What 'Percent' Are You? The 99%, the 1%, the 53%, or the 47%

[apples and oranges]

Political positions were, for a time, a matter of color: Republican were red, Democrats were blue, and nonpartisans and centrists -- when they could be found -- might claim purple. But since the Great Recession, percentages, not pigments, are becoming America's great dividers. With conservatives and liberals alike defining themselves and others as the 99%, the 1%, the 53%, the 47%, and various other percentages, it's time to ask just what these numbers mean -- and where the average American family fits in.

When it comes to dividing up our class structure, the middle is a good place to start -- namely, the 60% of households wedged between the poorest 20% and the richest 20%. These families make between $20,001 and $100,065 a year, and were the group hardest hit by the recession: In 2008, their average income fell by 3.6%, the biggest single-year drop in history. At the same time, they were also devastated by rising unemployment, mass foreclosures, soaring tuitions and frozen wages. By comparison, households below the 20% line often qualify for social welfare programs, were far less likely to own real estate, and were less affected by massive layoffs. In other words, they had less to lose, and ended up losing less.

On the other end of the spectrum, many of those above the 80% line were shielded from the harsher effects of economic downturns. And over the last 30 years, the top 20% have done quite well: Their share of all wages paid in the U.S. has gone from 50% to 60%. Everyone else has lost ground.

http://www.dailyfinance.com/2011/11/18/what-percent-are-you-the-numbers-behind-the-tax-divide-debate/

[teddy51]

1. I've stated before on DU that there is no way in hell that as many Republicans

as Democrats fall into Middle Class/Poor class. Why aren't these Republicans screaming as loudly as Democrats and others about this? My guess is that they are afraid of ridicule by there own kind.

[The Genealogist]

4. They don't scream about it because AM radio has them brainwashed

I swear, some of them can't go to the toilet unless a screeching voice on the radio gives them permission. Sad.

[Major Nikon]

5. Because they are useful idiots

Many of them are single issue voters on subjects like gun control, abortion, neoconservativism, or anti-church/state separation. Many of them are greedy and they think the political left will raise their taxes. Many are bigots and believe that social safety nets only exist to benefit 'lazy' minorities, and that illegal aliens are stealing their jobs. They truly believe in supply side principles and that rich people are "job creators" even though such nonsense defies all sound economic theory and even plain old common sense.

[tsuki]

6. Because they cannot give up their lifelong manmade belief system and

are top ashamed. They are shunned by other Right Wingers as having not worked hard enough, or long enough. Former friends view them now as part of the problem with America, and they hide.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

2. Nein Nein Nein!

[saras]

3. I'm in the 0.0000000143356% - I'm the only one of me