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Another way to think of it is that they are paying the poor so say they can stay rich. Paying them so that they will be happy with there own little lives and content with there meager wealth so the competition to become rich is much much less, and therefore the rich can stay rich.
The rich have much much more to loose if a society should collapse than poor people do, with standards of living being grossly different between the groups.
I like to think of it as paying the MOB to not tear down your society. But, in essence you are correct. I don't think the rich have the most to gain from keeping the masses poor. If everyone worked hard, and played fair, we would all be richer materially. The rich live in weird sort of hell of their own creating. So, it all balances out.