After some time looking I finally found the number I’ve been after, which is the cutoff point in terms of the wealth of those elusive and mysterious  “1% people” everybody is talking about.  Here’s the excellent research document:

http://www.levyinstitute.org/pubs/wp_589.pdf

We learn that the cutoff for moving from the impoverished 99% to those nasty ONE PERCENTERS is …. wait for it …. a  Net worth of $8,232,000 or more..

WoW.

So here’s the problem if you are an anti occupation person – those one percenters SURE have a LOT of money!    In fact as you go into the category of the super duper rich – the top tenth of a percent, you get wealth so great it’s hard for most of us to even imagine – hundreds of millions of dollars.

HOWEVER if you are a “pro occupation” person I think you have even a bigger problem, and that’s the thing most  would not even call a “problem” at all, it’s the fact that we are SO prosperous here in America that millions and millions of people who are well below the “one percent” mark are incredibly well off .   Somebody with 7 million in the bank won’t make the 1% cut, but clearly they are very rich.

How moved should we be by a movement that considers millionaires to be among the disadvantaged in America?  

Of course the 99% folks don’t mean it literally, rather they are concerned that a small number of elite rich folks control the whole show.   It’s an important topic, yet it seems to me the concept of exploitation of the poor by the rich weakens as you examine closely the actual data as well as the procedures and power structures as well as how things work in the country’s business and political circles.  Lots of redistribution is already taking place, though tax critics will reasonably note that taxes go mostly to entitlements for the middle class and the defense department.   Higher taxes are not necessarily a path to “greater fairness”.

Certainly we want more even distribution of America’s massive wealth, but it’s also important to keep the production levels high so we have something to redistribute.  This balance is not easy.  Not easy at all.