Appeal to Wealth/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The dubious claim that a position or opinion is correct because it's supported by the rich and/or famous.

  • Straight: An opinion gains support among the middle and lower classes because they've heard that the nobles support that idea.
  • Exaggerated: Everything that the wealthy classes claim an opinion on is accepted as fact and adopted by the lower classes, from who to vote for to what breakfast cereal to eat.
  • Justified:
    • The wealthy have access to more resources and better education, so they have a better chance of being right -- or, at least, having enough influence to ensure that they can convince others that they're right.
    • People are trying to fool others into thinking they are rich by acting like them.
  • Inverted: Dagger holds that anything the wealthy say or do is automatically wrong.
  • Subverted: A concept is whole-heartedly adopted by the lower classes because the wealthy have adopted it, but they soon realize how wrong the wealthy are and rally against it.
  • Double Subverted:
    • But that was only short term thinking. If they had looked only a week ahead, they would have realized that they just had to get through the difficult part of adjusting.
    • The wealthy people tell them to stop goofing around, and they unthinkingly stop their rallying against the wealthy.
  • Parodied: A wealthy person suggests doing something so obviously ludicrous that his fellows immediately look out the window to see the poorer people doing it, just to amuse themselves.
  • Deconstructed: It soon appears that the rich are the only people taken seriously, so the poor aped them in hopes of getting some respect.
  • Reconstructed: The real problem is that the poor ape their superficial traits, such as clothing color; the poor who copy them in insisting their children study at school, buying high-quality articles that last forever, and saving soon find they are not poor.
  • Zig Zagged: The poorer people are selective about whether or not they unthinkingly believe or disbelieve the richer people, and their selections have no basis on anything other than apparent capriciousness.
  • Averted: A rich man's opinion isn't taken any more seriously than a poor one's.
  • Enforced: The writer's put the trope in the story because his rich investors told him to do so.
  • Lampshaded: A poor person said: "Why does everyone listen to the rich people? Huh? Because they have money? What? But that's just nonsensical, can't you see that?"
  • Invoked: Lord Myron uses this to his advantage by leading other nobles to support each other, arguing that they automatically know what's best for the country thanks to their Blue Blood.
  • Defied: While the appeal is made, everyone refuses to listen to it.
  • Discussed: Two characters note how Lord Myron's statements are always taken as facts, and suggest that this Trope is in action.
  • Conversed: A character says: "Don't you ever watch the movies? The rich guy is always held to be right, just because he's rich."
  • Plotted A Good Waste: ???
  • Played For Laughs: A McDonald's employee walks into a homeless shelter where he becomes their king.
  • Played For Drama: Serious harm is done when a wealthy person spreads false opinions and prejudices among the poorer people in this fashion, leading to them doing terrible things because they think the wealthy person is unquestionably right.
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