@admitsWrongIfProven i think to the degree people are conscious that their wealth comes from some sort of predation — think the Sacklers, or the PE looters @pluralistic writes about, or doctors knowingly over-recommending procedures, etc — they hold their victims in contempt, as being a lesser kind of person who might succumb to these kinds of things, and therefore deserving of what they get.

@admitsWrongIfProven @pluralistic lots of people become very wealthy in more abstract ways. a hedge-fund mogul who buys and sells only financial securities, while he might know their's oil-and-gas or tobacco or whatever in his portfolio, mostly sees the money as coming from an opaque symbolic process. For this kind of rich person, sure, there's no need for contempt, disregard and cultivated ignorance are sufficient.