Giving Compass' Take:

• In this opinion piece for Entrepreneur, the author argues that while there are plenty of recent, prominent examples of corrupt wealthy individuals, being rich isn't inherently bad — in fact, it can make you better at doing business and helping people.

• We know that for every Paul Manafort there is also someone like Bill Gates. But we must always be careful to know the power that money can have, and never take it for granted.

• Are wealthy philanthropists impeding true change? This book explores the issue.

Wealthy people are dishonest. Wealthy people are corrupt. Wealthy people are selfish. Is that really true? Recent events seem to point to this. In the wake of the Paul Manafort trial and other documented misbehaviors newly uncovered by members of our political and business elite, some people are asking whether or not the wealthy can be trusted.

"There’s something about wealth and privilege that makes you feel like you’re above the law that allows you to treat others like they don’t exist,” Dacher Keltner, a psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley Keltner told the Washington Post. “To researchers who study wealth and power, it’s dismaying but not surprising, because it tracks so closely with our findings. The effect of power is sadly one of the most reliable laws of human behavior.”

Good Lord! So does this mean that being rich is bad? Should we avoid trying to increase our wealth for fear that we will also become jerks? Will added prosperity ultimately reveal our inner “jerkiness” to the world? Of course not ...

Having a lot of cash in the bank can certainly cause some people to make stupid, jerky decisions. But I believe these people are anomalies.  For most, wealth and prosperity simply serves to make people better at business.

Read the full article about avoiding being a rich jerk by Gene Marks at Entrepreneur.