“The top 1 percent of households took a bigger share of overall income in 2007 than they did at any time since 1928.”-Annie Lowrey, New York Times
Here’s a shocker; in New York City the top 1% average U.S.$3.7 million in income, according to Christopher Ketcham.
The IRS and the CBO have already proven with their data that the top 1% have been acting like money vampires, sucking money out of our economic system.
What kind of jobs do the 1% have? According to a CNNMoney report, 8.4% are attorneys, 14% are financial professionals, 15.7% are medical professionals, and 31% run Corporate America (executives, managers and supervisors).
Mother Jones has a more detailed breakdown. MJ also shows that most of the wealth of the top 1% is invested in paper (stocks, securities, trusts, equities), not traditional real estate.
AlterNet gives top five astounding facts about the 1%: “1. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Owns 40 Percent of the Nation’s Wealth, 2. The Top 1 Percent of Americans Take Home 24 Percent of National Income, 3. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Own Half of the Country’s Stocks, Bonds and Mutual Funds, 4. The Top 1 Percent Of Americans Have Only 5 Percent of the Nation’s Personal Debt, 5. The Top 1 Percent are Taking In More of the Nation’s Income Than at Any Other Time Since the 1920s.” AlterNet breaks down each of their claims with facts.
So how many of these money suckers are there, how many vampires make up the 1%? Approximately 1,400,00 (according to the IRS). Compare that to the total U.S. population of 308,745,538 (according to 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data). 1.4 million vampires are sucking the money out of more than 300 million people!!!
And what about raising taxes on the top elites? According to IRS data, reported by Bloomberg Businessweek, the top 400, out of the 1.4 million money suckers, actually paid less taxes in 2007. These super elite vampires (the Count Draculas of the money suckers) saw their effective tax rates fall from nearly 30% in 1995 to under 17% in 2007!!!
I still don’t understand why there isn’t more of the 99% joining the Occupy America (OWS, Occupy Wall Street) movement, unless they’re under the spell of the money sucking vampire elites known as the 1%.