[electromagnetic]

I'm sorry but your naivety abounds. I have family that have huge houses on acres of land, but make less than me (in my early 20's). Yet here to get that where I live, you literally have to be raking in the money.

The reason so many people have a problem with wanting to get rich is because it is invariably at the expense of all else. This is where the naivety truly is, because those who are rich are there because of all those 'vs money' options. I can't work my job if I'm not healthy, I can't get a promotion if I can't make friends, I wouldn't even have my job if it wasn't for my family, and I wouldn't be happy if it wasn't for all of the above.

You'll never get 'filthy rich' if you don't have people to help you. IIRC Google wouldn't even exist because the founders were friends with their professor, who encouraged them to stick with their method for the PageRank system. AFAIK their university studies appear to have both been paid for by their family.

The idea isn't necessarily offensive in a moral nature for me, it's offensive because it's wholly naive.

[istari]

Being smart about trying to get rich includes getting the right people to help you. Obviously.

Think about the richest person you personally know. Was it really "at the expense of all else"? Or did they structure their professional and social lives in such a way that they built upon each other over several decades?