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I hate to rain on your parade... As you can see, the action is in the top 1 percentile, and the real action is in the top 0.01 percentile. It doesn't so much

I hate to rain on your parade... As you can see, the action is in the top 1 percentile, and the real action is in the top 0.01 percentile. It doesn't so much matter how people feel. It matters what the reality is. If you make 250k there are millions of people who make much less than you do. The top 5% in a country of 310 million is a lot of people. I'm not necessarily even favoring dramatically increasing taxes on the lower threshold of rich people, but I don't want to pretend like the life of a family that makes 250k+ and a family that makes 60k are very similar. This issue is about self-awareness, not "the other guys".

brg 16y ago
What are the significant differences between these two families that we shouldn't pretend to gloss over? I grew up extremely poor, my father making around 18k a year at the time he was required to provide his tax statements for a student loan. There were no high profile private schools in my area, and so I attended school with the children of doctors, lawyers, bankers, and the local newscaster. While they often had newer clothes, I don't think our childhood experience or family situation were much different. And now, when I look to start a family of my own, I cant see how having a family income of 4x that of my parents is going to induce any significant change. Perhaps if I make it to 10x my fathers wage I'll see these difference you speak of, but as of now I don't see them.
- entangld 16y ago
  Well I have a friend who makes more in 1 day than I pay in rent. He talks about being broke all of the time, but doesn't mention the fact that he's always traveling, has bought 3 cars in a year and lives in a large house and he started and shut down a business within 1 year. He doesn't think he has money, but that's because he spends it. If he could afford those things, so can other people in his bracket. If he saved all of his money he might complain about his poor lifestyle, but for some reason he doesn't seem to realize that they're all choices. He could have easily bought a house half the size and price. It would stil be large. The article was right.
orijing 16y ago
Well, I didn't mean to say that the 60k and 240k families are "similar" but my suggestion was that they are much more similar (despite the 50 percentile gap) than the 240k is to someone 4 percentile above him. So it's relative similarity I'm referring to, if that makes any sense.

brg 16y ago

What are the significant differences between these two families that we shouldn't pretend to gloss over? I grew up extremely poor, my father making around 18k a year at the time he was required to provide his tax statements for a student loan. There were no high profile private schools in my area, and so I attended school with the children of doctors, lawyers, bankers, and the local newscaster. While they often had newer clothes, I don't think our childhood experience or family situation were much different. And now, when I look to start a family of my own, I cant see how having a family income of 4x that of my parents is going to induce any significant change. Perhaps if I make it to 10x my fathers wage I'll see these difference you speak of, but as of now I don't see them.

entangld 16y ago
Well I have a friend who makes more in 1 day than I pay in rent. He talks about being broke all of the time, but doesn't mention the fact that he's always traveling, has bought 3 cars in a year and lives in a large house and he started and shut down a business within 1 year. He doesn't think he has money, but that's because he spends it. If he could afford those things, so can other people in his bracket. If he saved all of his money he might complain about his poor lifestyle, but for some reason he doesn't seem to realize that they're all choices. He could have easily bought a house half the size and price. It would stil be large. The article was right.

orijing 16y ago

Well, I didn't mean to say that the 60k and 240k families are "similar" but my suggestion was that they are much more similar (despite the 50 percentile gap) than the 240k is to someone 4 percentile above him. So it's relative similarity I'm referring to, if that makes any sense.