us greedy? Or immoral or unethical? Or irresponsibly or filthily rich?

No indeed Arminius. It makes you wise. Frugal and simple living are commendable.

And you aren't 'living the life' of the rich.

There is a difference between frugal and stingy and I think you and your wife are frugal. My brother in law, who flies for West Jet and is doing quite well for himself is a stingy bastard, in so many ways.

A person can be frugal and generous at the same time. There is more than one way to be generous than just money and what it can buy.

It's not the money - it's the LOVE of it, an addiction and the idea that can be confused with genuine worth.
Arm - enjoy your guilt-free prosperity. While you were patiently working the soil, your property value went through the roof. I'll bet you still wear overalls and go barefoot, and do not roar around, annoying others in a Lexus.
What kind of car did you say you had? Porsche?
(just kidding)

I could probably afford a Lexus (or Acura, or Infiniti) using financing, but why waste the money? My little 04 Civic is affordable and reasonably easy on the as, gets me from point A to point B in reasonable time and comfort, it hasn't needed any maintenance outside of the schedule, and with winter tires it handles our winters as well as anything I've driven (well, my wife's CR-V is a bit better since it has traction control and AWD, but I dislike it for other reasons).

On the issue in question, I've seen some pretty jackass driving from people in Civics and Jettas (the last major near accident I witnessed was a Matrix making a left turn at speed on a slippery road) so it certainly isn't restricted to those in fancy cars. Might it be more common among them? I don't have statistics to back it up so I can't say.

Mendalla

Upon reflection, it's mostly the kid in the big ass pickup truck that is the most annoying.

Yes, ninjafaery, it seems that land prices increased ten-fold in as many years.

I still wear overalls (even to church) but I don't go barefoot any more. You know, they have these signs in town "no shirt, no shoes: no service." They regard bare feet as an obscenity, while nearly bare buttocks or breasts are not.

They don't seem to know that going barefoot keeps one calm. Maybe that's why they are so uptight?

I've been driving decades old Volvos for most of my life. My present one is the newest I ever owned: only 21 years old, which is almost brand new for me.

Yes, I have, and I can relate to it. Like most monkey wrenching farmers who keep old trucks, cars and equipment going as long as possible at the lowest possible cost, I can relate to the part where Steinbeck writes that the monkey wrenching Okies were careful not to bruise their knuckles, but it inevitably happened, and once it happened they didn't care any more.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/tech/car-with-most-mileage.html

It's a real art keeping a car on the road. Note to Arminius - those Volvos seem to last forever .
It's not as good to walk barefoot on pavement anyway. The earth underfoot is life-giving.

Hi chansen,

All true.

That is comes in Spirit Green is the clinching factor for this customer.

Grace and peace to you.

John.

Try this:

http://www.ted.com/talks/paul_gilding_the_earth_is_full.html

I think this article is a little better for not drawing conclusions that may not be true:

http://money.ca.msn.com/savings-debt/liz-pulliam-weston/why-are-rich-people-such-jerks

I haven't read all of the comments on this post but in regards to the first comment, I work as a lawyer thus I am in close contact with the very rich and the very poor on a daily basis.  In my experience I could not say that poorer people are particularly more compassionate or giving than rich people.  Often it is the poor people who are out to rip off the system or their family in order to get what ever they can.  That is probably because they feel that they have to in order to meet their day to day needs.  Especially at a certain point where that person no longer feels that they could enter back into the work force no matter how skilled they are.  Depression and despair is like that.  I have found that individuals who have a little more money - or those with a lot more money - and thus, are not attempting to meet their day to day needs - are more likely to look outwards from their own selves or their own families to the plight of others.  To give at their local churches or food banks, women shelters or men's resource centers.  If you look at the food banks - they are mostly run by middle to higher income people as is the case of the other charitable institutions.  If not middle income at least not the very poor.  I think that we often like to think in our society that money is evil and those who have it are tainted  and quote Jesus in saying  "it is easier for a camel to get through an eye of a needle than a rich man to get into heaven".  But the reality that I see is that those who are struggling day to day through lack of money have little time or empathy left over to care for their fellow men and women.