Poor people understand the value of charity and community investment.

Rich people are inherently greedy and selfish.

Reminds me of the song by Choices - Less is More.

It's a universal phenomenon.

Makes sense. Nothing inspires me to give more than my experiences of hardship.

I may just go out on limb and suggest that the fall from hanging on and having a bed and a roof to being in the streets is a lot scarier in countries that have high contrast segments.

In richer countries, the moment the bills pile up, there's a crescendo of loosing everything and having no recourse.

In poorer countries family and community is a lot more important and the fear of falling out of society may be lesser.

My wife and I ended up in London. We have no kids and probably never will because we're at that age. It would take 3 months of one of us not having a job, for us to start really freaking out.

Her family is from Sri Lanka. They're not rich by any definition but the whole family looks out for each other.

3 months without a job there, with that kind of support, isn't something that will switch your life from an apartment to the streets.

While you’re right about those contrast segment, it’s not as black-and-white as you think. Nor are the places where you live.

I’m from New York. Like London, there are a lot of different, cultural and social sections to cities like that. The contrast segments in those cities overlap enough that three months can mean a lot for people living there depending on your income level, and people from a lot of different income levels can have a lot of different support options. If, say, they lose their job. And their options depend on community support, and whether or not rich people are greedy or whether they are forced support the city where they live by paying their taxes.

The poor people in those cities understand the value of supporting their communities. Usually, the rich people are only thinking of themselves.

If you live in London, you should understand those things. If your partner is from Sri Lanka, she should understand that too.

I think we just typed a lot to agree. In the end rich people don't make up most of the population of rich countries so your original statement bothered me a little.

I think there are a couple of points on which we might simply see things a little differently, but for the most part, we mostly agree

There’s nearly half a planet of cultural difference between us, so let’s just chalk it up to that, lol

Maybe rich and poor are a little too black and white. :)

Or comparing London to Sri Lanka? :P

Not that comparing London to New York was any better of an example of what I was talking about