You may have been wondering: How does it really break down between the 99 percent and the 1 percent?

Slate has some great answers, including these conclusions:

One thing is inarguably true: The 99 percent don’t have 99 percent of anything, money-wise, in the United States…. Inequality has increased in the past decade, leaving the 99 percent with smaller and smaller proportions of income and wealth. And it has many economists, public policy wonks, and, well, protesters very, very worried.

This is, I think, the genius of the Occupy movement. With one phrase—”We are the 99 percent”—it has focused people on something problematic, incontrovertible, and until now pretty much ignored.

Eli Sanders is The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won this,...

One reply on “The Actual Wealth of the 99 Percent (As Compared to the 1 Percent)”

  1. Why is it problematic? I don’t care if 99% of the houses out there are larger than mine as long as mine is sufficient for my needs. I don’t care if 99% of the people out there can buy more food than me, if I’m never hungry.

    It’s an effective slogan — I’ll grant you — but it’s also a prejudiced, divisive, superficial, and lame slogan. If the question is whether everyone has sufficient means or opportunity to live a healthy and productive life, then I agree it’s a question that should be discussed and a problem that needs to be addressed. But if it’s just a matter of class envy and hatred? Then it’s just the same sort of unproductive demagoguery too often a part of politics as usual between the Republicans and Democrats.

    Doesn’t it seem hypocritical, anyway, for an Adbusters started protest to be using a McSlogan?

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