1%ers greedy, unethical, inhumane

[MARIS61]

By Eryn Brown | McClatchy-Tribune News Service

LOS ANGELES — The rich really are different from the rest of us, scientists have found - they are more likely to commit unethical acts because they are more motivated by greed.

People driving expensive cars were more likely than other motorists to cut off drivers and pedestrians at a four-way-stop intersection in the San Francisco Bay Area, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, observed. Those findings led to a series of experiments that revealed that people of higher socioeconomic status were also more likely to cheat to win a prize, take candy from children and say they would pocket extra change handed to them in error rather than give it back.

Because rich people have more financial resources, they're less dependent on social bonds for survival, the researchers reported Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. As a result, their self-interest reigns and they have fewer qualms about breaking the rules.

"There is a strong notion that when people don't have much, they're really looking out for themselves and they might act unethically," said Scott Wiltermuth, who researches social status at USC's Marshall School of Business and wasn't involved in the study. "But actually, it's the upper-class people that are less likely to see that people around them need help - and therefore act unethically."

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/27/140175/greed-drives-the-rich-to-bend.html#storylink=cpy

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

The 1% don't drive their own cars. :MARIS61:

Again, the false thinking of having an expensive car or material possessions means that you are wealthy. "Hey look, he has a BMW, he MUST be rich!. Look at the poor guy in that beat up old Honda....obviously poor." Its so bad its laughable.

Sounds like a biased/poorly designed study from the get-go. The real test would be to give the 99% a 400hp car and see if they are more likely to cut off people, etc.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

shocking that this would come from someone at Berkley trying to get a PhD in psychology.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Gotta admit, Maris, that was a pretty lame article.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

shockingly enough, it made the LA Times.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science...tEmailed+(L.A.+Times+-+Most+E-mailed+Stories)

 

[PapaG]

shocking that this would come from someone at Berkley trying to get a PhD in psychology.

It seems like more of a high school observational study, to be honest. I'm assuming that what is being reported isn't the same thing as what was being tested, because if so, no wonder the US is falling so far behind in education.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

This man will make a fine barista some day.

 

[PapaG]

This man will make a fine barista some day.

He'll probably stay in education, get tenure, and live off of a fat pension after being paid for years to pump out more bullshit 'experiments'.

I honestly thought the article was from The Onion. Actually, I'm going to email it to some friends and family and say it's from the Onion.

What's next? Honking horns at stragglers in crosswalks to measure stress levels?

 

[PapaG]

People driving expensive cars were more likely than other motorists to cut off drivers and pedestrians at a four-way-stop intersection in the San Francisco Bay Area, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, observed. Those findings led to a series of experiments that revealed that people of higher socioeconomic status were also more likely to cheat to win a prize, take candy from children and say they would pocket extra change handed to them in error rather than give it back.

Amazing. That was their sample?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

The best part is that for the "ethical tests", they asked Berkley students to self-asses their own socio-economic status and used that as their level of wealth in determining their moral compass.

To study the "1%" (as the title of this thread claims), they surveyed UC BERKLEY STUDENTS and CARS IN AN INTERSECTION.

So back in the laboratory, Piff and his colleagues conducted five more tests to measure unethical behavior - and to connect that behavior to underlying attitudes toward greed.

For example, the team used a standard questionnaire to get college students to assess their own socioeconomic status and asked how likely subjects were to behave unethically in eight different scenarios.

In one of the quandaries, students were asked to imagine that they bought coffee and a muffin with a $10 bill but were handed change for a $20. Would they keep the money?

In another hypothetical scenario, students realized their professor made a mistake in grading an exam and gave them an A instead of the B they deserved. Would they ask for a grade change?

The patterns from the road held true in the lab - those most willing to engage in unethical behavior were the ones with the highest social status.

One possible explanation was that wealthy people are simply more willing to acknowledge their selfish sides. But that wasn't the issue here. When test subjects of any status were asked to imagine themselves at a high social rank, they helped themselves to more candies from a jar they were told was meant for children in another lab.

Another experiment recruited people from Craigslist to play a "game of chance" that the researchers had rigged. People who reported higher social class were more likely to have favorable attitudes toward greed - and were more likely to cheat at the game.

"The patterns were just so consistent," Piff said. "It was very, very compelling."

Piff, who is writing a paper about attitudes toward the Occupy movement, said that his team had been accused of waging class warfare from time to time.


Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/02/...rich-to-bend.html#storylink=cpy#storylink=cpy

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Funny. I once did that exact study, and witnessed the same occurence. But those who drove the nice cars weren't necessarily the most wealthy. Some people who have nice cars are wealthy, and perhaps the author is correct in connecting the wealth to the lack of social regard/well-being/connection in how wealthy people react to others. But there are also people who drive expensive cars, and do not have money. I found those people actually have a overly-heightened social connection/dependency, but lack an appreciation for being budget-conscious, living within one's means, and financial stability, so the need to impress others socially (via expensive items that one truly cannot afford) outweighed anything else.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Well, my own study has shown that I get cut off by all types of cars and people. Shitty drivers come in all sizes, gender, social class (or social classless as the case may be) and drive all types of vehicles to include semi trucks and police cars.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Well, my own study has shown that I get cut off by all types of cars and people. Shitty drivers come in all sizes, gender, social class (or social classless as the case may be) and drive all types of vehicles to include semi trucks and police cars.

Glad you recognize you're own class(less). My study says you don't know how to drive, don't own a car, and you don't care about people nor money.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

My study says you (1) don't know how to drive, (2) don't own a car, and (3) you don't care about people nor money.

Let's see.....

(1) Debatable point... ask people who walk on sidewalks when I drive.

(2) I do! I have a 2005 Corolla and a 2011 Ranger (Does that make me one of the 1%?)

(3) Ohhhhhhhhh, cheap shot........ I am not surprised.

 

[BLAZINGGIANTS]

Let's see.....

(1) Debatable point... ask people who walk on sidewalks when I drive.

(2) I do! I have a 2005 Corolla and a 2011 Ranger (Does that make me one of the 1%?)

(3) Ohhhhhhhhh, cheap shot........ I am not surprised.

Sorry you didn't understand I was being satirical/sarcastic/attempting humor. This entire thread is garbage. Well, not so much the thread - the original study. I think we could all poke more holes in the "revelations" of the study than swiss cheese. So, like this thread, I wasn't taking my posts too seriously.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

Sorry you didn't understand I was being satirical/sarcastic/attempting humor. This entire thread is garbage. Well, not so much the thread - the original study. I think we could all poke more holes in the "revelations" of the study than swiss cheese. So, like this thread, I wasn't taking my posts too seriously.

Oh no, I thought your post was funny and thought it was meant to be such. So was mine.

 

[MARIS61]

And yet, no rebuttal from anyone.

Because we all know it's true, study or no study.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I am thinking that the 1% likely give significantly more to charity and ethical and humane organizations than the 99%.

 

[MARIS61]

Let's ask a 1%er we're all familiar with, and who's verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry familiar with Wall Street.

[video]http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/201...ial-fraud-public-service-announcement[/video]

 

[MARIS61]

I am thinking that the 1% likely give significantly more to charity and ethical and humane organizations than the 99%.

Your thinking is wrong.

Proportionally, it's like comparing mountains and molehills.

 

[PapaG]

And yet, no rebuttal from anyone.

Because we all know it's true, study or no study.

Well, that settles it, then. Why bother rebut the 'finding' from this joke of a study, if the study itself doesn't matter.

Great thread, Maris. How close is your brain to being completely pickled at this point? I've seen that bright red beak of yours, as well as those bright right cheeks.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

And yet, no rebuttal from anyone.

Because we all know it's an asinine made up study to support someone's POV.

Fixed.

 

[MARIS61]

If you didn't have insults you'd have nothing at all.

Here's an example for those in denial.

You rail at the cost of Medicare but here's why it costs so much:

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162...75m-medicare-fraud/?tag=cbsnewsMainColumnArea

DALLAS - The owner of a Texas medical service provider was among seven people indicted in a massive health care fraud scheme that allegedly bilked Medicare and Medicaid of nearly $375 million, authorities announced Tuesday.

The federal indictment accused Jacques Roy, a doctor who owned Medistat Group Associates in DeSoto, Texas, of leading a scheme that billed Medicare for home health services that were not medically necessary or were not done.

Also indicted were Roy's office manager as well as the owners of three home health agencies. A federal indictment unsealed Tuesday accuses the agencies of using Roy to rack up millions of dollars in false claims.

The indictment alleged that from January 2006 through November 2011, Roy or others certified 11,000 Medicare beneficiaries for more than 500 home health services — more patients than any other medical practice in the U.S.

Investigators for the U.S. Health and Human Services department noticed irregularities with Roy's practice about one year ago, officials said.

Roy had "recruiters" finding people to bill for home health services, said U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldana, the top federal prosecutor in Dallas. Some of those alleged patients, when approached by investigators, were found working on their cars and clearly not in need of home healthcare, she said.

Medicare patients qualify for home health care if they are confined to their homes and need care there, according to a federal indictment.

Saldana said Roy used the home health agencies as "his soldiers on the ground to go door to door to recruit Medicare beneficiaries."

"He was selling his signature," she said.

For example, authorities allege Charity Eleda, one of the home health agency owners charged in the scheme, visited a Dallas homeless shelter to recruit homeless beneficiaries staying at the facility, paying recruiters $50 for each person they found. A message was left Tuesday at Eleda's Dallas-based company, Charry Home Care Services, Inc.

Phone messages and emails left with Medistat, located just south of Dallas, were not immediately returned on Tuesday. Roy, 54, is charged with health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud. He and the other defendants have been taken into custody and were expected to appear Tuesday afternoon before a judge in Dallas federal court.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also announced the suspension of an additional 78 home health agencies associated with Roy. The agencies were collecting about $2.3 million a month, said Peter Budetti, CMS' deputy administrator for program integrity.

Health care fraud is estimated to cost the government at least $60 billion a year, mainly in losses to Medicare and Medicaid. Officials say the fraud involves everything from sophisticated marketing schemes by major pharmaceuticals encouraging doctors to prescribe drugs for unauthorized uses to selling motorized wheelchairs to people who don't need them.

"These are public programs, and we must protect them for future generations," Saldana said.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

poor people participate in medicare fraud as well (I've worked with medicare fraud investigators in the past). its not unique to the "1%". lots of the scams are run in heavily latino or armenian communities.

 

[MARIS61]

poor people participate in medicare fraud as well (I've worked with medicare fraud investigators in the past). its not unique to the "1%". lots of the scams are run in heavily latino or armenian communities.

I don't doubt some have, although I've never actually heard of a case and not sure how they'd profit from it.

Got an example?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Some get kickbacks. In many of the communities, its a two way street. They all know each other. Even in the case of the professionally run scams, the perpetrators started off poor, then got wealthy via fraud.

 

[MARIS61]

Some get kickbacks. In many of the communities, its a two way street. They all know each other. Even in the case of the professionally run scams, the perpetrators started off poor, then got wealthy via fraud.

I've yet to meet a poor (moneywise) doctor or a poor owner of a medical center or labratory.

And while they may include poor people as necessary to conduct their crime against taxpayers, the motivation for a rich person is greed while the motivation for the poor person may be to feed his starving children or something similarly selfless.

 

[PapaG]

I've yet to meet a poor (moneywise) doctor or a poor owner of a medical center or labratory.

Really? You should check out the Physician's Hospital in NE PDX that shut their doors a few years ago.

Also, didn't you make your money by bankrupting people on spec homes during the real estate bubble?

That makes you kind of a criminal, right?

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

I've yet to meet a poor (moneywise) doctor or a poor owner of a medical center or labratory.

And while they may include poor people as necessary to conduct their crime against taxpayers, the motivation for a rich person is greed while the motivation for the poor person may be to feed his starving children or something similarly selfless.

Yes. Doctors get paid well because they go through 12 years of schooling and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt after graduation so they can save lives. Sure, you're going to get a lot of psychopaths in the mix but whatever. The motivation for many of the poor/middle class is to buy more objects (since objects = wealth I suppose). My coworker was telling me the Section 8 family she is renting her condo to has a brand new BMW, while stiffing her for a few months rent.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

rich or poor, people will lie, cheat and steal for money. its not a pervasive problem of the 1% anymore than it is for the lower 1% of society. This study is preposterous and is an attempt at guilty liberal sycophants at creating class warfare.