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Where Does The Real Problem Reside? The 0.01% Vs. The 1%
Submitted by Michael Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,
While I always supported the overall message and energy that encompassed the Occupy Wall Street movement, I never backed the slogan of the 1% vs. the 99%. From my own personal experience, it is entirely clear that the actual problem is a far smaller group within the 1%, the 0.1% or the 0.01% (although I recognize “We Are the 99.9%” isn’t catchy).
This is why you’ll never hear me demonize “the 1%”, rather I always try to use the term oligarch, which refers a small handful of people who benefit most disproportionately from Federal Reserve handouts, D.C. corruption, tax code loopholes and the destructive trend of financialization generally.
This is is also why I became so disgusted by Sam Zell’s ignorant and destructive comments on Bloomberg television earlier this year that decided to pen an open letter to him.
Thanks to The Atlantic, we now have two charts that show what I have been writing about for many years now. It is not the 1% that is the problem, it’s actually a much smaller slice within that group that is thieving and pillaging at will from the rest of American society.
From The Atlantic:
I’ve written, over and over, that the most important divide in our wealth disparity was between the 1 percent and the 99 percent. For example, when I compared the evolution in investment income since the late 1970s, I often imagined a graph like this from the Economic Policy Institute, showing the 1 percent flying away from the rest of the country.
It turns out that that graph is somewhat misleading. It makes it look like the 1 percent is a group of similar households accelerating from the rest of the economy, holding hands, in unison. Nothing could be further from the truth.
A few weeks ago, I shared this graph (from the World Top Incomes Database) showing how the top 0.01 percent—that’s the one percent of the 1 percent—was leaving the rest of the top percentile behind.
It’s even more egregious than that. An amazing chart from economist Amir Sufi, based on the work of Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman, shows that when you look inside the 1 percent, you see clearly that most of them aren’t growing their share of wealth at all. In fact, the gain in wealth share is all about the top 0.1 percent of the country. While nine-tenths of the top percentile hasn’t seen much change at all since 1960, the 0.01 percent has essentially quadrupled its share of the country’s wealth in half a century.
It turns out that wealth inequality isn’t about the 1 percent v. the 99 percent at all. It’s about the 0.1 percent v. the 99.9 percent (or, really, the 0.01 percent vs. the 99.99 percent, if you like). Long-story-short is that this group, comprised mostly of bankers and CEOs, is riding the stock market to pick up extraordinary investment income. And it’s this investment income, rather than ordinary earned income, that’s creating this extraordinary wealth gap.
The mainstream is finally starting to figure it out. From crony capitalistic corporate welfare (even the New York Times covered oligarch welfare last week) to the 0.01% problem. Now if the nine tenths of the 1% would stop complacently continue to tread water and challenge the oligarchs we might actually be able to change things.
Full article here.
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One guillotine should suffice then.
The REAL PROBLEM reside in DC.
The problem is DC working WITH the oligarchs. Forming a circle of never ending screwing over everyone else with no lube or reach around either...
...The REAL PROBLEM resides in DC.
2 million outta 300? Make it a "1.5%" ;-)
Looney
I completely agree with the thesis of the article. I've been saying this in ZH and getting downarrowed for a very long time. The wealth numbers don't lie, if anything they underestimate the problem due to the top 0.001% hiding their wealth and its pornographic increase from public escrutiny. The number represent only the tip of the inequality iceberg.
GA, downarrow me, but please let me understand...
so the oligarch participating and "country" brought in line is not the target of the .001%...hummmmmm.
All government is Oligarchy.
Socialism eliminates competition and protect the oligarchs...same thing as crony capitalism...Obama, Reid and Pelosi are the leaders of this shit show...
Indeed! As surely as there is never one cockroach, even the most brutal dictator does not act alone. Bush, The 0'Bamabot are just increasing degrees of dictatorship. Even Stalin, Lenin, Pol Pot, Tito, Pinochet...they had benefactors.
Edit: The primary purpose of ALL government is to eliminate competition. Period. Why else would it need all the guns?
Our DC pols are just whores to the .01%.
+1.
Whores who take it up the ass and like it.
The problem is the oligarchs owning DC. DC does not work with them...it works FOR them.
A limited government has no use for oligarchs. It is government with the most power that uses oligarchs. Cut off gogovernment power and the oligarchs will whither away.
Ultimately, the government power is what .ust be limited for the sake of the people.
ATM A limited government has no use for oligarchs. It is government with the most power that uses oligarchs. Cut off gogovernment power and the oligarchs will whither away.
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How would you explain city states? In city states, you still had a few rich and powerful that ran or influenced the city to their favor.
In the most basic term of oligarch, the head of tribe in the Amazon would fit relatively since they run things.
For example, there will always be oligarchs or the elite, even if you reduce government to nothing because someone will take charge and the general public will look to and put their trust in someone for leadership. That person will take that power and profit from it.
I think I agree with you if you are saying government should be reduced to limit oligarch power. However, I disagree with you in saying that removing government would make oligarchs whither away. Instead, the oligarch becomes the government as I described in the example above.
The real problem is the lemmings who continue to vote for those that reside in DC.
The guillotine is too efficient. I would think that burning at the stake would garner more attention. It might allow the MSN to gain a story that would increase their ratings.
The guillotine is perfect. No need for drama. Heads of the MSM roll too.
Time Police, it's quicker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaphism
looks like the 1% are next on the chopping block.
The 1% will defend the .01% because they aspire to join them.
The middle class defend the 1% in kind.
The love of money greases the wheels.
I have FAR more in common with - and am far closer in earnings to the absolute bottom than I am to the top 0.1%.
If you've had enough exposure to the 0.1% you develop a healthy contempt for most of those at that level. They treat their minions pretty badly - whatever level they are at.
More than a few would gladly join in the mobs as an excuse to 'get even'.
True. Which is why we hear next to nothing about the .1%
So true. I once moved in that circle a bit, mostly as a photojournalist in SoCal. Your local council members and mayors, state legislators, etc., are crude wanna-bees comparatively; the 0.01% are vipers that put on the facade but even their smiles are a threat gesture, if you know how to look.
How long till the go after the top 5%? The top 10%?
Not long.
This class warfare hatred of the 1% (or any percentage of that percent) is disgusting.
There is NO virtue in being in the bottom percentile, or the middle, or the top. None whatsoever.
Most of the class warfare comes from disingenuous white liberals who live in gated communities and have absolutely NO plans of lowering their % (whatever it may be) any time soon. It gets lapped up by the liberals and so-called libertarians who thrive on emotion and greed and hatred.
We have been for some time.
Remember the 0.01% don't earn their money for the most part, but steal it in a variety of ways -- inflation via first access to money (they own the banks, so the fractional reserve money creation favors them in a big way), preferential tax treatment (as a 1%er with actual earnings instead of capital gains, I pay >40% of my income, rather than the 15% or less someone like Mitt Romney pays), regulation (which cuts down on competition and disproportionately affects small businesses that are the majority of the 1%'s income), etc.
Lastly, we're one of the few groups left that have savings. That's fresh meat begging to be stolen by the 0.01% and/or government.
Since the 90%+ have already been sucked dry, the 1% is all the ultra-rich vampires have left to prey on, and they are.
But the .01% is not nearly enough people to hate. When the shit hits the fan, anyone with anything will become a target, even the stackers and horders.
Which is why I started downgrading vehicles and don't maintain my property (externally) very well, and haven't upgraded my lifestyle.
Scares women off unfortunately, but anyone looking at my primary home would think I was blue collar and has no idea of what my net worth really is. Can't get the target profile to zero but you can hope the hordes prioritize.
I am honestly shocked that you are a 1%-er, own a business, pay that much in taxes, and STILL find the audacity to accuse a small percentile above yours of STEALING their money. You should know better.
JFC, if the 1% engages in class warfare, then there truly is no hope.
About a third of my clients are banks, the names of which grace ZH's pages daily. I have a number of rejected clients in the industry as well.
I have zero doubt a significant portion of the .01% got their money by stealing or illegal means. They may have started with legitmate savings, but after someone asks for inside information for the fourth time, you put two and two together. The same with HFT. Are there legit 0.01%ers? Yes, but in my experience they're in the minority.
Look at income statistics and then sort them by occupation, and you'll see a very distinct trend emerge, and I'd argue that trend correlates strongly with being aligned with TBTF financial interests.
NEWSFLASH - the '1%' (up to but NOT including the top 0.1%) are very much ON the chopping block NOW. They've been there for the last 40 years. It's alot harder getting here now than it was 50 years ago. Those at the 1-2% level are a LOT closer to the absolute bottom than they are to even the top 1/10 of a percent.
Those at the 1-2% level are usually wage slaves themselves - albeit at a higher level. But there's a high price for earning at hat level. You probably put in a huge effort in high school to get into a good (and expensive) college. You've been working 60-80 hours a week since graduation - never take all your vacation and probably put off kids for a while - if you have them. You live in a nice house in a 'good' neighborhood but it cost a fortune to buy and the carrying costs - like property taxes - are substantial. AND it's not like you have a choice here - if you want to live reasonably close (an hour or so ONE way) to work in a place where the well paying jobs are - it costs $$. Truth is that your lifestyle was not all that much better than your blue collar brother down south whose income was a third of what yours was for the first decade or so of your career. The difference was in the long run where his income topped out (and then stagnated after his employer sold the plant).
That 1-2% level around here (NYC burbs) means you're upper middle class - though it took far more effort to get here than it would have for your parents generation. The income needed to get here probably also means you and your spouse are working. Two incomes are the norm now for the middle class - and upper middle class. But that doesn't make it easy to raise a family. Your kids have done well in school - you've worked to give them opportunities you didn't have but those summer programs and the good colleges they've gone to showed them how much more some have - and it's a hell of a lot more. Those kids didn't have to worry about getting into a good school and they won't have to worry about finding jobs when they graduate.
You can pay your bills on time - buy a new car (or too often, lease one) when you need one instead of scrounging to keep the old one going. You get to take vacations - when it's convneient for work - though you're on call during it. If you live within your income - preferably below it - it's a good life, better than what your parents had but not care free by any means. Some of those at this level own their own business - a dry cleaning chain, an auto body shop or are professionals - doctors, dentists - but most are still corporate wage slaves. No matter how much you try to plan and save, odds are you're in trouble if you get laid off. It's harder and harder to find another job as you move up - and get older. Job security is another one of those things that has become rarer and rarer. If you're lucky you eventually make it to a level where bonuses aren't just more $$$ and start to include things like stock options - THAT's where the real money starts.
But until then it gets to be a real annoyance when you realize that you are paying the MAXIMUM amount of taxes - you pay out more as a percentage of your income than those below you AND those above you. Kind of sucks when you see that the CEO of your company has a few racehorses and a number of residences spread around the country (HE gets to take HIS vacations). The people you know that inherited serious money have a living standard you'll never match - and few of them seem to work all that hard. You've tried to hold onto your soul but it's disiheartening to see that those that ARE doing so much 'better' than you seem to lack anything resembling ethics and morals.
But the worst part of having 'done well' is that you are considered to be 'rich' by the rest of your family and pretty much anyone else and you sure don't FEEL 'rich'. They fail to see how hard you worked to get to where you are - though hard work is no guarantee of anything (you have enough friends who've worked as hard and who are still just 'getting by').
Sadly, if the shit does hit the fan, the mobs that decide to go looting will be hitting YOUR house - not the hedge fund guys in Greenwich, the wealthy on the Upper East Side or those nice elite villages where the really wealthy live.
Preach it, brother!
That family thing .... you also become the target of every sob story and hard time plot that your family can cook up to get a loan that they never pay back.
I love my family, but hearing "so ... when do we get to enjoy OUR raise?" really pisses me off.
Your grasp of things is amazingly accurate. Well written!
Spot on.
It's getting all caught up in buying "crap" and needing to look the part that gets you in trouble. Knock it down to bare essentials. Key is to stop trying to impress your friends and family. Stop caring what they say or think about you. Live rich and free.
OK, how do you know so much about my entire life? You've been stalking me, right?
Simple, get rid of the .01% causing the problem in a way that makes the remaining .99% not want to move up and take their place when they are gone . . . . .
You want to castrate them and make them choke to death on their own testicles in public? Dude, that's fucked up.
What about the females? Blade tipped dildos?
that's called trying too hard
Isn't that what socialism does?
Dickweed,
JFC, I hope that was sarcasm. If you get rid of the .01%, then the rest AUTOMATICALLY move up and someone else becomes that .01%.
Why can't people understand this? There will ALWAYS be percentiles.
What the liberals really want is to cap how much a person can make, earn, inherit, keep, own, etc. But of course they don't admit that.
This will continue until there is but one person left who will declare himself ruler for life.
USA, Kim Jung-style.
If the .01% actually created wealth, we could bow in their presence. Too bad they don't. They create debt, though.
Yeah but the 0.01% are really angry that the 1% are doing so well.
I'm not so sure, the amount of money is astronomical
Let's see when I was a kid 'millionaire meant something'
Today we have 10-20 trillionaires that are NEVER mentioned, anytime or anyplace.
We have 100's and 100's of BILLIONAIRES.
A millionaire dont' mean fucking shit ... everybody in the USA that has gubmint job and a GUBMINT retirement package has a pension with a CASH annuity value of +$5 million dollars or more.
Are the trillionaires jealous of the billionaires? Nada, and given that nobody even knows about the trillionaires they can do as they wish.
*
Nope the only people who are fucked are the little people who ain't born billionaires or are not COP.
Like they said "YOUR EITHER COP OR LITTLE PEOPLE" if your cop you a millionaire.
What am I going to do with my quadrillion bucks then, does anyone have some change around here?
And how about the 50% or so parasite's (government employee's and free chit army)?
The cost more to society than the 0.01% and the keep the 0.01% in power thanks to there emphaty, stupity and democracy.
The are at least as much to blame as the 0.01%.
The FIAT is 100% FREE to create to INFINITY. At this late point in time it costs nothing to keep 65% of the USA public on the dole feeding at the pig trough.
The USA will continue to implode, and the FSA/COP on the dole will go to +90%, and then the FIAT will collapse,... and it will be an UN-CIVIL war.
*
(government employee's and free chit army)
Today over 65% of the FSA and cops,judges,hangman, feed at the FREE FIAT PIG TROUGH,
Every dictator on earth licks his chops and wants to impersonate USA imperial FREE-FIAT power.
*
In summary it costs nothing to keep everyone on the FREE FIAT, the problem is eventually ALL FOOD will be imported, and then the world will refuse the PAYMENT, and weill demand OIL or GOLD in payment and the USA don't got any.
This is why SOROS is demanding the USA open the SDR cuz the last of the USA assets need to be bled TODAY.
There is a cost, and it's called price inflation, it's why we have $80/bbl of oil, and $800/oz of gold. And that's why you bleed.
The 1% are the whipping boys for the .01%.
Influence and Control is where the problem lies, and certainly a full 1% and beyond applies.
And all the time wasted on "%'s" could be better utilized in creating Influence from within the rest -- the bottom 99% scum, ya know -- via education, and tolerance 'til we get there, too...
The 1% are what"s left of the middle class.
And since they grew up on the Hopium of further advance, they have become defacto Daywalkers/Familiars for the vampiric 0.01%.
Likewise, by a series of nested leveraging, a small subset of Alien/Luciferian-like group of imperialist-Zionists have shepherded and morphed the rest of the Jewish population into a parallel role. The ones who have objected (or still do), have been bought off or marginalized into political insignificance. Their NWO agenda rolls on.
These are not the bubbles you're looking for...
"These are not the dirtbags you're looking for." Waves hand in a circular motion...
This explains every thing.
U.S. could free Israeli spy in deal to save peace talks: source close to talks JERUSALEM (Reuters) - An Israeli spy serving a life sentence in the United States and groups of Palestinian prisoners could be freed under an emerging deal to salvage Middle East peace talks, sources close to the negotiations said on Monday.The sources, who spoke as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry prepared to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said under the proposed arrangement that Jonathan Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst caught spying for Israel in the 1980s, could be released by mid-April.
In addition, Israel would go ahead with a promised release of a fourth group of Palestinians, among the 104 it pledged to free in a deal that led to the renewal of peace talks last July. Another group of jailed Palestinians would also go free - and the peace talks would be extended beyond an April 29 deadline, the sources said.
Win-win! What the hell do we get?
Hey! Let's all get the 0.0001% sons to go fight wars to protect all those $60,000 umbrella stands
http://wp.me/p2kmGE-3ac
Instead of the white farm yokels always coming back baconfaced...
Let's start a Club!
RE
Unfortunately, they won't because in the end, all humans really want to be is in the 20%. That's the idea of nobility, which always had a pyramid structure, but as long as you were in "The Big Club", you were always all good - plebs be damned.
The problem is that in order for shit to be fixed, a) the people who created this mess will have heavy financial losses and b) the people they pay to ensure they keep making money will ALSO have huge financial losses.
Hell, you could argue it's 40/60 if you count all the people in the stock market who buy into this bullshit.
That is until the plebs get their hands on some tech. Like guillotines for example.
Duh?
Duh?
It's the trillionaires, ... so its always been 0.0000000001% that rule all.
1% is the number who belong to the AIPAC PARTY that controls the USA political system,
But the trillionaires control the 1%
But "1%" has always been a great slogan going back to the hell's angels.
According to my calculations, that would be one man... on the short side.
7,150,000,000 * 0.0000000001 = 0.715
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1CuX0Ix33I
Truth out. Thanks, Mike. The 0.01% fear you.
This site...and all the insanity therein...is really and truly on the verge of discovering SuperStardom.
Simply put..."Zero hedge and the people therein" have defined the New Normal.
I have defined my own New Normal within the New Normal...summed up simply as "Abby Normal"...and I feel I have been quite consistent in this regard actually. (Cue DV's various episodic spasms, spats, flailing abouts, rants, rages, woeful dirges, dramatic escapes from certain death, irredentist urges, magnamity, infamy, agent provacatuer, Dr Peabody, Dr Pepper...truly the range of "me" has astounded even me...especially me. And myself...and I. All three of us...so happy together.)
So what's the point since obviously this is...truly...the "it" place to be. I think true Superstardom for ZH and ZH'ers will reside ultimately in not just each individual being true to his/her inner voice but that as we move deeply beyond mere "conspiracy fact" to "criminal conspiracy with intent" that an acceptance phase begins to coalesce around the revelatory reality of "ZH meets internet meets truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth."
Besides being truly unlikely such a conditional reality is indeed a profound responsibility. "Trying to make change for the betterment of mankind" is of course as ethereal as it is a truly arrogant conceit.
This site simply glosses over the simple fact that truth does not even exist...and heads straight for the Justice League shit.
How can such an appeal not want to be seen? Not want to be heard?
This is no moving picture show...we here are the real deal. But can we meet our demands? Can we see to it that we can rise above our base beliefs into something that really does provide "and liberty and justice for all"?
In short "can ZH humanize" and thus truly connect.
I know I stand out precisely because I am so "human"...no matter what anyone's views of me are...certainly every girl out there points to me and says "that's a guy."
Having said that I choose to exist in here for a reason...to continue to search for a Zero Hedge that sees itself speaking to...as incredible as it may sound..."the human condition" and the need to make things right.
What made me think of saying this is the (legitimate) hit on the one-percent "and those who vote for them over us." This article is a case study...but what it doesn't reveal is the wrenching changes from bottom...to TOP too...and thus still fails to capture the imagination of our Following since we simply are failing to capture how profoundly the Gods are at War with one another...and in so being this way that this is what a truly mass following who be should ZH really knuckle down here and "go for it."
In short ZH needs to recognize itself as a power that be...simply acknowledge this fact to its contributors...and just take it to not just the next level...but the final level...where ZH becomes not just The Source...but the Authority as well...telling it like it is...but laying down the law too.
In short once you become a PTB...you are accepting the (unwritten) rules of PTB that come along with that. The only one really is "thall shall not talk smack about other PTB?"
Of course....how to do this when the Gods are at war with each other? And that of course is the beauty of it. Simply put...there is no way save for ZH itself becoming a PTB in its own rite.
So, your saying that your alter-ego is a girl named Abby?
Can't ya just hold out for another 31 minutes and make it official.
But even that *might* not be so bad, if the other 99% hadn't been on the downslope for thirty years.
The 1% could easily topple the 0.001%. Simply buy gold. In fact, you and I could do that. It's a trick that has worked for thousands of years.
We are civilisation, yes DV?
I was thinking about this yesterday, somebody here was saying how great the developed world was versus the un-developed world.
I pointed out that every developed-world on earth treated its citizens like convicts in a prison, that the only FREE countrys on earth were the un-developed nations, where the cops are too poor to buy NSA spy tools.
*
Got me think when I was a kid I read Herman Melvilles "TYPEE", a book about savages and savage islands, and Melville compared the Life in LONDON to the so called 'savage' and he pointed out that the 'un-developed' were far more kind, and humanitarian, than the developed, and Melville is +100 years old ..
In summary, if you want your civilization, you can have your fucking civilization, fuck you very much.
I will take the simple world absent of the police-state any day of the week.
I heard that on a worldwide basis if you have over $600,000 you are in the top 1% (not enough to feed you and your dog after retirement).
The cutoff is well below 600K. I think you probably added a zero on a worldwide basis. Heck, in the US the 1% cutoff is around 370K I think.
Maybe he means net worth? 1% of 7 billion is 70 million. 70 million with assets of $600k or more? I can believe that.
The 1 percent I have met all worked for it. Many are legally scamming the system and sucking indirectly off the government teat but they are just like the rest of us. I was one percent for a few brief years.
Unfortunately the majority support the status quo. So it is understandable why people consider them the same as the 0.01 percent.
I know. Potentiate class hate. That will make the most empowered people in the world take preemptive action! Really folks, if we whip enough hate and fury, who is in the position to do anything about it? You?
Nope, better to quietly seeth in anger, act nice, and bide your time. Better to be an alive house slave than a dead field hand.
Hey! They let you take a little time out from cleaning the stables or polishing the silver to post! Good for you! Are you the only servant they have who's literate, or are you just the house favorite?
I'll suck your dick?
Sounds like a problem that a few serious men could solve in a week.
Feudalism is a little bit more complicated than this, but hey - if you're a lord and your peasants don't like you, maybe you can blame the king.
Dangerous game, if you ask me. Feudalism only works when fealty is maintained.
Check out the Univ of Arizona student that stands up to the riot cops. http://arizonasports.com/82/1718453/Arizonas-Elite-8-loss-leads-to-rioti... This kid represents what the prick 1/10th of 1%-ers are afraid of. Fuck 'em, the truth will prevail!
Those of us who read Krugman have known this was an issue of the 0.01% for years now
RICO all banksters and their political hores.
Fuck you Feinstein.
Fuck you Bloomberg.