On Tue, Dec 4, 2012 at 5:26 PM, kirby urner <kirby.urner@gmail.com> wrote:
...

> So this myth that there's a 1% elite of financially well-to-do that rules
> the world

...

> There is no such thing as the 1%, or the 99%, but it helps to have a peg to
> hang your mask on anyway.

It's a brute mathematical fact that now more than 90% of all newly
created wealth and income goes to the top 1% of the income
distribution, but even just recently it was much less than that -
under Clinton it was down around just 40%.

That doesn't translate easily into being a ruling elite though. Look at history.

I'm not saying I don't believe in smallish cliques and cabals with power and influence.

A lot of them don't have tons of money though.

It's not like the "1%" are all in collusion, planning the future behind closed doors, while the "99%" are out in the cold, clueless and not contributing.

That's way too simplistic a caricature.

> We don't buy in to the silly obsolete concepts they still buy "back east"
> where the infrastructure is more decayed and the people think more like
> Euros and Brits (poor slobs).
>

Silly obsolete concepts? Poor slobs? It's a brute mathematical fact
that the Scandinavian countries are per capita the richest countries
in the world, where, for example, the per capita nominal GDP of Norway
is twice as large as that of the US. And it's a brute fact that
according to the science that actually tries to measure happiness
among countries, Norway is the happiest country in the world.

So by your reasoning do Scandinavian countries now rule the world?

Kirby