Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Difference between revisions

'''Kaiba''': Yeah, so?

'''Yugi''': That's against the rules, isn't it?

 

Let's face it: life sucks. Especially when you don't have much money to your name. This goes double in the world of fiction, where [[Rich Bitch|those that have money]] always try to find ways to make things miserable for those who don't. Such things as [[The Power of Love]] and [[The Power of Friendship]] generally have no effect on them. As long as they have money, [[Villain with Good Publicity|they can do anything]]... even [[Devil in Plain Sight|get away with murder.]] Or [[Buy Them Off]] for whatever evil deeds you did commit.

 

Compare [[Appeal to Wealth]], [[I Thought It Was Forbidden]], [[Conspicuous Consumption]], [[Undisclosed Funds]], [[Idle Rich]].

 

** Also in the same episode:

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': I'm going to hire some thugs to kidnap you now. I'm a billionaire, so nobody will even think of pressing charges.}}

{{quote|'''Siegfried''': There's one problem -- you need to give up 1,000 of your Life Points first, and you can't afford that now.

'''Kaiba''': There's nothing I can't afford. (plays ''[[The Magic Poker Equation|Emergency Provisions]]'') }}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "My affluence makes a nonsense of the regulations!"}}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "This was back when I didn't have any money, so I was unable to screw the rules."}}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "[[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]]... Wait, let me try that again."}}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "Looks like the rules *puts on shades* just got screwed"}}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "Screw the Yules, I have money."}}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "Screw the rules, I have green hair!"}}

{{quote|'''Kaiba''': "Actually, there are multiple ways in which it's perfectly legal to summon multiple monsters in one turn."}}

{{quote|'''Lector''': "It looks like the rules, just screwed you!"}}

{{quote|'''Yugi''':(after Pegasus bribes him to a tournament with his grandpa's soul) It's too bad rich megalomaniacs are immune from the law. Otherwise we could just call the police.}}

* Manjoume/ [[Dub Name Change|Chazz Princeton]] of ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh GX]]'' indulged in this trope prior to his [[Character Development]], as this conversation from this English dub shows:

'''Chazz:''' That may be, but I'm rich! And I'll spend whatever it takes to be the best out there!

'''Foster:''' Ha-ha, that's just your problem -- no amount of money can ''buy'' you that. [[Self-Made Man|You must earn it]]... if you can. }}

{{quote|'''Ojama Yellow:''' Take it easy boss, you'll pop a blood vessel!

'''Chazz:''' Who cares, I'll just buy a new one! }}

* Giovanni from ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' gets away with this, so much so that he can personally come down to the police station and bail out Team Rocket members.

* Shirogane Ryou and Aizawa Minto from ''[[Tokyo Mew Mew]]'' are both obscenely rich, and love nothing more than to tick off Ichigo by showing off their wealth. However, they aren't [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold|all that bad]].

** [[Big Bad|Suitengu]] actually lampshades this often in the series, as well as invoking the trope constantly. When he encounters the son of a debtor that he had just had murdered, Suitengu says "If you want my life, make money, then come and buy it."

* A recurrent theme in ''[[Ashita no Nadja]]'', where lots of rich people are portrayed this way.

* The Black Black Club from ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'' ''runs'' on this trope. It reaches a peak in [[Tournament Arc|The Dark Tournament's]] third round, which one guy turns into his own little Screw-the-rules fest.

** And then, ironically, when the other members of the club use ''their'' money to screw with the rules further, [[Even Evil Has Standards|he has them all killed]].

* ''[[Ai Kora]]'' has Ayame Yatsuhashi, who constantly does this, mostly in [[Stalker with a Crush|her efforts to get into Maeda's pants.]]

* This drives the plot for ''[[Liar Game]]''. The elaborate organization manages to get away with forcing billion dollar debts on people simply because it's so rich and powerful (though it also helps that none of the people bothered going to actual, ''real'' lawyers).

* In ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'', Sousuke is allowed to violate so many laws it's not even funny while attending school. He points loaded guns at people (and sometimes even shoots at them), places landmines and bombs everywhere, destroys people's private property without remorse, makes threats filled with killer intent... all of this is ignored by the head of the school. Why? Because Mithril makes HUGE donations to her for allowing Sousuke to attend school.

** Plus the president of the student council seems [[Strange Minds Think Alike|to have the same mindset as Sousuke]], and usually agrees with his crazy conclusions.

* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', you find out that Kinzo used a special scheme to buy up Rokkenjima against the laws of the Japanese government, and then bribed a bunch of people in order to keep it.

* ''[[Dance in the Vampire Bund]]'': Face it, there is no way short of paying off the national debt to get '''any''' first world country to allow (let alone build) a fully extraterritorial concession within sight of the capital, especially with a projected population of 100,000. Fortunately for the Vampire Queen, she has the money to do just that.

* Takeda Kanryu of ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' lives by this trope. [[Evil Cannot Comprehend Good|He doesn't understand Aoshi's point that Kenshin can't be bought - if Kenshin was motivated by gain, he'd have taken a high-paying army post after the war.]] This ultimately results in the quote at the bottom of this page - right before Kenshin breaks his jaw and turns him over to the police for dealing in opium.

* One popular [[Memetic Mutation]] from ''[[Code Geass]]'' as to how Schneizel breaks many rules of chess at once to 'win' a chess match: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpZelOhohRU see here]

* In ''[[Kekkaishi]]'', Yugami facilitates a jailbreak from an island by simply throwing a wad of cash into the face of anyone who objected. Rude but effective.

* In ''[[Spirited Away]]'', this is the "lesson" that No-Face learns from the bathhouse residents, where he gives them gold and he is able to have them do his bidding. Chihiro's parents had blind faith in their money ("Daddy's got credit cards and cash") gets them into trouble when they ''assume'' the price for eating the spirits' food is paper money or credit.

 

* Wilson "The Kingpin" Fisk from the [[Marvel Universe]], particularly the [[Ultimate Marvel]] version.

** Until it fails to work for him in Ultimate Marvel when {{spoiler|he's given a [[Destination Defenestration]] from his office at the top of a skyscraper. Although, knowing Marvel, it'll probably just be retconned.}}

* The corrupt politician/businessman version of [[Lex Luthor]] from [[The DCU]]. His entire MO is doing evil things for his own gain and getting away with it all without scratching his [[Villain with Good Publicity]] status by using loads of deeply entrenched influence to torpedo all evidence.

* ''[[Sin City]]'''s Yellow Bastard could get away with anything (especially [[Rape as Drama]]) because his father was a US Senator, and the patriarch of an excessively powerful and wealthy family that owns the bulk of Basin City.

{{quote|'''Nodwick:''' The answer [to the riddle] was "money", by the way.

'''Yeagar:''' Weren't you paying attention? The answer is '''always''' money! }}

* The ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' strip gives us Josiah Dogbolter, head of intergalactic corporation Intra-Venus Inc., who attempts to buy the TARDIS from the Doctor.

* Parodied in ''[[PS238]]''. The Revenant, a [[Captain Ersatz]] of [[Batman]], has not only one but several wealthy cover identities in order for him to integrate into civilian society. Most of said cover identities are on various state wanted lists for tax evasion charges, because The Revenant only pays taxes for one of them.

 

 

* The Biff Tannen of the alternate universe in ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]] Part II'' killed Marty McFly's father and then told him that they'd [[Devil in Plain Sight|never convict him of murder]] because he "owned the police."

*** Well, he only bought the police. He forgot to also buy the IRS.

** It's also strongly implied that the only way he keeps Lorraine from leaving him is by threatening to cut off financial support from her children which would land them all in jail.

* ''The Secret World of [[James Bond]] 007'', a companion book for the Bond film series, invokes this in the ''[[From Russia with Love]]'' entry. In that film, Bond carried a gadget briefcase whose contents included "two plastic straps carrying 25 gold sovereigns. Useful for unforeseen expenses... ''or for bribing one's way out of trouble.'' "

 

* Hans Ebert in David Wingrove's ''[[Chung Kuo]]'' relies on this trope to get away with being who he is.

** He later finds out the hard way that wealth and prestige don't help when you've screwed up [[Evil Overlord|the Dark Lord]]'s orders.

* Flashman in ''[[Tom Brown's Schooldays]]'', though eventually his behavior was too out of control for even his family connections to save him.

* The eponymous character of ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'' earns his fortune for the sole reason to get with Daisy. He even thinks that he could reverse five years just because. {{spoiler|But it's a subversion, given how epically Gatsby fails.}}

* Julia Evans, the young billionairess in the "Greg Mandell" sci-fi series by Peter F. Hamilton. Granted, she lives in a world virtually owned by multinationals, but even a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] she has a grudge against is shocked when she buys the controlling interest in a ''Swiss bank'' in order to expose his scheme to steal from her corporation.

* Flinx, of the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' series, is an [[Anti-Hero]] user of this trope, thanks to having some [[Sufficiently Advanced Aliens]] rig his bank account (as a favor). He mainly uses it to bribe his way around the Commonwealth, but loses some of that advantage after coming to the attention of the peaceforcers on Terra in ''Reunion''. It's also blatantly subverted in ''Flinx Transcendent'', where passing counterfeit AAnn currency on Blasusarr is what blows his cover.

* Subverted, inverted, ''and'' played straight in ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''. Inverted in that the strikers are punished ''because'' they make money; subverted when Hank's Rearden's money fails to protect him during his divorce trial; played straight when Rearden is allowed to buy resources and sell his products how he wishes, despite legally binding orders to the contrary.

* Used in one of the books in ''[[The Once and Future King]]'' series. Mordred argues with Arthur that their judicial system - two champions jousting, on behalf of the defendant and persecution - was unfair since it was more of a battle of muscles. Arthur pointed out that the law allowed for each party to hire whomever they liked to be their champion and pointed out that if they switched to using lawyers it would just be the same (each party could hire whichever lawyer they thought would best save their bacon). He finishes by pointing out that in the judicial system, whoever has the most money will most likely win.

* Lady Schrapnell, the [[Upper Class Twit]] funding projects for Oxford's time travel department in [[To Say Nothing of the Dog]], puts the staff through a lot of abuse, which they only put up with because they really need those funds. One of her mantras is "rules are meant to be broken", which the department heads keep fruitlessly trying to explain to her doesn't work for the laws of physics.

* Done in ''Night Train to Rigel'' by Timothy Zahn. The infiltrating alien enemy is convinced that its relocation to a new homeworld has gone undiscovered because there is only one interstellar Quadrail station in the {{spoiler|Yandro}} system and it has it continuously under surveillance. However, the protagonist works for Larry Hardin, the richest man on Earth, who simply paid a trillion dollars to build another Quadrail station on the other side of the system.

** To refine that pronoun, the ''protagonist'' paid the trillion... after blackmailing it out of Larry Hardin, who'd already fired him and didn't know where the money would be going. Said protagonist is back on Hardin's payroll as of the third book; Hardin hasn't noticed yet and nobody is looking forward to when he finds out.

'''Geralt:''' I'm not going to. (knocks him out with the pouch) }}

* ''[[The 39 Clues]]'' has oh-so-many examples, but the biggest would have to be [[Rich Bitch|Isabel Kabra]] and her kids (although they aren't HALF as bad as Isabel).

* ''Sisterhood'' series by [[Fern Michaels]]: The Vigilantes, especially Myra Rutledge and Countess Anne de Silva, need the money they have to accomplish their missions and with style. Prosecutor Jack Emery in ''Weekend Warriors'' did express hatred for how rich people think they're above the law, and brings that up in ''Free Fall''. He does have a point, considering how a number of bad guys have money at their side, and have used it to keep themselves protected.

* ''The Appeal'' by [[John Grisham]]: The main stockholder for a NYC chemical plant is looking to reverse a $41 million judgement. The head of a shadowy Florida firm tells him he can buy a seat on the bench of the state Supreme Court for a cool $8 million, only $1 million of which is actually recorded. Let the chess match begin.

 

* On ''[[News Radio]]'', Jimmy James is a likable guy in some respects but he frustrates Dave to no end because he can make up any rules and do anything he wants with his unlimited wallet. He secretly bought a newspaper and published a negative review in it just to motivate his staff; he plays around with the bonuses in one episode; he's motivated more by a sadistic sense of fun rather than bottom line profit in terms of whether to give Matthew his job back

* One of the first examples on TV was probably Thurston Howell, III on ''[[Gilligan's Island|Gilligans Island]]''. He kept trying to constantly bribe the rather gullible Gilligan into doing things for him. It doesn't work.

* Edward Vogler in Season 1 of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' starts running the hospital like an [[Evil Overlord]], making calls about things like a dying cancer patient getting a C-Section, purely because he can threaten to withdraw a 100 million dollar donation if everybody doesn't say "How high?" whenever he says "Jump!"

** {{spoiler|Eventually subverted when he begins attempting to pick off board members who stand up to him; the rest of the board finally says, effectively, "Screw your money, we're going home."}}

*** What makes it worse is that he was specifically told that dissolving his company would make hundreds of workers redundant...and he did it ''anyway'', which if anything would make karma even more pissed at him.

**** Actually, he gave everything up after House ''gave'' a diagnosis that said the man's son was incurable.

** Played straight when George Bluth finds bribes some prison guards to sneak him out of jail and fake his death; this is referred to as "a loophole in the Mexican judicial system".

* Subversion: Future show ''The Philanthropist'' stars a guy who has money and wants to give it away to good causes in very dangerous areas... ''[[Honor Before Reason|personally.]]'' "Screw the rules, I'm giving you money!"?

* Victor Kiriakis and Stefano DiMera (and their respective children) from ''[[Days of Our Lives]]''.

* Subverted with Jonas Hodges of season 7 of '' [[24|Twenty Four]]''. As the wealthy head of a government contract army, it is assumed he's doing what he's doing to ensure his company gets contracts. It's revealed that he actually feels he's providing a service and protecting the country. The money is actually the last thing on his mind.

* ''[[Castle]]'' gives us the rare heroic version in the person of Rick Castle himself. He's very rich, very famous, and shows absolutely no hesitation when it comes to using those things to help his cop friends get through roadblocks he finds annoying (for example, calling the Mayor to complain to get a forensic test moved up the priority list).

** [[Crowning Moment of Funny|Guess who has a date with a prostituuuute!]]

* This is George Hearst's MO on ''[[Deadwood]]''; he and Aunt Lou's son have an extended conversation about this very point.

* Subverted in ''[[Monk]]'' with Dale "The Whale" J. Biederbeck III. Although he does have control over various people's actions as well as being filthy rich, the primary reason why he gets away with any crime is because they think he couldn't possibly do it because, [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|as his nickname implies]], [[Fat Bastard|he is so fat that he can't even get out of his bed, never mind out of his door.]] Monk proves them wrong, and he is arrested via a crane.

** Daniel Post uses his wealth to corrupt cancer studies and buy human organs in order to try to cure his own lung cancer.

* ''[[Degrassi]]'' gives us Peter Stone, a [[Rich Bitch|rich bastard]] who films Drunk!Manny stripping and makes it into a meme, but still dates her best friend Emma. In the next season, Emma's ex-boyfriend Sean, who is the school's hero after saving them all from a shooting, comes back, and Peter plants drugs in his locker. Then Peter and Sean start racing, and Peter goes to jail. His mother was the principal.

* Averted on ''[[Bones]]'' with Jack Hodgins, who's the owner of a company that owns practically the whole Jeffersonian and a lot of other stuff, but he doesn't put himself above the rules. Also a [[Screw the Money, I Have Rules]].

* ''[[CSI]]'' has Catherine's dad, Sam Braun, who flirts with this trope a lot, rather typical for a casino magnate in TV-land. In one episode, he gets away with murder because he only ordered the murder and didn't actually do anything to convict himself. He's also not afraid to stick it to other casino guys from time to time, although not actually ordering any of them killed.

* The Graysons in ''Series/Revenge'' seem to live on this trope. Watching their every attempt to invoke this blow up in their faces is...satisfying.

 

* I got 50 Mil, I can do whatever I want. - Kevin Federline. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=[[O Nl]]-65Sj7JA&feature=related

* 'My father often told me that money would set me free / If I would murder that dear little girl whose name was Rose Connelly' - ''Down in the Willow Garden'', [[Murder Ballad]]

 

** One of [[Professional Wrestling]]'s oldest ones in the book: since (in most wrestling organizations) the champion retains through an indecisive finish, and a disqualification is defined as indecisive, many [[heel]]s [[Loophole Abuse|holding the belt will get themselves disqualified intentionally during a match in order to keep their status as champion]], thus leading to the variant: "Screw the rules, I have a title!" Fans often refer to this as a "Honky Tonk Finish", after the WWF wrestler The Honky Tonk Man, who built up a 15-month reign as Intercontinental Champion by doing this repeatedly.

* Tangentially related: In season 3 of ''[[Thumb Wrestling Federation|TWF]]'', Bucks Gazillion used these types of tactics to win the title and then took over the [[Heel|Sinistras]]. Season 4 has every match ending with Bucks playing some dirty trick to help the Sinistra defeat the [[Face|Dextera]].

 

** Subverted in the game: the rules have some unusual skills, where a skill represents any available means of getting things done. One skill the core book suggests is for a percentage chance a rich relative bails you out at opportune moments. Now, according to the rules, you can screw the rules, 'cause your uncle has money!

** And there's Axel Able. Fails to ascend to the Invisible Clergy, but screw that, he's going to control the Occult Underground because he has money.

* ''[[Blood Bowl]]'' is so inured with this trope that the referees' guild has guidelines for when and how one can accept a bribe for [[Easily-Distracted Referee|looking the other way]], as well as union-regulated standards for the going rate of a bribe. Clubs (with the exception of goblins) are not allowed to offer less than the going rate.

** According to the fluff, high elf teams, who are made up ''entirely'' of [[Fiction 500|moneyed high elf nobles]], frequently bribe opposing team players to play poorly.

 

* In the [[Crapsack World]] of the Weill/Brecht opera ''The Rise and Fall of the City Mahagonny'', Jimmy Mahoney is sentenced to death for the [[What Do You Mean It's Not Heinous?|most heinous and foul crime]] of not paying his bar tab. Too bad he didn't have any money (nobody was willing to lend him any, either). If he'd had enough to bribe the judge, he could have gotten away with murder in cold blood, like the man who was tried just before him.

* Used in ''[[Urinetown]]: The Musical''.

* ''[[Cyrano De Bergerac]]'': Used by Cyrano after he refuses to apologize to the Burgundy Theater's audience by the interruption of ''[[Show Within a Show|"The Clorise"]]'' because ''"The Clorise"'' [[Fan Dumb|was a bad play and all the assistants are wrong because they wanted to see it]], He pays Bellerose for all the entrance fees so they can give it back to the public.

 

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'', if you commit a crime, you can walk away a free man by just ''paying a fine''. You can just walk down the street, kill people, pay a fine and get away, then go murder another NPC, pay a fine and walk away, then take a nap on the street, pay the fine....

** In oblivion, you can also use the bribe option to bypass the disposition roulette minigame, since several people consider this a [[Scrappy Mechanic]], it's well worth any money grinding that may be required.

* It is possible to completely avoid the fight with Mephistopheles at the end of ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]: Hordes of the Underdark'' and get different endings by obtaining knowledge of his [[True Name]]. The one person who can tell it to you will give it up for the small fee of 600,000 gold pieces.

** It sounds big, but you can definitely scrounge up more than that over the course of the game without cheating.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' not only can you bribe monsters (including some bosses) into leaving you alone, but also into giving you items.

** And then there's the Aeon Yojimbo who you recruit by haggling an astronomic amount of money and the damage of whose attacks are based on how much money you pay him before each attack. He can even kill any enemy (even bosses) in one hit if you pay him enough (though the amount scales with how powerful the enemy is).

* ''[[Galactic Civilizations]] II''. Did you pick the Evil choice in every [[Karma Meter]] event, then researched the tech that unlocks the alignment bonuses and decided you like the Neutral or Good rewards better? Don't worry, just buy whatever alignment you want with the money you made from being so bad.

* ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery|ADOM]]''. The game's powerful divine beings accept all kinds of sacrifices, but by far the most efficient is cold, hard golden cash. Regardless of how often the player has changed alignments, worshiped other gods and regardless of the horrifying [[Chaotic Evil|evils]] (for lawful gods) or dreadful [[Lawful Good|goods]] (for chaotic gods) he has wrought, sacrifice enough money and you go from despised, hated and doomed by the gods to a blessed champion of his cause in one fell swoop. Gold can also be used to pump most of the in-game attributes, ad infinitum, and to violate the rules of time and space: Using a blessed girdle of greed in conjunction with talents that increase carrying capacity by a percentage, players can actually carry more weight the more gold they carry; the only limit being the integer range (a large enough pile of gold will convert into negatives). None of these facts would constitute a [[Game Breaker]], were it not for the fact that players can obtain huge amounts of money fairly easily by exploiting certain bugs and game features.

** Also subverted in ''Justice For All'' by Max Galactica. He tells Phoenix he's SURE he won't be convicted of murder, because he's rich and famous. When Phoenix points out that it doesn't work like that, Max panics. He's innocent, but you get him off the charge the proper way.

* ''[[Grand Theft Auto (series)|Grand Theft Auto]]'', any one of them. Blow away a boatload of innocent people and cops? Lose your guns and pay a fine. Only much of a problem if it's early in the game and you have little money or it's later in the game and you lose all your good guns.

{{quote|'''Scientist:''' ''"It can't be done! It's not a matter of resources-"''

'''Illusive Man:''' ''"It's '''always''' a matter of resources!"'' }}

{{quote|'''Cave Johnson''' : Now, the beancounters told me we literally could not afford to buy $7 worth of moon rocks, much less 70 million. Bought 'em anyway. Ground them up, mixed them into a gel.}}

* The [[Fable (video game series)|Fable]] trilogy has lot of this, especially II and III. Someone report you do the guards for...murder, public indecency, assault, theft, vandalism, setting people on fire, you simply pay them and they go away. Same thing if there's something in a house you want and its night. You buy the house, kick out the residents and take what you want.

* [[Dune II]]: House Ordos is a mercantile House that is only concerned with generating revenue to sustain the elite-class of their society. As a result, they rely heavily on hired mercenaries to do their fighting for them. But as long as they can safely get to the spice melange and harvest it for their own benefit, they absolutely do not care how many expendable pawns they have to buy off and send against their enemies.

 

* Parodied in [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1333#comic this] ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' strip.

* [[Non-Idle Rich]] girl [[Mulberry|Mulberry Sharona]] manages to pull off such schemes as messing with Presidential elections and staging a fight between Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons. She even once declared, "I fear no authority!"

 

* Benjamin Palmer of ''[[Broken Saints]]'' fame wouldn't be a [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]] if he didn't think himself above the law.

* The Scottish Empire in ''[[A Scotsman in Egypt]]'' simply bought off each new Pope, allowing their decidedly un-Catholic rampages against the other Christian powers to go completely unpunished, even going so far as to dump bags of gold on the new Pope's desk without even a Mea Culpa.

* [[Sonic Adventure Abridged]] gives us this:

'''Eggman''': Screw the rules! I have a big fat ass! }}

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

{{quote|'''Judge Snyder''': Mr. Burns, in light of your unbelievable contempt for human life, this court fines you $3 million.

'''Mr. Burns''': Smithers, my wallet's in my right front pocket. Oh, and I'll take that statue of justice too.

** In [[The Simpsons Movie|The Movie]], he even gets away with releasing attack dogs upon ''The Chief of Police''.

** [[Futurama|Mom]] fulfills his role in the year 3000.

* Princess Morbucks from ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]''. "I have the most powerful power there is! Cold, hard cash!"

** Remy Buxaplenty. The fact that [[Writer on Board|Butch Hartman]] was picked on by rich kids in high school has ''absolutely nothing'' to do with the character's horribly exaggerated portrayal, really. To be fair, he was given a [[Freudian Excuse]] when it was revealed that his parents constantly ignore him and he antagonizes Timmy because he's jealous of the fact that Timmy has both a set of loving parents (well, more loving than Remy's, at least) and Fairy Godparents. As the series went on Remy's actions seemed to have less to do with his family issues and more to do with Remy just acting like a douche for no reason.

** Timmy, meanwhile, may have an infinite amount of magical wishes at his fingertips, but he actually ''doesn't'' have infinite magical wealth at his fingertips, as shown in one episode where he wishes for a large sum of money so he can get tickets to a concert, only to find out that it's against the rules- the fairies [[Shown Their Work|did their research]], and don't want to cause too much inflation.

*** For example, he can't buy his way out of a prison sentence for receiving stolen property.

*** He did get the sentence shortened to a month. When he should have been in prison for years for orchestrating the entire theft. Again, [[Xanatos Gambit|all part of the plan.]] In this case to show himself a good citizen.

* The main characters of ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' have this in its ultimate incarnation: "Screw the rules, the world economy would fail without us!" One episode also featured a movie producer rich enough to push even Dethklok around.

** More like he was enough of a [[Jerkass]] to think he could get away with it. Par for the course, that doesn't end well for him.

'''Councilman''': Deal. He can go. }}

 

* Lobbying. Sure, the law says that bribery is corruption and is illegal, but [[Loophole Abuse|you need campaign donations]].

** Actually you'd be amazed how little money it takes to lobby your way to whatever you want (so long as nobody's lobbying from the other side.) Michael Moore managed to get a [[wikipedia:TV Nation|national holiday declared]] ("TV Nation Day") for a mere $5,000. Not exactly Fortune 500 money. Even when pull peddlers are dragging politicians in all different directions the price of getting what you want can be as little as a nice meal or "I'll tell all the union members to vote for you".

* Steve Jobs had a tendency to drive without a license plate and park (crookedly) in handicap spaces, [http://www.cultofmac.com/steve-jobs-still-parking-in-handicapped-spaces-the-pictures/2613 and get away with it]. Why didn't he just designate some spots as executive parking at the Apple lot if he hated walking that much?

** Well, why wouldn't he get away with it? Sure, giving himself a reserved space may have been a better idea, but it's his company, and therefore I imagine his building. He can park however and wherever he wants to.

* Peter Odili and James Ibori, two former Governors of oil-rich States in Nigeria (Rivers and Delta, respectively) went to court after leaving office and secured unconstitutional injunctions rendering them immune from prosecution for ANY crime committed during their tenures as governor. Including corruption. Forever.

* Played straight to the point of [[Refuge in Audacity]] in the 2007 financial meltdown, though notably subverted with Bernie Madoff.

* A recent experimental finding by UC Berkeley researchers revealed that people with higher socioeconomic standing were more likely to commit unethical acts such as cheating to win a prize, taking candy from children and saying they would pocket extra change handed to them in error rather than give it back. Because rich people have more financial resources, they're less dependent on social bonds for survival, resulting in heightened self-interest and greed over the needs of others. This was demonstrated in a driving experiment where owners of the priciest cars were 4 times more likely to enter the intersection when they didn't have the right of way. However the researchers carefully pointed out that anyone's ethical standards could slip if they suddenly won the lottery and joined the top 1%

* The recall algorithm in Fight Club is based somewhat on real business practices. Certainly some car features that can cause death or injury can be replaced by less dangerous, but more expensive parts. At some point the manufacturer has to make a risk/cost decision.

----

''"[[Rurouni Kenshin|Then why don't you ask money to save you?]]"''

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Luxury Tropes]]

[[Category:Money Tropes]]

[[Category:Morality Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth in Television]]