Rich People

The only thing that defines a rich person is how much money that person has.

Keep in mind that wealth spans a spectrum. Rich doesn't have to mean millionaire or CEO-level income or indoor tennis courts in the house. It can just mean that someone lives a pretty comfortable life and doesn't lack anything materially speaking.

How rich someone is can be a matter of perspective. For example, in Harry Potter, Harry wasn't some sort of multi-millionaire, but compared to Ron, he was definitely rich. Most of you probably don't think you're rich and think of rich as being top 1% of income earners and Bill Gates. However, middle class wherever you live is probably rich compared to a lot of people in the world. In fact, I suggest you take a look at and play around with this.

Rich people are not by nature arrogant s. They span the personality spectrum. Some will lord their wealth over others, and some will be very generous. They may take their wealth for granted, but they aren't necessarily completely blind to or uncaring toward less fortunate people's situations. Some rich people are extravagant spenders, others are actually more frugal. Self-made wealth does not happen by spending all of your money; they have to save it up first. Also, people who appear rich may actually be poor because of debts, i.e. they're spending money they don't actually have.

Although I ordinarily would not say that my family is rich, realistically speaking, if you go by world percentile ranking, then yes, my family is plenty wealthy. However, we don't come off as stereotypically wealthy because we don't buy fancy things and value practicality, utility, and durability over monetary value and aesthetics.

Poor People

Again, there is a spectrum of poor people. Poor does not have to mean living on the streets without a penny to your name. It can mean having an apartment and a T.V. but no car or lacking other commodities. It can mean not being able to afford cram school or private university, or living in a house that needs repairs but isn't falling apart. It can mean that you don't remodel your kitchen when you're bored of the arrangement or color scheme.

People confuse being poor with being impoverished. Being poor simply means you don't have as much money as the average person. Being impoverished means you don't meet certain specific standards of living. It's more rigidly and precisely defined. However, being impoverished is also still something of a comparative measure because of the general standards of living within a country. The poverty line in the U.S. is much higher than that of most countries, and as a result, some of these people who are "in poverty" may own widescreen T.V.s or have Internet and cable and one cell phone per person in the household.

People who are poor aren't necessarily cheap. They may be frugal and be financially smart, or they may manage money badly and therefore either cause or aggravate their financial situation. Some will do anything to get money, including resorting to less morally acceptable means, and others will try to survive using traditional and honest methods. However, when push comes to shove, and survival is very much on the line in an immediate sense, then yes, people will do what it takes to feed themselves because morals aren't worth much when you're dead.

My advice is not to have your poor characters escape their situation through marriage to a rich person. That is not at all the only means of social mobility and honestly speaks very terribly about society. I think you'd have to be pretty cynical to think that's really how the way the social hierarchy functions. Marriage is the easy way out. You have to make them fight for that happiness in order for it to be worth more.