The Top 5 Facts About America’s Richest 1%

Why do people think money supply is limitless? If you improve your lot in life, you are taking a greater share of money from a shared pot, someone else will get less. It is not bottomless. If the 99% works harder, we just have a more productive society. The 99% won't make more, as a group, unless it takes more of the 1%'s share of income.

So what can the 99% do?

1. I don't agree with taxing the rich at extremely high rates, but only 15% of investment income is insanity. I take advantage of this as well, but not everyone can.
Count it as regular income, simplify the code.

2. If a CEO today makes 100,000x his lowest paid worker (now in China), but only made 1,000x his lowest paid worker 25 years ago, there is a problem. The top earners will pay the lowest amount that they can for your work, so they can maximize their own wealth, unless forced to do otherwise. I'd suggest a law no business member can be paid more than 1,000x his company's lowest paid employee. Oh the horror! If someone gets $100,000,000, the janitor should make $100,000! Is the janitor not worth 100k? 30k maybe? Fine, neither is the CEO worth 100 million, 30 million maybe.

3. Don't like #2? Starting your own business to compete with the established wealthy is a long, hard uphill battle against thousands of government regulations set by established businesses that will do all they can to destroy your competitive threat. Small businesses can't afford lobbyists and patent lawyers. Take the money out of Washington.

I think 1-3 are reasonable, but politically, just raising tax rates is a simpler, easier way for politicians to address these problems.

What percent of the taxes do the richest American pay? OK I know the rate can be low, but what about the amount of $. Sure Romney only paid 14%, but that was more than $6 in the last two years. That is many many times more than the average American pays in the entire lifetime.

I'm 100% for people making money- all the money they can. This is America, and the American dream is still alive here. go ahead, get rich. Get filthy rich. BUT- pay your fair share of taxes. If you make $1M+ in income every year, then you should pay a higher % of taxes on that income than a schmuck like me who makes $85k.

it's not their fault they are rich. There is a real problem. If not dealt with, it will get worse for everyone, including the rich. This problem goes back as far as hunter/gatherers changed to agriculture. Progression does not mean socialism or communism. It means to move forward. We don't have a perfect or equal or fair system right now. It doesn't have to be destroyed to be improved for everyone. The framers of the constitution did not accept the status quo when they created the rules that got us this far. The ballot box can fix most of it but first people need to realize that money from wall street and elsewhere has taken almost absolute control of washington and that is not what the framers intended to happen. They were trying to prevent such a thing. Read kevin phillips book "wealth and democracy" to see where the wealth is and where most of it came from. It will not destroy the country to make our government for the people, by the people, and for the people again.

A pertinent fact is the actual tax rate paid by the top 1% as opposed to what the law says it should be. The loophols put into the law are mainly paid for by the people who benefit from them in the form of campaign contributions. Unfortunately, the 99% don't have access to the same quality lawyers.

Flaw in the whole 1% premis: Who earns $300,000 to $500,000? Bill Gates was a child 30 years ago! The rich of today ARE NOT the rich of 3 decades ago!! We have created a WHOLE NEW one percent, proving OUR SYSTEM WORKS!! Micron, Ebay, Cisco, DirecTV, Comcast, Amazon, Google, AOL, Starbucks, Facebook, Intel, Twitter, EMC, SeaGate, Microsoft, Wendys, Apple, Dell, Oracle, Sun, the list goes on and on. Plus tens of thousands of managers, professionals, engineers, salespeople, shareholders and investors. Then there's the big money makers - The professional athletes - baseball, football, hockey, golf, the actors and movies stars, all the producers and all the agents, the rockstars, NASCAR racers and infrastructure, Hip-hopsters, rappers and music moguls, software engineers, clothing designers, doctors and other medical professionals, dentists, the lawyers and YES THE BANKERS, Rush Limbaugh, Trump and Mark Cuban, Obama!, John Stewart, Howard Stern, Glen Beck, Jay Leno, Bill Mahr, Keith Oberman, Letterman and Conan, THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. In fact most of these people and businesses didnt even exist 30 years ago! MOST WERE IN DIAPERS 30 YEARS AGO!!! We have CREATED A WHOLE NEW ONE PERCENT. And the best part is that this generation's one percent is richer than the last generations one percent!! Its all how YOU CHOOSE to see it. America has the greatest system in the world!!! No other country has more true economic mobility -- There are more African American millionaires in America than Africa!! More wealthy Jews and wealthy Arabs side by side!! Irish and Englishman! More successful women than anywhere on the planet!!! Dont listen to these people they are comitted losers. Their glass is half empty. The United States is truly the greatest country EVER put fourth on this Earth. They still risk their life just to come here, work hard and succeed!

This analysis is deeply flawed.. Remember that the more you try to equalize the system the less freedom you have.. This whole issue is not about money it is about power..
Those saleing this class warefare stuff.. Want the power to redistribute the wealth as they see fit.. This means they will distribute it back to themselves. That is a evil thing..
Nothing is free; The question is what is the catch? When you hear someone preaching sacrifice, they are speaking of Master's and Slaves and they intend to be the Master... Don't trust a politican to do what is best for your pocketbook or your families future..

How dare they make money...Maybe they should give it all away so the degenerate 99% can quit working.. " The problem with socialism is eventuallly all the money runs out"

These "progressive" liberal nitwits only look at half of the equation! The top 1% makes about 17% of total income but pays about 35% of total income taxes. And, when in the h**l will the bottom 40% of the population who have as much wealth as Bill Gates pool all their money and give it all away, like Bill Gates plans to give virtually all of his wealth away?? Quit kicking the "rich" and improve your own lot--and voluntarily give to the truly needy, like the poor people in sub-Sahara Africa who need wells drilled to subsist!! And, by the way, I am NOT in the top 1%. Please replace envy with drive and ambition and improve your lot!!!!

Progressive think tank came to this conclusion? Wow - what a shock. Progressive - as in progressing towards socialism. They love it.

This protest is frivolous and directed at the wrong entities. Rich people are not evil. Change the language please. Crime deserves punishment, plain and simple. Don't make this about all rich people…stupid…just plain dumb. Robin Hood was thief, not a hero.

It's worse than in any communist counrty. Should we call that a communi-capitalist country?

I find it confusing when we hear that the spread between the rich and the poor is somehow the fault of the wealthiest in our country. It is said that those who are blessed with the good fortune to have a marketable athletic skill, or have been born into a wealthy family, or became a doctor or other professional, or had a visionary Executive's mind, or saved and invested, or a person who discovered life saving medicine, or simply is more creative and works harder than average, I find it hard to believe that these people have obtained their wealth by exploiting the poor. Is it the "Occupier's" belief that if only the people who earn over $1 Million per annum paid a higher rate of tax the poor would suddenly and as a result become richer? Do they believe that the government should tax the wealthy more so the incomoe of the poor will go up? Do they really believe that would happen? Do they believe they they will be better off?. duh? Just how does taxing the highest earning sports figure or some creative inmaginative individual who saw the potential value of the I-phone, or one who created an international social media complex like Facebook, or one who built a company from scratch producing a high damand product employing tens of thousands of people raise the wealth of poor people earning minimum wages? This doesn't compute unless this confiscatory tax is used to simply subsidize the relatively uneconomic output of a low skilled worker by an outright cash gift . The consequence of that would be a serious deterioration in our economic system and destroy or reduce any growth in our future. The Occupiers (and their media supporters) need an education in behavioral economics.

One Man's Opinion-----Bud Brewer

why are all the posts from 3 weeks ago? Slow news day??

You all have your opinions but are avoiding how it will all end. Big government and Big business have created the system we have over time. They both like it and are benefiting greatly by it. If we want to change it, we will have to pry it out of their hands and that is not going to be pretty!!

#4) The Top 1% of Americans Have Only 5% of the Nation's Personal Debt
Using 2007 figures, sociologist William Domhoff points out that the top 1% have 5% of the nation's personal debt while the bottom 90% have 73% of total debt.

He forget to say those top 1% is even 99 % smarter then rest if us.....they are mostly buying what they can afford to pay cash for. Compare to rest who is buying even I Phones on credit card.......

He did not answer question about income mobility. Treasury study on income mobility from 1996 to 2005 shows that half the taxpayers who started in bottom 20% had moved to a higher income group by 2005. A Federal Reserve study of 2001 to 2007 found that 34% of top 20% of income earners had moved to a lower quintile and 5% had fallen to the bottom quintile. Facts don't lie but but some cherry pick the facts when the all the facts are ideologically inconvenient.

The nature of capitalism and democracy will inevitably lead to class warfare. History has shown this takes about 200 years give or take a half century or so. Why? Capitalism will provide the OPPORTUNITY for success. Statistically, a relative MINORITY will acheive significant success. Because Democracy entails one person one vote, the less successful MAJORITY will use their one person one vote to vote for politicians and legislation that creates entitlement programs to supply the fruits of labor at the taxpayers (minority's) expense for the majority. The politicians desire to remain in power and therefore bend over backwards to keep these votes. Even if it means printing money to continue the spending. If the divide between the haves and the (relatively) have nots gets big enough, the majority will use the power of the government (one person one vote) to level the field, remove the opportunity for significant success, redistribute wealth, and ultimately create a desolate unmotivated unrewarding stagnating hopeless society.

How many politictions have benifited and are in that top 10 % because of legistration they have passed. You here people rail about separation of chruch and state, I think separation of business (remeber all the bailouts) and state is just as important,

The american dream is not being a billionaire. The dream is owning a home, putting your kids through college and being able to retire at a decent age where you can travel a little