Does anybody know somebody in the top 1% ?

[Samson]

BBC News - The Wealth Gap - Inequality in Numbers

Until protestors took to the streets last year, first in New York and then in financial centres across the world, inequality had been a low-key issue.
Not any more.
With the political temperature rising, a stream of new analysis is revealing how sharply inequality has been growing.
In October, the US Congressional Budget Office (CBO) caused a storm by revealing how big a slice of income gains since the late 1970s had gone to the richest 1% of households.
The message was dramatic.
Over the 28 years covered by the CBO study, US incomes had increased overall by 62%, allowing for tax and inflation.
But the lowest paid fifth of Americans had got only a small share of that: their incomes had grown by a modest 18%.

Growth in real after-tax income, 1979-2007
Income Groups	0-20%	21-80%	81-99%	Top 1%
Source: US Congressional Budget Office, Oct 2011

[Garth]

Does anybody know somebody in the top 1% ?

Yep. Bill Gates is my rich Uncle.

I wish!

[Golfgirlrobin]

I know plenty of them. Some are nice, some are not. Just like everybody else.

That's an interesting statistic regarding the lowest 20% of income only rising 18% since 1979. I'm not really surprised by it because the bottom 20% of earners are going to tend to be those with the most minimal of skills. If you're basically an unskilled worker, then you're competing with million of immigrants, legal and illegal, for those jobs. A larger pool of workers for a particular job is always going to keep wages down.

[honeys dad]

http://www.amazon.com/Millionaire-Ne...6819196&sr=1-1

maybe some of the so-called 99% might give this a read...

[Ender's Mom]

I think I know people who THINK they are in the 1% (or think they can get to that level) but they aren't and they can't.

[Nick]

I think people would be surprised to know how "little" it takes to be in the top 1%. Most people assume that means you have to make millions per year.

[Ender's Mom]

Based on 2009 tax year filing data, the Internal Revenue Service says an adjusted gross income, or AGI, of $343,927 or more will put you in the top 1 percent of taxpayers.

AGI

[Golfgirlrobin]

I think people would be surprised to know how "little" it takes to be in the top 1%. Most people assume that means you have to make millions per year.

Based on the Internal Revenue Service’s 2010 database below, here’s how much the top Americans make:

Top 1%: $380,354
Top 5%: $159,619
Top 10%: $113,799
Top 25%: $67,280
Top 50%: >$33,048

Two successful lawyers married to each other will make the top 1%. I don't think that is what most people think of as "The 1%'ers".

I'm more surprised by the fact that you have to drop all the way below $33,048 before you drop below the top 50%.

[BauersMom]

I know people in the top 1%; I'm related to people in the top 1%.

[Nick]

Based on the Internal Revenue Service’s 2010 database below, here’s how much the top Americans make:

Top 1%: $380,354
Top 5%: $159,619
Top 10%: $113,799
Top 25%: $67,280
Top 50%: >$33,048

Two successful lawyers married to each other will make the top 1%. I don't think that is what most people think of as "The 1%'ers".

I'm more surprised by the fact that you have to drop all the way below $33,048 before you drop below the top 50%.

Or one moderately successful surgeon (or a terrible surgeon in a big city) with a stay-at-home spouse. Or a destitute, homeless, bum who wins the lottery one year. Or a blue-collar worker who works all his life and sells his business and retires.

That's my problem with this class warfare crap. You ensnare a lot of people who you probably aren't thinking of when you're lobbing bombs at the "rich." There aren't a lot of repeat 1%ers from year-to-year. It's a very amorphous group. If you want to suggest adding a new tax bracket for millionaires because they are able to afford it better than the rest, fine. I don't necessarily agree with that kind of fiscal policy, but it is at least reasonable and respectable. I have a real problem when people try to vilify successful people in order to raise taxes on other people so they don't have to pay for the services they consume. Like it or not, that group will be the group that ends the economic malaise.