1% vs 99% ... wrap up

America’s inequality distorts our society in every conceivable way. There is, for one thing, a well-documented lifestyle effect—people outside the top 1 percent ( US ) increasingly live beyond their means. Trickle-down economics may be a chimera, but trickle-down behaviorism is very real. Inequality massively distorts our foreign policy. The top 1 percent rarely serve in the military—the reality is that the “all-volunteer” army does not pay enough to attract their sons and daughters, and patriotism goes only so far. Plus, the wealthiest class feels no pinch from higher taxes when the nation goes to war: borrowed money will pay for all that. Foreign policy, by definition, is about the balancing of national interests and national resources. With the top 1 percent in charge, and paying no price, the notion of balance and restraint goes out the window. There is no limit to the adventures we can undertake; corporations and contractors stand only to gain. The rules of economic globalization are likewise designed to benefit the rich: they encourage competition among countries for business, which drives down taxes on corporations, weakens health and environmental protections, and undermines what used to be viewed as the “core” labor rights, which include the right to collective bargaining. Imagine what the world might look like if the rules were designed instead to encourage competition among countries for workers. Governments would compete in providing economic security, low taxes on ordinary wage earners, good education, and a clean environment—things workers care about. But the top 1 percent don’t need to care.
Historically, the majority ruled. Politicians and the weathly worked WITH the common person to  keep them happy as employees. As the shift began to a true global economy, the employee being happy was no longer a NEED of the 1%. So the shift in "power" started to TILT. Life was changing with Reagan in power. The 1980's changed everything. The wealthy got Wealthier and the poor did not advance at the same rate.

Table 3: Share of wealth held by the Bottom 99% and Top 1% in the United States, 1929-2007.

	99%	1%
1929	55.8%	44.2%
1933	66.7%	33.3%
1939	63.6%	36.4%
1945	70.2%	29.8%
1949	72.9%	27.1%
1953	68.8%	31.2%
1962	68.2%	31.8%
1965	65.6%	34.4%
1969	68.9%	31.1%
1972	70.9%	29.1%
1976	80.1%	19.9%
1979	79.5%	20.5%
1981	75.2%	24.8%
1983	69.1%	30.9%
1986	68.1%	31.9%
1989	64.3%	35.7%
1992	62.8%	37.2%
1995	61.5%	38.5%
1998	61.9%	38.1%
2001	66.6%	33.4%
2004	65.7%	34.3%
2007	65.4%	34.6%

Sources: 1929-1989 data from Wolff (1996).
* 1990 - 1991 unavailable.
1992-2007 data from Wolff (2010).

 Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important. 

America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them. It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East: rising food prices and growing and persistent youth unemployment simply served as kindling. With youth unemployment in America at around 20 percent (and in some locations, and among some socio-demographic groups, at twice that); with one out of six Americans desiring a full-time job not able to get one; with one out of seven Americans on food stamps (and about the same number suffering from “food insecurity”)—given all this, there is ample evidence that something has blocked the vaunted “trickling down” from the top 1 percent to everyone else.We have been starring at 21% unemployment. People have lost hope, and they are lashing out! 

The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles.

Something the lowest 99% wish they could have.. a house/apartment/shelter to stay in, an education for themselves and their children, access to medical care and a lifestyle as good as they used to have or that was obtainable.. before they became disposable and replaced.

We are America ! The United States of America, how did we fall so low? Look so bad and let ourselves get this way... We became complacent, content and blind to the fact that we were owned. By the 1%. Manipulated into working just a little harder each decade to stay where we were the decade before.  Like the boiling a frog analogy. The fire was increased ever so slightly until we are now COOKED! 

DONE!