So just who is the 99%?

[crazy canuck]

I'm pretty sure that it comes out of that stat that 1% of the US population controls more than 50% of the wealth.

So it's not about income, it's about assets, and it's not about poor people in other countries.

and 1% of the planet controls more than 50% of its wealth - and you and I are part of that 1%.

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

[Razgovory]

I'm pretty sure that it comes out of that stat that 1% of the US population controls more than 50% of the wealth.

So it's not about income, it's about assets, and it's not about poor people in other countries.

and 1% of the planet controls more than 50% of its wealth - and you and I are part of that 1%.

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

Most people want that.

[ulmont]

Also I don't know about trusting a financial samurai but that site has a similar figure for 2010:

I think that's individual versus household.

[Valmy]

and 1% of the planet controls more than 50% of its wealth - and you and I are part of that 1%.

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

What are you suggesting?  That everytime somebody has a problem with the powers that be they have to be in support of aid for Sub-Saharan Africa or they do not pass your hypocrisy test?

[Habbaku]

Uhm no. There was a thread in the back room about it.

  No there wasn't.

[fhdz]

How many of Languishites are in the 1%?

Sure as hell isn't me. Don't worry; if I ever hit the big time, I'll give liberally to charity.

[Tamas]

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

took you a while to figure this out

[Martinus]

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

took you a while to figure this out

I don't think it's a fair way of looking at it.

The protestors - mostly young people - want for themselves what the older/richer generations got, admittedly and apparently while getting us all into the huge debt in the process. The older/richer generations now tell the protestors (rightly) that they can't have it since we are deep in shit and you can't run deficits like this anymore, but the protestors (also rightly) tell the older/richer generations then fine, but since it's the older/richer generations that got us into this, they should share some of their wealth (gotten by getting us all into debt) with the protestors.

I think the latter demand is fair, and presenting is as class warfare is simply dishonest.

[Tamas]

But it is.

Those feel being outside of the establishment wants to become part of the establishment. Those who would lose their place in the establishment are trying to stop them from doing so.
That's like history in a nutshell, ever since we were a bunch of monkey in the jungle. It is the various ideologies which support this constant struggle for a higher spot on the pack's ladder, the struggle giving birth to ideologies supporting it, not the other way around.

[crazy canuck]

and 1% of the planet controls more than 50% of its wealth - and you and I are part of that 1%.

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

What are you suggesting?  That everytime somebody has a problem with the powers that be they have to be in support of aid for Sub-Saharan Africa or they do not pass your hypocrisy test?

No, what I am suggesting is that they stop pretending they are something they are not. A large number of protestors I see here in Vancouver are kids in university who come from affluent homes.  ie they can afford to be faux protestors.  On my way to work each morning I see actual homeless people going about their usual work of looking in dumpsters for returnables.

If they want to take the political advantages of portraying themselves as the downtrodden 99% then it seems to me they also have to take risk of the hypocrisy of that statement.

[crazy canuck]

But it is.

Those feel being outside of the establishment wants to become part of the establishment. Those who would lose their place in the establishment are trying to stop them from doing so.
That's like history in a nutshell, ever since we were a bunch of monkey in the jungle. It is the various ideologies which support this constant struggle for a higher spot on the pack's ladder, the struggle giving birth to ideologies supporting it, not the other way around.

Dialectic Materialism non-sense. 

[Martinus]

and 1% of the planet controls more than 50% of its wealth - and you and I are part of that 1%.

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

What are you suggesting?  That everytime somebody has a problem with the powers that be they have to be in support of aid for Sub-Saharan Africa or they do not pass your hypocrisy test?

No, what I am suggesting is that they stop pretending they are something they are not. A large number of protestors I see here in Vancouver are kids in university who come from affluent homes.  ie they can afford to be faux protestors.  On my way to work each morning I see actual homeless people going about their usual work of looking in dumpsters for returnables.

If they want to take the political advantages of portraying themselves as the downtrodden 99% then it seems to me they also have to take risk of the hypocrisy of that statement.

I disagree. Being in the top 30% still makes you likely to belong to the bottom 99%.

And I don't buy that argument that unless you are homeless/really poor you have no right to protest. The middle class is the backbone of any society and the middle class has been hit most hard by this recession. They have every right to protest, but more importantly, the rulers better listen to them - any succesful revolution involved a revolt by the middle class.

[Martinus]

Also, I'm highly allergic to any pro-system rhetoric portraying the protesters as "spoiled youth" - because this is exactly, almost word-for-word, the rhetoric that was used in communist Poland against the student revolt of 1968 (which was sparked by antisemitic and illiberal actions of the government).

[garbon]

Also, I'm highly allergic to any pro-system rhetoric portraying the protesters as "spoiled youth" - because this is exactly, almost word-for-word, the rhetoric that was used in communist Poland against the student revolt of 1968 (which was sparked by antisemitic and illiberal actions of the government).

So you are using emotion rather than logic?

[Josephus]

and 1% of the planet controls more than 50% of its wealth - and you and I are part of that 1%.

So is it hypocrisy - the protestors want a better deal for themselves and the rest be damned?

What are you suggesting?  That everytime somebody has a problem with the powers that be they have to be in support of aid for Sub-Saharan Africa or they do not pass your hypocrisy test?

No, what I am suggesting is that they stop pretending they are something they are not. A large number of protestors I see here in Vancouver are kids in university who come from affluent homes.  ie they can afford to be faux protestors.  On my way to work each morning I see actual homeless people going about their usual work of looking in dumpsters for returnables.

If they want to take the political advantages of portraying themselves as the downtrodden 99% then it seems to me they also have to take risk of the hypocrisy of that statement.

I'm not sure what you're saying.

University students should not be allowed to protest?

Universtiy studetns are not part of the 99 per cent?

Please clarify.