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Context - two friends are travelling down a street packed with high end shops and buildings. One of the two friends talks about an acquaintance of theirs who's rich and brings up the fact that he's the president of several businesses in the area that they're travelling through.

He then says this line:

まったく、金ってのは金のある奴の所に集まるってのは本当だな

But I'm unsure how you would parse this. When I try it ends up sounding quite unnatural in English (e.g. "indeed, it's true money gathers where the wealthy guys are" - but this sounds odd to me isn't it obvious money would accumulate where rich people are? ), so perhaps 金って~の所に集まる is a Japanese expression because it seems like the speaker is quoting a saying?

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  • In English, a similar way the say the sentence will be: "Ugh! You know they say all the money goes to the rich's pocket? Thats so true."
    – ed9w2in6
    Aug 3, 2017 at 11:58

3 Answers 3

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Yes, 金は金のある所に集まる is a well-known irony. It means that wealthy people can easily gain more money and become even richer. This is not a fixed proverb worth memorizing word-by-word, but we hear similar expressions often.

  • お金はお金があるところに集まる
  • 金のあるところに金は集まってくる
  • お金持ちにはお金が集まる
  • 金持ちはより金持ちに、貧乏人はより貧乏になる
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まったく、金ってのは金のある奴の所に集まるってのは本当だな

When I try it ends up sounding quite unnatural in English (e.g. "indeed, it's true money gathers were the wealthy guys are" - but this sounds odd to me isn't it obvious money would accumulate where rich people are? ),

so perhaps 金って~の所に集まる is a Japanese expression because it seems like the speaker is quoting a saying?

You are parsing it correct; ってのは is equal to と言うのは expressing something that has been heard, but the word is just trying to say, in a concise manner, that more money goes to where there's already (maybe more than enough) money.

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  • 3
    there's an expression in english that corresponds to this, "money attracts money".
    – A.Ellett
    Aug 1, 2017 at 17:27
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まったく、『お金というものは、金のある奴の所に集まる』というのは本当ですね。
I think it's quite true that (what you call) money gathers to those who have money.

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