Argumentum ad crumenam

It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Argumentum ad lazarum. (Discuss)

An argumentum ad crumenam argument, also known as an argument to the purse, is a logical fallacy of concluding that a statement is correct because the speaker is rich (or that a statement is incorrect because the speaker is poor).

The opposite is the argumentum ad lazarum.

Usage

If you’re so smart, why aren’t you rich?

This new law is a good idea. Most of the people against it are riff-raff who make less than $20,000 a year.

Bill Gates is the richest man in the world. Therefore, he must be the smartest man in the world.

From Tristram Shandy ^[1]: "Then, added my father, making use of the argument Ad Crumenam, - I will lay twenty guineas to a single crown-piece, (which will serve to give away to Obadiah when he gets back) that this same Stevinus was some engineer or other,- or has wrote something or other, either directly or indirectly, upon the science of fortification"

References

• Georgia State University
• Philosophical Society - logical fallacies