>>>>>>>http://www.businessinsider.com/an-investment-managers-view-2013-11

>>Do you expect them to simply give away their money until you both have more equal amounts?
>>
>>How is that not greed and jealousy?
>
>Mike - did you actually read the article? It says that the top 0.5% or 0.1% aren't just doing better than everyone else (which is tautological). It's says they're doing so by activities that are harmful to the economy as a whole. Opposing that is not class envy.

It says that?

Where?

It says:

The picture is clear; entry into the top 0.5% and, particularly, the top 0.1% is usually the result of some association with the financial industry and its creations. I find it questionable as to whether the majority in this group actually adds value or simply diverts value from the US economy and business into its pockets and the pockets of the uber-wealthy who hire them. They are, of course, doing nothing illegal.


And it says:


I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the U.S. political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9% are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5%, much less the top 0.1%. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules. I am not optimistic.


But where does it actually say harm is being done?

What harm?

You know what it does say.

While income and lifestyle are all relative, an after-tax income between $6.6k and $8.3k per month today will hardly buy the fantasy lifestyles that Americans see on TV and would consider "rich".

Those in the 99th to 99.5th percentile lack access to power.

That's the harm, isn't it?

You are in the 1% but not the 0.5%, so you don't have real power and based on television shows, you can't imagine yourself as actually being rich.

That doesn't harm the economy as a whole.

It just means there are people more rich and more powerful than you, and you can't stand it.