The 99% includes those in the top quintile - surprise!

I think one thread that earlier seemed to be missing from the We Are the 99 Percent Tumblr, was any messages from those in the top 20%, but now I am seeing some.

My family is in the top 20% of income distribution.  We're doing OK, and are able to save a little.  But the only reason why we are in good shape has a lot to do with luck and timing.



I graduated near the top of my class from an elite liberal arts college in 2003 back when the unemployment rate was 4%.  I was extraordinarily lucky to land my first job that seeded my career and allowed my income to grow quickly during the Greenspan credit bubble.  Today, I am in probably the single cohort with the lowest unemployment rate.

My fortunes would be entirely different if I were graduating this year, I'm certain of that.  Those that spout generalizations about the protesters being lazy whiners (ahem, Herman Cain) either aren't taking any effort to see the world from the perspective of a recent college graduate, or are just intellectually dishonest.

Besides simple empathy, I identify with the 99% movement because I worry about the future.  I fear that I could save as much money as I can, and I will still possibly retire in poverty.  Why?

• I could be wiped out by a single lawsuit.  Only the top 5% really have the money it takes to effectively protect oneself in today's legal system.
• The completely corrupt crony capitalism that has been the rule in DC and New York for decades could rob me of all my money.  The federal reserve could inflate it away to protect their banker friends.  A tea-party government could reduce taxes on the rich and repeal health care reform, thus transferring anything that would otherwise be savings for me over to profit-taking corporations in the form of higher payments for access to healthcare.
• The retirement savings plan du-jour is the 401(k) in which your pre-tax income gets effectively put in the hands of the gamblers that got us into this mess in the midst of a system with a completely irrelevant regulatory schema.  That could be taken away from me too through catastrophic failure of some sort (hmmm...what could I be talking about)
• Finally, my skills could become irrelevant to domestic employers when people in other countries could do it for less money.

That is why I am part of the 99%.  What I have is tenuous and transitory, while the New York/Washington DC power machine is rewarding those with no morals and lots of connections with enough money to bury all of those risks that keep me up at night.