1 > 39 and other inequalities
The 1% is now another umbrella term that tries to make the other 99% feel like they have things in common. The truth is that they don’t.
By wealth the world is not split in 1% and 99%. It is in fact split between the “top” 1%, next 4%, 5%, 10%, then the “middle” 40% and last the “bottom” 40%. For clarity I will make the middle 39% and the bottom 41% so that we can differentiate them better.
The percent badge
— you are born with —
There is a system in our society. It is not new and it occurred naturally. It is a mistake to consider this a planned event. What is planned and has always been is the work done to conserve it and keep it running for millennia. This system is made of:
The 1% -ers
the leaders, ultra rich, the system users
They are so closely related in interests that they seem like one giant classroom . So related in attitudes that they look like an extended family. This group’s biggest asset is influence. When they ask there is with 100% certainty someone who will comply. The biggest harm they do is preserving the status quo no matter the price, they can afford any price.
The 4% -ers
the elite, super rich, the system designers
These folks are simply lacking some generations of wealth accumulation. Some are 1%-ers fallen because of whatever. This group’s biggest asset is mentality. They hold strong minded opinions coupled with high education standards. They output the needed intellectual and cultural norms that hold society in place. The biggest harm they do is the crass opinion manipulation of the masses from womb to tomb.
The 5% -ers
the extended elite, very rich, the system engineers
That is the most interesting group. Some of these people have absolutely no part into our discussion. They are having the time of their life and are too busy at that. But the others fight hard to not squander what they’ve got. It is for them a personal duty to confirm their place inside the elite. They pamper their future generations in all available ways. This is just to make sure they will conserve and then expand the wealth. The biggest asset of this group is practicality. Lobby is their friend. Academia their lover. Politics their brother. The biggest harm they do is applying themselves to endlessly prove their status. They collect success.
The 10% -ers
the well off, rich, the system gears
This group is so large you might actually know someone in this group. You or they might not even acknowledge the membership. Your corporate CEO, is very likely in this group (if not higher). The biggest asset of this group is the unquenchable thirst for life. They strive for more every second of their wake existence. They are very much in touch with reality. The biggest harm they do is applying a double measure to others all while pampering their egos to the max.
The 39% -ers
the normal, decent, the system cogs
Among them one is probably you. If you are on medium, reading this, odds are you are in this slice. Of course you could be in any other slice, but odds are you are in this one. This slice is huge. It is so huge it has layers. You could be at a top layer and feel like a 10%-er or at a bottom layer and feel like a 41%-er. The biggest asset to of this group is self sufficiency. This provides a super thick wall against the siege of existential angst. It cracks, only sometimes and only individually, but overall it is an overwhelming success. The biggest harm they do is not getting out of themselves. Fearing the unavoidable face-off with meaninglessness they imagine their way into the grave.
The 41% -ers
the long-tail, poor, the system oil
This is where you’re so thankful you’re not, or you are desperate to get out of. From refugees to tribal people. From people earning the cost of toilet paper to people subsisting from agriculture. Everyone is at this party with empty pockets. This group has no assets other than sheer numbers. The biggest harm they do is functioning in survival mode their entire life. Too bad they ignore the sentencing of their children in the process.
So there are roughly 5 other groups out of the 1%. In which are you when fighting for equality?
Demagogy
— you are bombarded with —
I loathe the revolutionary discourse against the accretion of wealth without any solution. What is the alternative? How do we fix this? Do you think taxation will solve it? It won’t because how much can you take from one’s wealth without transforming law into theft? The 1% is made of a lot of individuals, over 15 million people. That is a small country. What are we going to do, confiscate goods and liquidate accounts?
Proposed fixes for equality are shallow. They only propose Robin Hood style “take from the rich give to the poor” actions. But within legal limits they don’t help equality much.
- Eliminate certain deductions => 1% = 4%
- Progressive taxation => 1% = 5%
- Full socialist taxation => 1% = 10%
That is about all we can do via “global” and demagogic policies. Then here is the gap that only capitalism has been able to somehow cross so far. How do you get beyond this point without ruining civilization and progress? Capitalism has built a — super freaking narrow — bridge over this gap. This bridge is giving one in twelve chances to those on the other side to cross into heaven.
Communism tried to fill the gap up with some sort of bullshit theory of class wars. Everyone who tried to pass got swamped and drowned in ideology or Stalinist police.
Force it? You don’t get much from forced redistribution:
- Forced 1% = 39% => hunter gatherers!
- Force 1% = 49% => stone age 🙁
Ever since agriculture set in for humanity the gap has been put in place. Its like large human settlements created this naturally, this English Channel of human societies.
It bothered me for a long time that this discrepancy in wealth exists in the world. I hate my condition too, I work too much. I paid with health for having a house of mine. But when I started to buy into this 1% propaganda my bells started to bang louder and louder: what does this mean? Why should I be angry at this? Don’t we the ones at the bottom of the pyramid enjoy our life as designed from “above”?
As of yet there is thought police by means of lobby. If you dare say political correctness is thought police I will fire you from being human. Go back to primate life and let me be a creature with superior thought processes. Lobby, on the other hand, bends consequences. This is thought police by discouragement. If a huge number of people actively sustain a cause and lobby kills their a chance, that is thought police.
But as of yet in modern, democratic, healthy societies we do not have thought police by means of police. This is good. This is indicative that:
39 + 49 > 10 + 5 + 4 + 1
Now what?
—Occupy. #youdidntbuildthat. Conspiration. Illuminati. Meh. OK. —
Now what? Instead of focusing on hatred against the few, what do we the rest actually do? For Christ’s sake, those complaining every day carry on like inequality doesn’t exist. Then they vote for the guy who says #youdidntbuildthat. On weekends they post selfies at some Occupy flash mob. But most of us live in healthy democracies. We do have the tools, where are the think tanks of the 39%? I tell you where: ass kissing the 10 + 5 + 4 afraid we might slip into the dreaded 41% swamp.
One may think capitalism has bred the inequality instead of human nature. But then we have 50 years of failed socialist experiments. If you yearn for socialism after that, then you clearly are a dreamer. That is good, but you are not determined.
Utopias drain determination because they’re so fucking impossible. Why would I start running towards the horizon? I’ll never get there. It only keeps my eyes too damn high so that I can stumble at the tenth step.
Dystopias drain motivation because they are so fucking decisive. Why would I go in that direction if there is a burning pit waiting at the end of the road? Hell no. I better stay where I am or follow the leader.
The better we seek does not come from change but from transformation. Change is boring and alternatives will almost all the time incorporate:
- the same flaws of human thinking
- the same emotional or rational biases we are hard wired with.
Transformation is about constantly iterating and perfecting the world. Its like in software development: a rewrite is almost always a bad idea. You might refactor here and there but iterations add incremental improvements that add up.
We should do this too at society level. Why do we vote the same rich folks with obvious interest groups rallied around them? Why do candidates with less visibility fail to be voted? Why don’t we do more activist work for the children of the future? Our main assets are motivation and size. Lets gather up the much needed determination!
Do you feel like this hit any spot?
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