So, who are the 1%? (not a metaphorical question)

[Rabblevox]

I know who some of them are, but there are roughly 350 (1%'ers)

Does anyone have a link or a list identifying the 1% and how to contact them?

[JBoy]

1. 350? That would make 100% = 35,000.

I think your math is off.

[snooper2]

30. ROFL, way off...

:rofl:

[Kennah]

2. If you have to ask, then you obviously haven't been invited to the right parties.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. I think you're thinking of the 0.001%ers. nt

[FarCenter]

4. Since the population is 300,000,000 there are 3,000,000 1%ers

Households with income above $500,000 approximately. Depending on wether filing singly, jointly or head of household, your mileage will vary.

[Bandit]

5. They are the ones that own 60% of all the wealth in America...

And Republicans want to give them more from the US treasury.....That is what this is all about...

[Rabblevox]

6. You are all right, my math was bad. Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

But my question remains. It's the .001%. But does anyone know of a link listing the rat bastards, along with contact info?

[FarCenter]

10. You can start with the Forbes 400

http://www.forbes.com/forbes-400/

The top "wall streeter" is George Soros in 7th place, but you might not want to ignore Charles and David Koch at 4th and 5th. There are 4 Waltons worth over $20 billion each. Michael Bloomberg, John Paulson, Carl Ichan, Ronald Perelman, and James Simons are 5 more wall streeters in the top 30.

and then you can work your way down from there.

[Puzzledtraveller]

7. A very important question

And let us not be fooled either, as there are many who would have you believe they are part of the 99% who's interest do not include you or me, only their bottom line.

[brooklynite]

8. My wife and I are part of the 1%...did you want something?

If you're going to ask us to stop destroying the economy and controlling the government for our own evil goals, well, I'm afraid we don't match the cliche that everyone in the top 1% has the same conservative view of the world, just as evryone in the bottom income rung isn't a flaming liberal.

[Rabblevox]

9. I have NEVER said that all people making a good living are part of the problem...

but the fact remains that MOST rich people ARE the problem. Sorry for your over-sensitivity.

[Billypenn]

13. I just hope you're tax rate isn't lower than mine...

...have you checked your's lately?

[hfojvt]

14. if you are in a generous mood

then I'd like a Mercedes Benz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-4AheUl6ls

[brooklynite]

28. Sorry, we drive a VW hatchback

[theophilus]

15. I hope you are directing your wealth toward helping the rest of the population in

positive ways that are, also, in your best interest. It is not so much what the one percent crowd does....many are probably doing much good. It is also about how our government acts in behalf of the one percenters who are actually harming our nation and our world in real and significant ways. Being rich is not a bad thing. How one uses their wealth can be judged as good or bad in relation to the rest of humanity, imo.

[Terry in Austin]

18. How awkward for you -nt

[JuniperLea]

21. Why should it be?

I know many 1%ers who are in support of the 99%.

Furthering the bullshig "eat the rich" or "hate the rich" meme doesn't do the cause any good at all. It only supports the RW meme that this is what the left wants to do.

[Terry in Austin]

29. Class loyalties

If I were pulling down a million a year (admission to the 1% club) and knew a number of others who did also, as you say you do, I would probably feel a certain amount of conflict. There's a basic difference in class interests between the rentier (i.e., work-optional) class and those who have no choice but to work. If we don't have a choice, we're in the working class.

Though I might, through a certain amount of open-mindedness, be sympathetic to improved circumstances and life-chances for working class people, I would find that there are few opportunities to "walk the walk" short of all-out philanthropic engagement, and as class divisions grow more pronounced, it would be more and more likely that I'd have to choose between my class and my sympathies.

I would find that awkward.

If you are making less than a million a year, or are not wealthy enough to be work-optional, then for some reason you are identifying with the 1% ruling class which you are not part of. As for "eating the rich," no, that doesn't do any good; but neither does it do any good to gloss over the very different political interests of class, and how deeply those affect individual lives.

[demmiblue]

20. Ahhh... you were the poster who wouldn't make matching donations to DU...

because DU had/has other ideas. Yep... totally remember you.

[jwirr]

11. In any list we would make we would have to look to see what they

support. FDR would have been considered a 1%er as would JFK, RFK, John Kerry, LBJ, and many other leaders. This is very hard to define as it is not so much about the wealth as the way they think of the wealth.

Technically there are economic graphs that break down the levels of society who control wealth into percentiles. This is where the phrase comes from and in these phrases they are the top group of people who control most of the money.

I do not think this is a very reliable way to determine who is on my side. Since I am in the bottom percentile - do I have to consider all of you my enemies?

NO.

[Billypenn]

12. Link to Michael Moore's page on Forbes 400

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/must-read/forbes-400-vs-everybody-else

sum goodz readin' dere

[hfojvt]

16. generally, anybody in a household making over $400,000 a year

unless you are talking about the top 1% by wealth, which would take maybe $1 or 2 million in net worth. I don't have as many stats on wealth since I consider income to be more relevant. I'm in the top 50% for wealth, but the vast majority of my wealth is tied up in my house and my retirement funds. Much more relevant that I am in the bottom 20% for income. Relevant in terms of economic well being.

[Billypenn]

17. 20% of the US pop controls 85% of wealth

http://sociology.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.html

A much more stunning figure when you think about it.

This means 80% of us only have 15% of the wealth. If money counts as power (getting congress to notice you let's say) we don't exactly have so much pull.

Unless, 80% go stand outside where they work.

[JuniperLea]

22. More stunning still...

Is that this 85% contributes 40% of the tax revenue... leaving those of us with 15% of the wealth to cough up 60% of the tax revenue.

[Billypenn]

Like some facts on that

can you supply a link? (little confused by your breakdown here).

:)

[JuniperLea]

25. Based on info from that same article...

Toward the bottom. You have to think in terms of total wealth, not income, because that is a more accurate number considering where are the wealth is.

[Billypenn]

27. Gotcha

85%, being the 20% of population paying only 40% of taxes, while 15%, being 80% of population paying 60%.

[DaveJ]

19. These days the Middle Class is the top 1%

You need to be a millionaire in order to afford to own a home, have two cars, eat out, have healthcare, and send yours kids to college.

Especially in cities where homes are $1+ million. I don't know how people make that kind of money.

[JuniperLea]

23. The 1% laugh at the mere millionares...

Seriously.

[DaveJ]

24. There are two ways of looking at it

the 99% vs the 1% (that's how I see it) or the 99.999% vs the .001%.

I believe that the main problem is that 99% are in dire straights.

There is another problem that .001% control everything, so I guess the two issues are related. The .001% see us as livestock.

[Billypenn]

26. Numbers game

at the end of the day, its the majority of people who now feel powerless in a country where...

This guy said it best:

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal...

...It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

[Terry in Austin]

31. Income numbers for the 1% class

This may clarify things somewhat -- it did for me.

The average income for the top 1% is $1.3 million
The "entry level" income for the top 1% (i.e., 99th percentile and above) is http://taxpolicycenter.org/numbers/displayatab.cfm?DocID=2970">$506,000

Part of the problem identifying "the rich" is that most rich people don't feel very rich, due to the extreme wealth disparity in that top 1%.