» posted on Friday, November 18th, 2011 at 8:37 pm by Andy D
America the Beautiful Day 18: The Rich
There is a lot of complaint in today’s world about the “rich”. But who are the rich? Are they as evil as we are lead to believe? Do they burn their 100′s simply to light cigar’s? And who are the 1% the Occupy movement is fighting against?
There is a very interesting article at Fox Business that answers this last question. According to 2009 Internal Revenue, here is how much you needed to make in 2009 to be in each bracket:
- To be in the top 50% of all wage earners, you had to make $32,396 for the year.
- To be in the top 25% of all wage earners, you had to make $66,193 for the year.
- To be in the top 10% of all wage earners, you had to make $112,124 for the year.
- To be in the top 5% of all wage earners, you had to make $154,643 for the year.
- And, to be in the dreaded top 1% of all wage earners, you had to make $343,927 for the year.
What’s interesting about this is that the top 1% doesn’t even have to make $1 Million dollars. Yet they are constantly referred to as “millionaires and billionaires”. While $343,927 sounds like a lot of money, how much is it if you own your own company? Even a simple plumping or electrical business can cost a lot to operate.
So today I celebrate the top 1%. They are the ones that employ most of us, and they are constantly insulted. Today’s edition of America the Beautiful is to thank them.
Thank you.
filed under 31 Days of Blogging · America | 4 comments
Political Friends Blog | 31 Days of Blogging: America the Beautiful said:
Nov 18, 11 at 8:39 pm[...] Day 18: The Rich [...]
Mac L said:
Nov 23, 11 at 12:17 amYes. But percentage wise, is it fair that the top one percent owns over 50% of the wealth in the U.S.?http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/images/wealth/Figure_5.gif (Professor G. William Domhoff,University of California at Santa Cruz)
Andy D said:
Nov 23, 11 at 11:21 pmIt’s fair if they have acquired it legally. Would you take it from them just because you thought they had enough? Where do you draw the line at that?
Gerrit said:
Nov 24, 11 at 7:17 amThe rich don’t deserve any thanks, they are one of the big problems in this world today. If 1% of a country’s population owns 80% of the capital and uses that position to exploit (you call it “employ”, I would rather use the term “exploit”) people, then I would say this is unfairness in its most grotesque form. Personally, I don’t believe in a system with social classes based on income. I am not saying everyone should earn exactly the same, but the moment there is a huge gap between rich and poor, there is injustice done IMO no matter what way that gap has come into being. The only way to get things right is to nationalise on large scale and enforce high taxes on high salaries, it will take some time to redistribute in a fair way but that phase would be necessary to correct decades of unfair inequality in the western world (I am talking US and Europe, both of them).
As said, I don’t say everyone should earn exactly the same. If someone works hard, he deserves a reward. But the gap between rich and poor that exists right now, is simply dividing society into classes. The idea that one person is valued more than another, and that materialism is what one is judged upon, is sounding very wrong to me. I don’t believe rich or poor people should exist, but that everyone should have a fair share of the available capital, to guarantee that everyone has equal chances and nobody is left outside alone. We don’t need rich people, we need a fair society where nobody is left outside in the cold.
Respecting or thanking the rich? No way in my books.
Also, let me add, I come from what can be described middle class upbringing. I don’t want to be rich. I am happy to be taxed and see my tax money used to help out those who are in trouble. That idea of fairness is giving me a good feeling. My bills get paid, without having excessive luxury. That is good enough for me. I don’t aim for richdom. I disagree the rich deserve to be admired.