Quote:
Originally Posted by plib
For the vast majority the choices you make in life, other than the choice of your parents, actually have very little to do with whether you are part of the 1% or the 99%. Whether you studied a discipline that is still in demand or work in a growing industry may mean that you still have a job, it doesn't really have an effect on whether you can join that one percent. This article is a little statistics heavy but it has a good historical analysis of what the 1%/99% divide actually means. I very much doubt that any poster on here is in the top 10%, who own 70% of the wealth in America, let alone the top 1%. |
Why would you doubt that anyone on this board would be in the top 10%? To be in the top 10% of income earners, you just need to have a household income of around $150,000. That's easily obtainable by an educated double income family, assuming their education is in a marketable skill. After all, this is an income that 1 out of 10 enjoys; that's a lot of people. Median income for physicians (non-specialists) is comfortably above this number; median income for lawyers is slightly below; I know that there are some of both here.
By contrast, to be in the top 1%, you need an annual income of just over $500,000. Much harder to reach through traditional salaried jobs, but I wouldn't be surprised if a few people on MR made that much.
I'm not sure why you think that what you study has no impact on whether you can join the top 1%; there are no guarantees, of course, but there are ways to increase your chances significantly. Median income for specialist physicians is $360,000, for example.
Re: Goodkind - I'm not sure where I heard him vilified...but certainly here, to some extent.