An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%
"...the bottom line is this: A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules..."
Thanks to DaveC for the link
1 comment:
"In my view, the American dream of striking it rich is merely a well-marketed fantasy that keeps the bottom 99.5% hoping for better and prevents social and political instability. The odds of getting into that top 0.5% are very slim and the door is kept firmly shut by those within it."
An excellent point of analysis. The American Dream, as any other capitalist dream of "striking it rich" is one of clever and rather efficient marketting by the capitalist class. We are fooled into believing that we can engage with money and business and become very wealthy, or wealthier than our neighbours/friends etc. But, the only we can ever be wealthy enough to escape the threat of poverty is to either win the lottery, "work" within the financial sector or come from money. Capitalism today has not changed from the days or original industrialisation with the mills and collieries. Under capitalism the rich and priviledged always have and always will be and the poor and comparativey non-rich never will escape their position.
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