Among the Wealthiest One Percent, Many Variations

[choie]

By SHAILA DEWAN and ROBERT GEBELOFF
Published: January 14, 2012

KINGS POINT, N.Y. — Adam Katz is happy to talk to reporters when he is promoting his business, a charter flight company based on Long Island called Talon Air.

But when the subject was his position as one of America’s top earners, he balked. Seated at a desk fashioned from a jet fuel cell, wearing a button-down shirt with the company logo, he considered the public relations benefits and found them lacking: “It’s not very popular to be in the 1 percent these days, is it?”

more at link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/business/the-1-percent-paint-a-more-nuanced-portrait-of-the-rich.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp

Warning: hold on to your breakfast!
Wasn't there talk of Talon Air doing work for the CIA's rendition program?

[NYC_SKP]

1. Our society promotes wealth over ALL else, including honesty, integrity, fairness, etc.

Nothing in this article surprises me. And, sadly, none of it sickens me because I'm enured to it.

Ask any high-school student what matters in life and in their future.

Money. But it's a learned response. Ask a fourth or fifth grader the same question and you'll get a different, more humane answer.

Promotion of capitalism, consumerism, self-reward, etc., has become the singular reason for being of late, to the exclusion of all else.

The group with whom I work is fighting this, many people see the need to attack this phenomenon, but it's going to take a lot of effort and a long time.

...The top 1 percent of earners in a given year receives just under a fifth of the country’s pretax income, about double their share 30 years ago.

They pay just over a fourth of all federal taxes, according to the Tax Policy Center.

In 2007, they accounted for about 30 percent of philanthropic giving, according to Federal Reserve data.

They received 22 percent of their income from capital gains, compared with 2 percent for everybody else...

[hfojvt]

2. wait, is he in the top 1% by income or by wealth?

but it sounds like he might be in the top .1% rather than just the top 1%

[mainer]

3. Interesting look at who really makes up the 1%

1 percenters more likely to be married, more likely to be college graduates, self-employed, and more likely to work more than 50 hours per week. And almost all agree that the wealthy should bear more of the country's financial burden. They also don't own more cars than 99 percenters.

This is pretty much how "The Millionaire Next Door" was described.

[frazzled]

4. There's a hugely interesting map in the print version of the NYT today

Can't find it online (why do they do this?) It's called "The 1% Next Door"

Although a household must earn more than $380,000 to rank in the top 1% of all American households, to be in the top 1% in different cities and geographic areas of the country, the 1% is very different. So, if you live in Stamford, Conn., you have to earn a whopping $908,000 per year to be in the top 1% (that's the highest in the nation); In Clarksville, TN, a mere $201,000 will put you there. Cities like LA, Chicago, and Rochester, MN (lots of doctors with Mayo), it's in the $460K-$480K range. NYC's top 1% earns $609K.

It's very interesting.