Sunday, April 1, 2012

Who Are the 99%? Who Are the 1%?



I absolutely agree with the primary stated purpose of the Occupy Movement. Although there is no formal organization of the Occupy groups across the nation, the position they are all by and large rallying behind is that government and big business have become too entangled. The resulting policies of this entanglement have done great damage to the middle and lower classes – the 99% of Americans.

Due to this entanglement, middle and lower income wages and true buying power is retracting, while the income and true buying power of the 1% is experiencing enormous levels of growth. This is a reality that is difficult for any reasonable person to argue. By nearly every measure income, buying power, and opportunities for upward mobility for a large portion of the 99% of Americans is shrinking.

Government and big business are much too entangled and it is bad for the nation and for the world. This scenario has to change and “we the people” need to take responsibility for that change.

Although I agree with the stated premises of the Occupy Movement, what I strongly dislike is the “them” and “us” component of the movement. Human beings are tribal beings, so it is a understandable tendency. But, “us/them” thinking has led to terrible things over the millenia – war, discrimination, racism, genocide just name a few. Effectively defining groups of people so that the enemy can be identified and appropriately hated is good military and propaganda strategy, but it is a sad and dangerous over simplification of the human condition.

Since the Occupy Movement started in earnest I have heard from people I love and respect some nasty things. “They are all a bunch of greedy –astards.” “The 1% simply don’t give a -amn.” Comments directed at the 99%, specifically the 50-51% of households that do not pay Federal Income taxes have included statements of similar spirit. “They are all a bunch of moochers.” “They are lazy and should get what’s coming to them.”

Replace the words “the 1%” or “the 51%” with the words “black people” or “Hispanics” or “women” or “whites” or “Jews.” See what I mean. Broad, negative generalizations make me really uncomfortable and in the case of the 99% movement it has been painful to a degree to think about people I know, successful friends, some of my clients, people I work for, people I respect......are the enemy....the "other."

So who are the 1% after all?

In 2009 although the average household income of the 1% was $960,000, the minimum household income to be included in the 1% was $343,927. The 1% is comprised of approximately 1.4 million households.

In 2009/2010, the first year of the current economic recovery, the 1% experienced 93% of income growth resulting from said recovery.




The 1% are:

  • Warren Buffet
  • Corporate executives
  • The doctor and lawyer couple who live a subdivision over from yours
  • The successful business person sitting down the pew from you at church (who donates large chunks of money to the church and other charities)
  • An unscrupulous financial planner
  • Keith Richards
  • A woman who inherited wealth and spends her days working tirelessly for various charities and causes
  • A callous company executive who cares about nothing other than his career and bonuses
  • A CEO of a small company who has difficulty sleeping too many nights worrying about successfully continuing her father’s legacy and being able to afford to continue to employ her workers
  • The person who clawed their way to the top stepping on many others in the process
  • President Obama, Senator Kirk, Senator Durbin, Mitt Romney....,,
  • Leaders of leading financial institutions striving to win “the game” and accumulate money with little consideration of the consequences
  • Some of the greatest inventors and job creators the world has every known
  • Rupert Murdoch
  • The person who played a key role in making sure the drug that saved your spouse’s life got to market successfully
  • A successful farmer
In 2009/2010, the first year of the current economic recovery, the 99% experienced 7% of income growth resulting from said recovery (this is an enormous problem that is directly rooted in the composition of our current economy…more on this later).



The 99% are:

  • Moderately affluent business people
  • Teachers, firefighters, police officers, and public servants of all stripes
  • A father who has been out of work for nearly 18 months, hasn’t worked to find another job, and called the unemployment office from a cruise ship to secure this week’s unemployment check
  • Clergy, social workers, counselors
  • A single mother working three jobs to support her kids
  • Factory workers
  • A man who uses his welfare check to get a tattoo
  • People who were laid off and rehired as temporary workers so that their employers did not have to provide health insurance
  • A third generation welfare family
  • Union and non union labor
  • The working poor
  • The cashier at your grocery store
  • The homeless
  • A man collecting unemployment who chooses to drink all day everyday instead of looking for a job
  • The unemployed
  • The receptionist at your doctor’s office
  • The father who has been on dozens of job interviews and prays that today is the day
  • A woman who games the food stamp system and uses the money to buy cigarettes and beer rather than food for her kids
  • A father of two small children who wants to go back to school to acquire new skills so that he will be in greater demand in today’s job market, but can’t fathom how he can afford to do so
  • A woman who has been given the opportunity for further education and training and declines because she doesn’t want to work that hard


The 1% and the 99% are not homogeneous blocks of people who are either bad or good. I can’t wear t-shirts or pins, carry signs or beat pots and pans for a movement if it is framed in a context of “they are bad and we are good.” I also would like to think I would not be able to paint “Dirty Jew” on Jewish storefronts or spit in the face of a Jewish prisoner being marched through town during Nazi Germany. I hope at no point in American history would I have been able to say or feel “lazy –igger” sentiments. There were unscrupulous Jews in Germany to be sure and lazy blacks throughout history….but these categorizations certainly do not fairly represent entire groups of people.

We are smart people, we know categorizations are often hateful, mental and emotional laziness, and dangerous. If we dig deep within ourselves we know the same holds true of the 1% or the 99% (depending on which side of the tracks you live) groupings. We know that it is simple untrue to categorically say that “the 1% don’t give a –amn” or that the “51% are lazy moochers.” Yes, there are “-astards who don’t give a –amn” within the 1%. There are people within the 1% who I contend are evil….or at least committed evil actions. There are also lazy moochers within the 99%.

Progress is rarely made until people are willing to do the hard work of looking at, thinking through and doing the work of change. And, I contend that the incredible challenges we are facing as a nation are the most complex we have ever faced and will require much more than bumper sticker slogans or propaganda perfect images of hate.

Too many Americans (myself included at times) have allowed our systems to become so complex and devoid transparency. Complexity creation virtually never favors the common person. Although sometimes things can only be simplified to a point, legal system complexity, financial system complexity, a wildly ridiculous tax code and other mazes placed before us always favor the “game makers.”

We are told (directly and by implication) that we are not smart enough to understand “it” and we should leave “it” to the experts. We are told this enough times by the game makers that we finally believe it, like a child will come to believe he/she is no good if told enough times by their parents.

We give into the frustration of trying to understand critical elements of our political, legal, financial, education, medical systems and we become the people Hitler was so thankful for.

“What luck for rulers that men do not think,” Adolf Hitler.

Demonizing the 1% will not get us anywhere other than looking like a bunch of jealous children who are easily portrayed negatively by propaganda generators. Thinking though and taking action on the issues that are critical to our current challenges is our only way out. We are the 99% after all and we each have a voice and a vote. This is not Community Russia, Nazi Germany, Imperialist China or Medieval Europe…..yet.

So, what are the problems and what do we do? My series of posts will address eight areas that are in my opinion the critical areas needing to be addressed:

  • Composition of our current economy
  • Financial system
  • Education systems (primary, secondary and continuing education)
  • Health Care system
  • Political system (including campaign approaches and financing)
  • Government policy (which is different than politics in some ways, but certainly related)
  • Tax code
  • The thought process and actions of the 99%

So let’s Occupy…..let’s occupy our minds and our energies to work on the issues to better our nation, the world and our futures. Let us focus on issues and actions rather than trying to cast our enemy in over simplified evil images. Let us focus on what WE can do to better our futures to secure “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”

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