... as the fact that "rich" is more often the result of DE-structive behavior and enterprise and those who sincerely engage in CON-structive behavior and enterprise more often than not end up penniless as a result of their efforts
This is the answer here. It is not them, it is us.
I am going to write a post on this soon.
I shall look forward to that-- if anyone around here would be able to elegantly dissect that concept, it would be you.
I always end up back at "short term" vs "long term" thinking. Here in the US Pacific Northwest, the most poignant metaphor is the lumber industry and our forests. People try to protect old growth forests from being clear cut... because that old forest lumber is VERY valuable. And then the people who are in favor of harvesting "because... MONEY" come back a couple of years later and are all whingy because there's no forest to take their kids camping in...
And then, suddenly, it IS "them."
I don't know if I answered your question and it is less than elegant, but it is there ;)