Quite obviously, rich and poor people in America aren't the same sort of people, because money affords all sorts of advantages and opportunities that typically aren't available or readily available for those that do not have money or the ready means to such. However, being rich goes way beyond just the fact that rich people have more money, more power, and often live without having to deal meaningfully on any level with the type of worry that typically affects poor people such as food, shelter, education, safety, and so forth. What really separates the rich from the poor is that foundationally the rich have a different mindset than the poor which really affects their perceptions about everything.
For instance, most poor people are going to earn their money from laboring at such and such a company, in which they as employees, or "associates", do not often have any meaningful relationship with management so as to influence much of anything that they must do and deal with, on a daily basis. Additionally, poor people are often dependent upon the government for necessary resources dealing with public education, healthcare, rent subsidies or vouchers, and food, amongst other valuable things. On the other hand, a significant amount of rich people do not labor, or at least do not labor in any sort of traditional 9-5 job, but rather more often than not, make the lion's share of their income through either passive investments in regards to equities, or through the ownership, partial or not of a company, or through the ownership of property that thereby generates rental income for them, as well as often receiving some portion of their wealth, simply through inheritance. This so signifies, that those with lots of money aren't typically personally concerned about public education, governmental healthcare, rent subsidies, or food stamps, because none of these things are relevant to their life, as it is; because they are able to afford private education, along with all the other material things that they need to live a good life, as a matter of course, without worry or concern or needful governmental assistance.
So then, for instance, when it comes to policing and the criminal justice system, rich people are typically very pro law and order, because they are not the type of people that commit crimes; or at least not the type of people that commit the crimes that are a public nuisance or of danger to others. So then, in essence, rich people want social order, and desire that the disadvantaged just passively accept their lot, as it is. Additionally, taxation means an awful lot to rich people, for they, especially, do not desire to be taxed upon their wealth, for their powerbase, rests upon that wealth, which more or less, buys them influence and power. So then, when it comes to taxation, rich people, desire and need to see that those that labor are to be the ones that must be burdened and thereby must carry the largest tax load, of taxes so being extracted for the auspices of the Federal government, State government, Social Security and Medicare. In other words, rich people are all about getting a free ride upon those that do not have a multitude of money or power, and must thereby labor for the man in order to earn their living, so that the rich can continue to grow their wealth, relatively effortlessly and without any onerous taxation placed upon them. In short, rich people are different, because they don't need and thereby do not desire to pay into what a good civilization requires in order for it to sustain itself and to be vibrant, because this they already personally have.