
The 99% Is a Myth– How It Breaks Down - PunchTornado
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/560222/america-class-problem/?single_page=true
======
ralusek
"Today's 9.9% have convinced themselves they don't have any privileges."

Have they? If anything, the primary arguments against the concept of privilege
haven't been the denial of privilege in general, but rather the hyper-fixation
on "white" or "male" privilege, and acknowledging how loosely and
irresponsibly those are used to explain away all sorts of complexity in
differing outcomes.

In fact, many of the advocates for serious restructuring of wealth
redistribution mechanisms seem to be coming out of the higher echelons of
society. Even many free-market-advocate-types are fully onboard with concepts
akin to UBI as technology reshapes people's capabilities to meaningfully
contribute to the market.

------
curtis
Jordan Weissmann's response in Slate is worth a read:

 _Actually, the 1 Percent Are Still The Problem The Atlantic trots out a
familiar argument blaming the upper-middle class for income inequality. It’s
wrong._

[https://slate.com/business/2018/05/forget-the-
atlantics-9-9-...](https://slate.com/business/2018/05/forget-the-
atlantics-9-9-percent-the-1-percent-are-still-the-problem.html)

Here's Weissmann's concluding paragraph.

> _Stewart and Reeves are right to point out that the American upper class is
> bigger than just the top 1 percent. There are, indeed, many layers of
> economic privilege in this country. But they’re doing it in a way that
> essentially asks us to forget a lot of what we’ve learned about how income
> and wealth are really concentrating in this country. The 1 percent vs. the
> 99 percent may not be a perfect shorthand for what ails the economy, but
> it’s a whole lot more useful than what they’ve offered up._

