Why do people resent successful individuals like Bill Gates?

[chound]

Why do people hate/dislike/oppose/etc. anything/anyone who has come from rags to be great, powerful and rich. Is it jealousy. Eg: USA(though I wouldn't like to call it great), Bill Gates (most computer geeks/companies hate him), J.K.Rowling(most authors hate her)

 

[Danger]

Why do people hate/dislike/oppose/etc. anything/anyone who has come from rags to be great, powerful and rich. Is it jealousy. Eg: USA(though I wouldn't like to call it great), Bill Gates (most computer geeks/companies hate him), J.K.Rowling(most authors hate her)

I don't know that it's 'hatred' in those particular cases as opposed to disapproval of their actions. Gates seems to have done a bit of shifty dealing in order to force competitors out of business. I have nothing against Rowling (I've never read her stuff), but have heard accusations of plagerism regarding the Harry Potter stories by someone who claims to have documented proof that (s)he created the character. There are a lot of cranks out there, so I have no idea if there's any validity to it or not.

 

[russ_watters]

Is it jealousy.

Yes.

(this message is too short)

 

[franznietzsche]

Why do people hate/dislike/oppose/etc. anything/anyone who has come from rags to be great, powerful and rich. Is it jealousy. Eg: USA(though I wouldn't like to call it great), Bill Gates (most computer geeks/companies hate him), J.K.Rowling(most authors hate her)

Its not jealousy.

In the case of Gates, he's a criminal, guilty of perjury(falsified video evidence and got caught, twice), fraud(repeated vaporware claims to damage competitors) and theft(IE). He also stole computer time from his university before dropping out (back in the days when such was very very expensive).

In the case of JK Rowling, popular as her books are they're quite shallow.

 

[Adrian Baker]

It is easy to criticize others, but hard to innovate and invent. Yes, its jealousy.

It is why the French dislike us Brits and you Americans so much...

 

[Pengwuino]

Maybe you guys should invade them... I think we're all getting tired of what the french have to say ;)

Someone back in high school made a good joke one day lol. He was all "Yes hmm, I do believe we should invade France, they are getting uppidy lately" and said it in such a funny way... It was from something in our academic decathalon material... or maybe it was a book in an english class... or something. It was some father talking about his son or something and he goes "He was rather uppidy today so i beat him". Jokes went on for weeks...

 

[BicycleTree]

Bill Gates wasn't rags to riches--he came from an upper middle class background.

 

[brewnog]

Of course it's jealousy.

All creatures have innate aspirations to survival. For humans, the question of survival is largely based on success. It's perfectly natural to feel envy towards someone who has made something of themselves.

 

[Rabid]

Anyone who is rich and famous will have people who hate them. I am not sure how much jealousy of their wealth and success is a factor. If it was that alone then anyone who hates Gates or Rowling would hate everyone else who is just as successful. (An exception may be others working in a similar field.) But for the rest of the population there are other things to consider.
I despise a number of CEO's, politicians and celeberties, all of whom are wealthy and have had a great deal of success. But I also have a great deal of respect and admiration for others of comparable status. Their wealth and success is not a factor in my decision to hate or like them as much as what they are famous for and how they earned their money.

 

[Huckleberry]

Why do people hate/dislike/oppose/etc. anything/anyone who has come from rags to be great, powerful and rich. Is it jealousy. Eg: USA(though I wouldn't like to call it great), Bill Gates (most computer geeks/companies hate him), J.K.Rowling(most authors hate her)

I don't think jealousy is the only motivation here. Believe it or not, not everyone wants to be rich and powerful. They might hate/dislike/oppose/distrust/etc. certain people who are rich and powerful, but it could be for any number of reasons. If you mean why do some people hate all people who are rich and powerful then I would be inclined to say that jealousy is what motivates them, but that doesn't necessarily work on an individual basis.

 

[Pengwuino]

I don't think jealousy is the only motivation here. Believe it or not, not everyone wants to be rich and powerful. They might hate/dislike/oppose/distrust/etc. certain people who are rich and powerful, but it could be for any number of reasons. If you mean why do some people hate all people who are rich and powerful then I would be inclined to say that jealousy is what motivates them, but that doesn't necessarily work on an individual basis.

Im an equal opportunity hater. I hate people no matter what their income :D

And if you think about it... a person could say they hate a certain # of CEO's... or politicians... but that % is probably the same percentage if you asked them what percentage of people you knew in high school did you hate or people you work with etc etc. The difference however is how we know them. Very few of us would hate CEO's because of how they act during dinner as very few of us probably hate people at say, church because of how much money they have. Its really, in what sense do we know the person that defines why we hate them in most cases. Since say, for CEO's, we only know them because of their salary, if you do hate them, you probably will hate them for their money. For a country... most countries are defined mainly by their possessions so the equivalent 'hatred' would be for jeolosy in a majority of cases.

 

[Rabid]

Since say, for CEO's, we only know them because of their salary, if you do hate them, you probably will hate them for their money.

Unless you are talking about people like Ken Lay or Bernie Ebbers.

 

[Huckleberry]

If a person hates a group of people they have no association with then the motive is personal, and very likely in this case to be jealousy. But keep in mind that rich and powerful people affect the lives of many others. The rich and powerful individual may give someone a reason, real or implied, to evoke an emotional response directed at them.

For example I do not hate the USA. I am a citizen of it. There are things I hate about the USA and I can understand why the world has a negative opinion of us right now. Whether it is true or not is not important. It only need be implied for people to find an outlet for their emotion.

I don't hate Bill Gates, but I'm certainly not happy with him. When I had to go out and buy a $200 OS to run this stupid computer I wasn't exactly thrilled. He pushes out the competition and I am one of many that pays the price for it. I don't like it.

I don't know J.K. Rowling so I don't hate her. I don't even know why people would dislike her. I don't know her reputation. The only reason that I could have to hate her is if I hated authors or women. I don't see anything wrong with either of those things so she doesn't upset me.

I've never met a person who was unbiased, but there is a difference between disliking someone that affects my life negatively and disliking someone, or some group, that does not to my knowledge affect me at all.

Just my opinion, but I try to let my reason guide my emotion, otherwise I act without understanding. Doesn't always work that way, but that just makes life more interesting.

 

[Pengwuino]

Unless you are talking about people like Ken Lay or Bernie Ebbers.

Well there's tens of thousands of "C*O" (financial, executive, etc) in the US so there's bound to be some exceptions.. as i said... its just a majority concept :) Good ol social science... "The majority of people have a certain opinion about something and that's all I can tell"

 

[Pengwuino]

I don't hate Bill Gates, but I'm certainly not happy with him. When I had to go out and buy a $200 OS to run this stupid computer I wasn't exactly thrilled. He pushes out the competition and I am one of many that pays the price for it. I don't like it.

Well always remember... are you sure its Bill Gates and not some behind the scenes executive accountant that pulls the shots :). And well... creating an operating system is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge task (not to mention on-demadn tech support, distribution, advertisements, etc) . And remember, thanks to capitalism, there's always an alternative :) Dont HAVE to pay $200... ;)

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

Well always remember... are you sure its Bill Gates and not some behind the scenes executive accountant that pulls the shots :). And well... creating an operating system is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge task (not to mention on-demadn tech support, distribution, advertisements, etc) . And remember, thanks to capitalism, there's always an alternative :) Dont HAVE to pay $200... ;)

Gates does nearly have a monopoly. There are other OSes out there but it is difficult to come by other programs that will work well with them since they are mostly geared toward people who use windows.

 

[Huckleberry]

Well always remember... are you sure its Bill Gates and not some behind the scenes executive accountant that pulls the shots :). And well... creating an operating system is a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge task (not to mention on-demadn tech support, distribution, advertisements, etc) . And remember, thanks to capitalism, there's always an alternative :) Dont HAVE to pay $200... ;)

I'm not positive it is Bill Gates. I don't like the philosophy of 'blame the little guy.' If Bill Gates owns the company then he is implicitly responsible for its actions. And unfortunately for me I'm very ignorant of computers and their software. I've never worked on anything other than windows so I bought windows. I don't know anything about the alternatives.

So you can see that my motive may not be completely rational here, but it is not inspired out of jealousy. I'm upset at Bill Gates because I pay a lot for software. I pay a lot for software perhaps because of my own ignorance. So one could argue that I am upset with my own ignorance and Bill Gates has no responsibility for my emotional state. Doesn't change the fact that he's got my money now. But this is not jealousy. My concern is for my expenses, not a desire to claim the rewards of Bill Gates efforts. If you spoke to another person they could give you a completely different reason. Usually you will see jealousy when a person, for no apparent reason, hates a group of people with something in common.

 

[Pengwuino]

Does Bill Gates still work at Microsoft as a CEO? I know he stepped down from something a few years ago...

As for windows being a monopoly... its not really a monopoly since i think only 60% of operating systems are Windows operating systems... not nearly enough for a monopoly. And I think we only have ourselves to blame for Microsofts dominant position and in a sense, it was somewhat natural selection for Microsoft to wind up the dominant operating system. Only recently have other operating systems become user friendly enough to be approachable by the general public. Programs designers naturally went for microsoft compatibility because the market was there as well.

Microsoft is also probably a prime example of good business. If i remember correctly, around when windows 98 came out, htere weren't any advertisements for linux or any other operating system. I think they just hit the advertising hard and grabbed up a growing and untapped market source while others chose not to put the effort (money) into it and they fell by the way side (or whatever that saying is lol). I think microsoft simply came in firing :D

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

I know that it isn't a real monopoly. I'm also pretty sure that the majority of those 40% that don't operate on windows are probably Macs. We pretty much have two companies deciding what the standard OS for home computers is and that is a virtual monopoly.
As far as I understand Linux and Unix were never supposed to be commercial products really. A computer needs and OS. To most people it doesn't seem right to take advantage of that to make money. It would be like having a patent on the wheel.