We have met the 1%, and he is us

Watt's up with That ^ | 1/13/2013 | Willis Eschenbach

[norwaypinesavage]

I have told these three tales in order to provide a context for a couple of quotes. The context that I am providing is that there is an almost inconceivable distance from the top of the heap to the bottom of the heap. The top of the heap is the 1%, not of the US, but of the global population. That 1% is made up of the people like you and me and the folks who read this blog who live in the western world, the top few percent of the global population who enjoy the full benefits of development, the winners on the planet. It’s a long, long way from where we stand down to the bottom of the heap

[norwaypinesavage]

Willis tells three personal stories of the dire poverty he has seen in the world, and compares that to the great wealth of most all in the US.

[cuban leaf]

My mother was arguing with my democrat uncle back in the late 60’s. He said he was a democrat because they look out for the little guy. She asked him if he had a job. He said yes. She said, “Then you aren’t the little guy.”

We are seeing the culmination of decades of wealth redistribution and we just get used to it. Fact is, our founding father’s grievances were far less than what the producers put up with to day. It was the principle. And the principle AND the actual taxes, are FAR worse than they were then, yet we do nothing because the “king” is WAY too powerful. That’s just the way it is.

It will be like the fall of rome. It will implode.

[HiTech RedNeck]

The GOP, at least the older ones, believed that you looked out for the little guy by giving him a fair chance to become big.

[Behind the Blue Wall]

The warming alarmists have an answer for this one. They will tax the 1% to subsidize the price of energy for the poor.

[Girlene]

Very good article....thanks for posting it. Great stories and his conclusions are spot on.

[Standing Wolf]

Everyone in the world could easily become much, much more prosperous—but that would require abandoning efforts to tear down America and embracing efforts to create more wealth.

Much as Europe stumbled into an ideological dark age with the Russian revolution and rise of Italian fascism and German national socialism, so is America now stumbling into a self-proclaimed "progressive" dark age. I predict we'll take much of the world with us. How has this come to pass in the richest and freest nation in the world? I believe we owe much of it to our loss of civic virtue.

The very few always strive to rule the vast majority, and invariably slaughter millions into the bargain.

[tbw2]

Penn Jillette makes fun of some of the Occupy Wall Street idiots on Glenn Beck, mentioning that they each have several hundred dollar cell phones and monthly cell phone bills greater than the average monthly income of most people on the planet. So by definition, the Occupy Wall Street people are hypocrites AND members of the global 1%.