Is the 1% Really the Problem?

[LiberalArkie]

“We are the 99 percent” is a great slogan, but is it distracting our attention from a sinister reality? There’s strong evidence that it’s not the 1 percent you should worry about—it’s the 0.1 percent. That decimal point makes a big difference.

Over the last decade, a gigantic share of America’s income and wealth gains has flowed to this group, the wealthiest one out of 1,000 households. These are the wildly exotic and rapidly growing plants in our economic hothouse. Their habits and approaches to life are far divorced from the rest of us, and if we let them, they will soon cut off all our air and light.

Snip

Some lower-uppers are beginning to realize that their natural allies are not those above them on the economic ladder. They are getting the sense that the 0.1 percent is its own hyper-elite club, and lower-uppers are not invited to the party. The 0.1 percent has pulled away because at the tippy top, income has grown much faster than it has for the rest of the affluent.Unlike the lower-uppers, the super-rich folks are armed with every tax dodge in universe: they aren’t expected to pay nearly their share to Uncle Sam. Their income comes largely from capital gains, which are taxed at a far lower rate than income earned from working. As their money piles up higher and higher, their conspicuous consumption knows no bounds—they are building palatial homes and massive art collections and even gold-plated bunkers to protect themselves in case of an uprising. Many don’t really ever put down roots in communities; they roam from New York to London to Dubai to the Cayman Islands, following the favorability of weather and tax codes.

All told, the 0.1 percent now owns about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent of America combined. And that’s just the official numbers. Plenty of their wealth is parked overseas and in places where it’s hard to get an accurate count of what they’ve accumulated. To get into the club, which comprises around 115,000 households, you need to start with a nest egg of $20 million—and that’s at the very bottom of the super-rich group. George W. Bush just barely makes the cut. He’s very rich, but not among the highest fliers in today’s second Gilded Age.

Snip

http://www.alternet.org/economy/1-really-problem

[Taitertots]

1. It's really the 0.001%ers that are the problem

The tiny cabal of ultra rich people whose wealth controls the world.

Give me ten billion dollars and the governments of the world will bend to my wishes. Not for fear that I would hurt them, but out of fear that I might not help them.

[Hortensis]

4. Exactly. The 0.001% live in a very different world from us

and have almost no connection with us. Basically the same for the 0.01% also.

Their movements around the globe seldom require them to use the same roads or air terminals we do, or eat or shop where they might have to see us. Even when our destinations almost intersect, separate entries are devoted to them only, and their chauffeurs park outside them while we walk to other doors from distant parking spaces. They live in a different America, one in which they are almost infallibly above our law and they never need to see ugly, poorly designed and maintained, or economically depressed boulevards.

We can change all that any time we want, however. We've done it before.

Btw, I really recommend all of Jane Mayer's articles and books on this subject, especially including her latest, "Dark Money, The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right."

They're real, their secret plots against us are extremely real, their decades-old secret organization and takeover of right-wing -- and influence on our -- thinking are a dangerous, grim reality, and their progress toward achieving their goals while we weren't aware is frightening. For the past 30+ years over half our voters were cluelessly fighting for them. This year...who knows? We'll find out in November.

Read this book, and for those for whom it is not new it will completely change their understanding of what is happening in this election. And the enormous stakes for every one of us.

"The only legitimate roles of government are protection of person and property." Charles Koch

[Autumn]

2. The democrats and republicans have convinced me the 1% isn't the problem.

It's us little leeches who want free stuff. Stuff like healthcare that citizens in other civilizes countries have, education without being burdened by loans until you die, an end to permanent wars, etc. Silly stuff like that.

[Avalux]

3. All of us have contributed to the problem. We are the majority and we've let this happen.

I think every American is culpable for whatever the reason; we've allowed them to divide us and train us to believe that they have our best interest at heart, while they steal from us and tell us we're idiots.

When are we going to stand up in unity and say "enough is enough"?

[bigwillq]

5. The 1 percent is a problem. So is the government.

The government continues to protect the 1 percent.
At least most in the government do, including 4 of the 5 major presidential candidates.

[maxrandb]

6. The bigger problem

is the Truck Driver making $72K a year that supports policies the exclusively benefit that 0.1%, because they think that "once they make their billions, they want low taxes too"

[Initech]

7. This. The bigger problem is poor education and misinformation.

[lagomorph777]

8. Innumeracy

the inability to grasp the meaning of numbers. Numbers such as the probability of a truck driver needing to worry about how much tax he'll pay when he strikes it rich.

[Initech]

9. Bill Maher had a rant a while back...

About how America wasn't the "haves and have nots", it was the "haves and soon to haves". I should go find that because that would be perfect for this thread.