This is a good time to reflect again upon PG's essay 'Mind the Gap' - http://paulgraham.com/gap.html
Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
11–20 of 86 posts
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#12Top 1% in income is, hmm, $500kish? I hate to break it to you, but that isn't a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (that would imply the had 99 employees apiece, right?) or a hedge fund owner. That's like a couple dozen people who post to HN, or someone with a successful medical practice, or a well-rewarded peon who has leverage in an industry made of money. (A quant, for example.) $500k is a lot of money, but it isn't "se…
A more precise title would be "Of the 0.1% By the 0.1% and For the 0.1%" but perhaps that would be too wonkish for vanity fair. It's an opinion piece for a general audience not an academic journal article.
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#13This is written more like a speech by a politician than as an attempt at analysis. The type of economic inequality that successful startups yield, and which accounts for a lot of the entries in the Forbes 400, is described merely as a theory cherished by the rich, and dismissed with evidence it would be a compliment to call anecdotal. And while there's a lot of talk about how the rich own the government, he doesn't e…
It lacks in analysis because it's an opinion piece for a general audience, hence the use of anecdotes. Its not an academic article. No offense, but your articles often use anecdotes to make a point.
For example, you write: "As anyone who has worked for the government knows, the important thing is not to make the right choices, but to make choices that can be justified later if they fail."
What evidence do you have of this? What about agencies like DARPA? Your statement could also apply to employees of large corporations.
You are doing the same thing that Joe Stigliz did in the article (without his academic ethos)
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#14Top 1% in income is, hmm, $500kish? I hate to break it to you, but that isn't a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (that would imply the had 99 employees apiece, right?) or a hedge fund owner. That's like a couple dozen people who post to HN, or someone with a successful medical practice, or a well-rewarded peon who has leverage in an industry made of money. (A quant, for example.) $500k is a lot of money, but it isn't "se…
Your list of examples brings to mind a question I've had in my head for a while...
What are the professions where a hard working and intelligent person can reach a $500k income with a high degree of certainty?
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#15NYT piece from a few days ago shows trends of top income earners over the last 90 years - http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/30/inequality-is-m...
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#16We all agree the article's dumb and pretty poorly written. Many lower income people pay no income taxes at all. I think that's rightly so, but it seems silly to write about a lack of redistribution in the US. In fact, the top 50% of households in income paid 97% of income taxes in 2008.
What is troubling, and what the author ignores, is the changing distribution of returns in our economy. There's no point in trying to legislate it away, but more and more work is becoming automated. We're in the middle of a second industrial revolution, and many kinds of work that people rely on for income and identity will go away over time. Will we end up in a society where 90% of us, who don't have the skills to be productive, are subsidized by the remaining 10%? That seems like an awful outcome from a social perspective, but I'm not sure how we should respond to it.
From a policy perspective, I would like to see a higher short-term capital gains rate to limit the attractiveness of financial instrument trading, and I think carry income (on VC and private equity) should be taxed as income, not at the lower rate for capital gains. But apart from those areas, we need to address the long-term trend of growing income inequality as a society, not with legislation.
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#17Top 1% in income is, hmm, $500kish? I hate to break it to you, but that isn't a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (that would imply the had 99 employees apiece, right?) or a hedge fund owner. That's like a couple dozen people who post to HN, or someone with a successful medical practice, or a well-rewarded peon who has leverage in an industry made of money. (A quant, for example.) $500k is a lot of money, but it isn't "se…
250k of household income puts you at the 98.3 percentile, so any two married valley engineers probably qualify, and they probably can't afford a house. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...
>, and they probably can't afford a house.
I moved to the bay area recently, and I'm an engineer. I was kind of wondering how people actually live out here. I came here from New York, so I get how people can rent for their whole lives, but I had thought that there'd be more reasonable home ownership in the bay area.
Not so. :\
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#18Top 1% in income is, hmm, $500kish? I hate to break it to you, but that isn't a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (that would imply the had 99 employees apiece, right?) or a hedge fund owner. That's like a couple dozen people who post to HN, or someone with a successful medical practice, or a well-rewarded peon who has leverage in an industry made of money. (A quant, for example.) $500k is a lot of money, but it isn't "se…
250k of household income puts you at the 98.3 percentile, so any two married valley engineers probably qualify, and they probably can't afford a house. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_...
Same situation here in the UK - you become one of the hated "rich" at about GBP 37k where income tax goes up to 40%. Nowhere in the Home Counties is that enough to get a mortgage even on a 1-bedroom flat, let alone a house. A super-tax of 50% kicks in at GBP 150k - but an ordinary family home costs around GBP 500k.
As normal in politics, the middle classes are being raped for the benefit of those at the top and at the bottom.
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#19Top 1% in income is, hmm, $500kish? I hate to break it to you, but that isn't a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (that would imply the had 99 employees apiece, right?) or a hedge fund owner. That's like a couple dozen people who post to HN, or someone with a successful medical practice, or a well-rewarded peon who has leverage in an industry made of money. (A quant, for example.) $500k is a lot of money, but it isn't "se…
Your list of examples brings to mind a question I've had in my head for a while... What are the professions where a hard working and intelligent person can reach a $500k income with a high degree of certainty?
Medicine, specifically dentistry.
Re: Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
#20Top 1% in income is, hmm, $500kish? I hate to break it to you, but that isn't a CEO of a Fortune 500 company (that would imply the had 99 employees apiece, right?) or a hedge fund owner. That's like a couple dozen people who post to HN, or someone with a successful medical practice, or a well-rewarded peon who has leverage in an industry made of money. (A quant, for example.) $500k is a lot of money, but it isn't "se…
Your list of examples brings to mind a question I've had in my head for a while... What are the professions where a hard working and intelligent person can reach a $500k income with a high degree of certainty?
Hooker or porno star