s.e. smith at Tiger Beatdown: Who Exactly IS the 1%?
One way to think about things is in terms of income: What are people making per year? Even this, though, is complicated. Many members of the 99% associate income specifically with work. You go to an office, or work behind the counter at a bakery, or report for duty on highway crews, and receive a regular paycheque. Income, however, also includes proceeds from investments like stocks, bonds, rental property, and other income-earning assets. This is important, so remember it.
You can also think about things in terms of wealth: What kinds of assets do people have access to? Professor G. William Domhoff points out in this superb assessment of wealth, income, and inequality in the United States that there are actually several different ways to think about wealth. There’s wealth in terms of net worth, the things you can theoretically readily transfer or sell, minus the debt you carry, which can be substantial for some of us. There’s also ‘financial wealth,’ which is your net worth, less your equity in real estate. The argument for distinguishing between these two things, Domhoff explains, is that homes are not easily liquidated, especially right now. Incidentally, as many people are probably aware, home value has been declining precipitously in the United States over the last decade, and the people hardest hit by that have been in the 99%, people owning homes in the middle and bottom of the market.
Numbers! Words! Charts! FUN FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY.
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