An Introduction to the One Percent

While various publications and wannabe news media folks walk around and talk up the 99-percent angle to the real people of America.....you might want to know.....who the heck are the one-percent.  The Cato Institute went out and gathered some numbers, which you might be curious about.

The vast number of millionaires in America....near eighty percent.....didn't get their money from dad or the family.  It is shocking because fifty years ago....the numbers wouldn't have likely matched up.  These are people who took risk, worked out an idea or product, and did something fairly unusual.  They weren't idiots or mad men.

The bulk of this one-percent crowd?  Around thirty-odd percent are this group of folks who simply invented something or developed something.  They managed their situation to the top and became a millionaire.  They made specialized stores.  They invented great pizza chains.  They invented computer games.

Somewhere down the line....you've got another group who were doctors.  Roughly fifteen percent fall into this category.  We can talk about the unfairness of medical costs in America, and how it relates to these guys getting filthy rich.  The truth is that some were boob doctors and simply sold bigger boobs to women.  Some were fancy talkers who convinced dopers and drinkers that they needed a fancy recovery center in Arizona where  they could spend $50k over four weeks while in rehab.   Some were smart and figured out how to remove body fat, and wanted $5k for a one-hour episode.  Some guys worked up a fancy cancer clinic in Phoenix where results were great, but you needed $80k to get the fifteen-percent better chance of survival.  Some offered up great weight reduction camps, where you could lose 25 pounds for $5k over one month.

Out there are the lawyers, engineers, scientists, and professionals who account another fifteen percent.  They learn how to sue properly and demand huge payoffs.  Then you had the guy who figured out a way to build a bridge where there shouldn't have been a bridge.  There was the guy who figured out a way to bring on-line speeds up to a point where real lusty video could be delivered to farms in Mississippi finally.  You've got the guy who figured out solar energy.

And finally, there was the two-percent crowd of this massive group of millionaires....who gave you updated versions of cowboy westerns, Lost, daily soap operas, talk radio, talk TV, Brittney Spears, professional wrestling, country music, and dimwitted English actors who pretend to act but they just can't do anything other than one character.  Then there's the basketball wannabe guy who signed a $40 million contract but loses every penny by age thirty when his talent drys up and he's sent away from the team.  Count in the various second-basemen around the major leagues who barely last ten years in the majors and never showed much talent, but actually did have a contract for a three year period for $2.5 million a year.  There's the loser quarterback who a team guessed on, but developed weed issues by season three and just walked away from football with just barely $1 million left to his name.

At some point....you will have to start thinking long and hard about this one-percent crowd.  Some of them lose their momentum and within weeks or months of achieving their status....have lost everything.  The one-percent crowd is anything but stable.  They are full of absolute risk.  Gains are measured on a hour-by-hour basis....as is losses.

When the 99-percent crowd stands there and wants to attach themselves to the wealth of the one-percent....you might to ask some stupid questions.  Do you want sixty-percent of the money that a third-basement from Detroit takes in?  Do you want to take sixty-percent of the money that some software guru takes in....so he doesn't move onto the next project next year....and instead delays technology by two years while he grows capital out of thin air?  Do you want to take sixty-percent of the money that weight-loss doctor takes in....when he might be taken into court at any moment for accidentally killing a patient?

Last year when I moved to Washington....I had to go out and buy three decent pairs of shoes...mostly decent shoes that you could walk in.  The three pair I bought?  They all come from outside of the US.  Kind of amazing?  I had to buy a dozen long-sleeve and short-sleeve white shirts (Wal-Mart, Pennys, Kohl, Landsend, and Target).....which I discovered later that all twelve were made outside of the US.  The eight pairs of pants I bought?  All made outside of the US.

The TV I bought last year?  Manufactured outside of the US.

The ninety-nine percent crowd might want to start viewing this grand view of new America.  Their money is going overseas.  Are they interested in going after non-American millionaires as well?  Natural gas production increasing outside of the US....yes.   Car part production increasing in Mexico....yes.  

The naive nature of the ninety-nine percent crowd makes you wonder if they actually live in the US or grasp how things really work.

Camping and Occupying

Over the past two weeks, there have been several violent Occupy episodes around the US.  Some minor....some more significant.  The DC cops came out and hinted that they were prepared now to ratchet up the 'tough-cop' level, because of various issues.

Years ago....I had a discussion with a Army NCO who had done numerous maneuvers, deployments, and camping trips while serving in the Army.  In his mind, there were four distinctive stages of "camping-out".

The first was the initial 72-hour period where it felt like a Boy Scout Jamboree.  You were excited.  Tent-city went up quick.  You got up early in the morning and could have this wonderful fresh smell in the air.  Things tended to work well in that initial period.  

By the fourth day.....some issues start to develop.  The free coffee provided isn't that great.  Food isn't as good as the initial period.  This period runs for about five days.  The walk to the shower facility each morning isn't that pleasant.  The toilet facilities are becoming less sanitary.

Around day eleven, you move into an odd week.  Your initial clothing has been washed now, and their deployed cleaning situation isn't as good as your own washer at home.  The food is awful.  You start to complain about the guys in the tent who snore.  You have daily arguments in the tent about personal issues that you'd normally never discuss.  Some folks start missing their boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, husbands, or whatever.  This is usually when you sneak off for a night....buy an illegal six-pack of beer and smoke a dozen smokes by some tree.  You've lost your real desires for this camping trip between day eleven and day twenty.

So around the third week....the thrill of this camping experience has worn off.  When the First Sargent has directed folks to get involved and guide this crew to do a stupid act simply to keep them busy.....you start to slow down and get stupid.   You dislike the whole crew, the whole brigade.  Your clothing isn't ever fresh.  Your food is lousy.  And your belief in this whole deployment is started to fizzle a bit.  If this is an exercise.....you simply count the days on a calendar until you can leave.

I gaze over to the Occupy crowd, and I kinda see the same behavior now.  The fun isn't there anymore.  It's cold at night.  You've had your fill of this business now after four weeks.  You'd like to sleep in a real house.  Your love interest is now becoming a daily thing on your mind.

When does Occupy end?  You'd like to have a calendar and a magic day.....but you don't have that.  And some idiot is talking about standing your ground until November of 2012.  Your frustrations are mounting. Your hostility toward cops and regular people is doubling up every single day.  You consume beer and weed now on a daily basis.....just to lessen the frustration.

And somewhere there....you are beginning to question every single day now.