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We are the 99%

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This article is about the slogan. For the movement, see Occupy movement.
Solidarity poster referencing the "We are the 99%" slogan

We are the 99% is a political slogan widely used by the "Occupy" protesters.[1] It was originally the name of a Tumblr blog page launched in late August 2011 by an anonymous 28-year-old New York activist named "Chris."[2][3][4] The phrase indirectly refers to the vast concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99%, and reflects a commonly held belief that the common people ("the 99%") are paying the price for the mistakes of a tiny minority.[5][6][7] The phrase was picked up as a unifying slogan[8] by the Occupy movement.[9] According to the Wall Street Journal, a person needs to earn at least $506,000 annually to be in the top 1% of the income distribution in the United States.[10]

History

One attribution is to a tumblr blog[11] which via viral marketing became an Internet meme, showing a picture of a person holding a piece of paper with their story on it, ending with the phrase, "We are the 99%,"[12] but there are older historical precedents for the meme.

Precedents for "the wealthiest 1%" and "the 99 percent"

Graph showing changes in real US incomes in top 1%, middle 60%, and bottom 20% from 1979 through 2007.[13]

The concept of percentages has a long history. Roman emperor Augustus levied a tax on all goods sold at auction in terms of fractions normalised on 100. It was, however, not until the 15th century that the term "per cento" came into use, with the % symbol first appearing in the 17th century.[14]

The English author Aldous Huxley, in a letter dated 21 April 1947, responded to a request by his brother Julian, Director-General of UNESCO, for his comments on the proposed Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "...think of what ninety nine percent of the human race want – food, shelter, a secure family life and to be left alone by bosses and busybodies. Unfortunately the one percent who are interested in power and ideals and ideologies are the ones who call the tune."[15] The quote was posted on a UNESCO webpage in 2005, and was included in an article in the Summer 2011 issue of The Journal of Church and State (distributed June 2011).[16]

In 1987, SMU economics Professor Ravi Batra reached #1 on the New York Times best seller list with a book linking a rise in "the share of wealth held by the richest 1 percent" to speculative manias and depressions.[17][18][19] During the 2000 Presidential candidate debates between Al Gore and George W. Bush, Gore relentlessly[20] and memorably[21] accused his opponent of supporting the "wealthiest one percent" rather than the welfare of everyone else.[22] In 2006, filmmaker and Johnson & Johnson heir Jamie Johnson filmed a documentary called The One Percent about the growing wealth-gap between America's wealthy elite compared to the overall citizenry. The film's title referred to the top one-percent of Americans in terms of wealth, who controlled 38% of the nation's wealth in 2001.[23] Joseph Stiglitz, a 2001 Nobel laureate and Columbia University economics professor, wrote an article for Vanity Fair in May 2011[24][25][26] entitled "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" and claimed that the wealthiest one percent of U.S. citizens control 40 percent of the American wealth.[27][28] In 2011, Dan Rather reported[29] that independent media maven Priscilla Grim and her friend Chris launched the "we are the 99%" tumblr blog on September 8, that went viral.[30]

Variations on the slogan

  • "We are the 1 percent; we stand with the 99 percent"– by members of the "one percent" who wish to express their support for higher taxes, such as nonprofit organizations Resource Generation and Wealth for the Common Good.[31][32]
  • "We are the 53%"– In response to the slogan, conservative RedState.com blogger Erick Erickson (along with Josh Trevino, communications director for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and filmmaker Mike Wilson[33]) launched a counter-slogan—"We are the 53%"—referring to the 53% of Americans whose income is high enough to pay federal income taxes.[34]

Economic context

Occupy Wall Street protestors in Oakland holding "We are the 99%"-themed signs

"We are the 99%" is a political slogan and an implicit economic claim of "Occupy" protesters. It refers to the increased concentration of wealth since the 1970s among the top 1% of income earners in the United States. The Congressional Budget Office says that between 1979 and 2007 incomes of the top 1% of Americans grew by an average of 275%. During the same time period, the 60% of Americans in the middle of the income scale saw their income rise by 40%. Since 1979 the average pre-tax income for the bottom 90% of households has decreased by $900, while that of the top 1% increased by over $700,000, as federal taxation became less progressive. From 1992-2007 the top 400 income earners in the U.S. saw their income increase 392% and their average tax rate reduced by 37%.[35] In 2009, the average income of the top 1% was $960,000 with a minimum income of $343,927.[36][37][38] In 2007 the richest 1% of the American population owned 34.6% of the country's total wealth, and the next 19% owned 50.5%. Thus, the top 20% of Americans owned 85% of the country's wealth and the bottom 80% of the population owned 15%. Financial inequality[specify] was greater than inequality in total wealth, with the top 1% of the population owning 42.7%, the next 19% of Americans owning 50.3%, and the bottom 80% owning 7%.[39] However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%.[40][41] During the economic expansion between 2002 and 2007, the income of the top 1% grew 10 times faster than the income of the bottom 90%. In this period 66% of total income gains went to the 1%, who in 2007 had a larger share of total income than at any time since 1928.[42]

 

A chart showing the disparity in income distribution in the United States.[42][43] Wealth inequality and income inequality have been central concerns among OWS protesters.[44][45][46] CBO data shows that in 1980, the top 1% earned 9.1% of all income, while in 2006 they earned 18.8% of all income.[47]

Following the recession of the late 2000s (decade), the economy in the United States continued to experience a jobless recovery. New York Times columnist Anne-Marie Slaughter described pictures on the "We are the 99" website as "page after page of testimonials from members of the middle class who took out loans to pay for education, took out mortgages to buy their houses and a piece of the American dream, worked hard at the jobs they could find, and ended up unemployed or radically underemployed and on the precipice of financial and social ruin."[48] With market uncertainty due to fears of a double-dip recession[49] and the downgrade of the US credit rating in the summer of 2011, the topics of how much the rich pay in taxes[50] and how to solve the nation's economic crisis were predominant in media commentary.[51] When Congress returned from break, proposed policy solutions came from both major parties as the 2012 Republican presidential debates occurred almost simultaneously with President Obama's September 9 proposal of the American Jobs Act. On September 17, President Obama further announced an economic policy proposal for taxing millionaires known as the Buffett Rule. This immediately led to public statements by House Speaker John Boehner,[52] President Obama,[52] and Republican Mitt Romney[53] over whether the Democrats were fomenting "class warfare".[54]

Economist Paul Krugman writes that "the slogan correctly defines the issue as being the middle class versus the elite and also gets past the common but wrong notion that rising inequality is mainly about the well educated doing better than the less educated." However, he says that if anything, the 99 percent slogan aims too low because a large fraction of the top 1 percent’s gains have actually gone to an even smaller group, the top 0.1 percent — the richest one-thousandth of the population. Krugman argues against even further tax cuts for the very rich because they are "job creators", calling it propaganda. He argues that very few of the super-wealthy are job innovators, most of them are "corporate bigwigs and financial wheeler-dealers", and he refers to a recent analysis that found that 43 percent of the super-elite are executives at nonfinancial companies, 18 percent are in finance and another 12 percent are lawyers or in real estate. Commenting on the ongoing economic crisis he writes, "[the] seemingly high returns before the crisis simply reflected increased risk-taking — risk that was mostly borne not by the wheeler-dealers themselves but either by naïve investors or by taxpayers, who ended up holding the bag when it all went wrong".[55]

Criticisms

According to a 2011 article by CNBC writer Jeff Cox,[56] the 1% does not constitute merely corporate CEOs, bankers or stock traders, but also people in occupations not typically targeted by wealth disparity protestors. Based on a 2010 study by Jon Bakija et al. covering data since 2005 (whose results, Cox concedes, would be affected by the 2000s (decade) recession), executives, managers and non-financial supervisors make up 6.35% of the 1%, while finance professionals make up 2.77%, doctors 1.85% and lawyers 1.22%. Other occupations such as farmers, scientists, pilots, real estate professionals and entertainers each comprise about 0.5% of the 1 Percenters. Cox states that sources vary on the minimum yearly income to be considered among the 1%, ranging from about $500,000 to $1.3 million, whereas CEO salaries average $3.9 million, $10.6 million for those whose companies are in the Standard & Poor’s 500 and $19.8 million for companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Cox adds that the wealthiest of the 1% (that is, the .01%), make only 19% of their income through their salaries, and make the rest through investment income, which are taxed at different rates, that they pay a disproportionate amount of their incomes to income tax, having paid 40% of the total federal personal income tax in 2006, whereas the 5 Percenters paid 60%.[56]

Cox also states that the phenomenon of wealth concentration among a small segment of the population is a century old, and argues a direct correlation between this and the health of the stock market, stating that 36.7% of the United States' wealth was controlled by the 1% in 1922, 44.2% when the stock market crashed in 1929, 19.9% in 1976, and has increased since then. Cox also says that it has intensified at the same time that the United States changed from a manufacturing leader to a financial services leader. Cox takes issue with protestors' focus on income and wealth, and with their embrace of allies such as Susan Sarandon and Russell Simmons, who are themselves in the 1%.[56]

Joseph Barro of National Review offers similar arguments, asserting that the 1% includes those with incomes beginning at $593,000, which would exclude most Wall Street bankers.[57]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Occupy Prescott protesters call for more infrastructure investment". Western News&Info, Inc. Retrieved 2011-11-17. "The "99 percent" phrase has become the slogan of the Occupy Wall Street movement that has spread throughout the United States."
  2. ^ "We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed Mother Jones Fri Oct. 7, 2011 By Adam Weinstein
  3. ^ ""We Are the 99 Percent" Creators Revealed". Mother Jones and the Foundation for National Progress. Retrieved 2011-11-17."It began as a simple little idea, just another blog among millions. The Occupy Wall Street protest was scheduled to begin on September 17, and launching We Are the 99 Percent on Tumblr seemed like a good way to promote it."
  4. ^ "The World's 99 Percent". FOREIGN POLICY, PUBLISHED BY THE SLATE GROUP. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
  5. ^ Apps, Peter (October 11, 2011). "Wall Street action part of global Arab Spring?". Reuters. Retrieved 2011-11-24. "What they all share in common is a feeling that the youth and middle class are paying a high price for mismanagement and malfeasance by an out-of-touch corporate, financial and political elite...they took on slogans from U.S. protesters who describe themselves as the "99 percent" paying the price for mistakes by a tiny minority."
  6. ^ "Wall Street protests spread". CBS News. Retrieved 2011-11-17.
  7. ^ CBO: Top 1% getting exponentially richer CBS News, October 25, 2011 "The Occupy Wall Street movement has, for the most part, been formed around the idea that wealth distribution in America is unfair, and that the economic system is skewed to reward the already wealthy with the highest gains. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) appears to have confirmed that. Specifically, it has confirmed that the rich really are getting richer. Between 1979 and 2007, the top 1% of Americans with the highest incomes have seen their incomes grow by an average of 275%, according to the CBO study (PDF)"
  8. ^ Behind the Occupy Wall Street slogan 'We Are the 99%'
  9. ^ Outside of Wonkland, 'We are the 99%' Is a Pretty Good Slogan
  10. ^ Izzo, Phil (October 19, 2011). "What Percent Are You?". The Wall Street Journal.
  11. ^ Daniel Indiviglio. "Most Americans Aren't Occupy Wall Street's '99 Percent'". The Atlantic, 10/5/2011.
  12. ^ Harry Bradford. "'We Are The 99 Percent': Stories Of The Great Recession's Victims". Huffington Post, 10/3/11.
  13. ^ Kenworthy, L. (August 20, 2010) "The best inequality graph, updated" Consider the Evidence
  14. ^ D.E. Smith (1958). History of Mathematics, volume II. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ "Comité sur les principes philosophiques des droits de l'homme (1947–1952 Part II)" (pdf). Unesco Archives. UNESCO. 2001. p. 147. UNESCO Archives Reference 342.7 (100): 1 A 02. Retrieved 2012-01-24. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ "Irene Oh". Unesco Portal. UNESCO. § "The Philosophers’ Committee: Universalism and Diversity" para. 3. [Participant page for Symposium "60 Years of Unesco", November 2005]. Retrieved 2012-01-27.; Oh, Irene (2011). "Islamic Voices and the Definition of Human Rights". The Journal of Church and State. 53 (3 [Summer 2011]). Oxford University Press; J.M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies, Baylor University: 376–400. ISSN 0021-969X. Context at page 379. {{cite journal}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help) [Note in both instances the quote was misattributed, and reinterpreted within a different context].
  17. ^ McDowell, Edwin (January 6, 1988). "Best Sellers From 1987's Book Crop". New York Times. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  18. ^ "Rising Up: A lost generation finds its place in North Texas protests — and in the fast-spreading Occupy movement". Fort Worth Weekly. Oct. 19, 2011. Retrieved November 6, 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ Ravi Batra (October 11, 2011). "The Occupy Wall Street Movement and the Coming Demise of Crony Capitalism". Truthout. Retrieved November 6, 2011.
  20. ^ Bruce Bartlett Responding to the One Percent Attack. Posted October 9, 2010. Accessed October 19, 2011. "In his debate with George W. Bush on Oct. 3, Al Gore relentlessly attacked Bush's tax plan as a giveaway to the rich" ... "accused Bush of providing tax cuts to the "wealthiest 1 percent."
  21. ^ Paul Sperry Al Gore, message machine Posted: October 06, 2000, Accessed October 19, 2011. "Quick, what's the one phrase you remember hearing during the debate? Probably the one you heard most. That's right, "tax cuts for the wealthiest 1 percent." Gore hit that point no less than five times in 90 minutes in order to sour voters on Bush's proposed tax cut" ... "Gore sprung his "wealthiest 1 percent" line about three times in just the first 10 minutes or so of the debate." ... "Yet, Bush and his advisers had to have known the barb was coming. Gore is a shameless class warrior brimming with anti-rich agitprop. Bush could have easily shot the "wealthiest 1 percent" salvo down every time Gore let it rip..."
  22. ^ Rick Pearson Gore Details Proposal To Strengthen Medicare Chicago Tribune Posted September 26, 2000, accessed October 19, 2011. "Consider this fact: [The Bush] budget plan spends more on a tax cut for the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers than their budget invests in health care, prescription drugs, education and national defense all combined. I think those are the wrong priorities"
  23. ^ Phillips, Peter (2006). Censored 2007:The Top 25 Censored Stories. Seven Stories Press. p. 207. ISBN 1583227385.
  24. ^ Columbia University roster of Nobel laureates by year, accessed October 20, 2011
  25. ^ the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%, Vanity Fair. May 2011. Accessed October 20, 2011
  26. ^ Swern, Bob. Joseph Stiglitz' Unpretentious Must-Read On Income Inequality: "Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%" Daily Kos. Published April 3, 2011, Accessed October 20, 2011
  27. ^ Irish in New York rally support for ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters
  28. ^ Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%
  29. ^ Dan Rather: Force Behind OWS ‘Is a Woman Operating Out of Her Apartment in New York’
  30. ^ Who’s behind the “We are the 99%” anti-Wall Street movement?
  31. ^ Melissa Bell. "Occupy Wall Street protests get support of the one percent". Washington Post, 10/13/2011.
  32. ^ Amanda Walgrove. "Occupy Tumblr: We Are the 153 Percent". The Faster Times, 10/13/2011.
  33. ^ Suzy Khimm. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/conservatives-launch-we-are-the-53-percent-to-criticize-99-percenters/2011/10/10/gIQA70omaL_blog.html Conservatives launch “We are the 53 percent” to criticize 99 percenters, Washington Post, posted October 1, 2011, accessed October 11, 2011
  34. ^ Mark Memmet. For Those Who Aren't Fans Of The '99 Percent,' There's The '53 Percent', NPR, posted October 11, 2011, accessed October 11, 2011
  35. ^ It's the Inequality, Stupid By Dave Gilson and Carolyn Perot in Mother Jones, March/April 2011 Issue
  36. ^ Who are the 1 percent?, CNN Money, October 29, 2011
  37. ^ "Tax Data Show Richest 1 Percent Took a Hit in 2008, But Income Remained Highly Concentrated at the Top." Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Accessed October 2011.
  38. ^ Top Earners Doubled Share of Nation’s Income, Study Finds New York Times By Robert Pear, October 25, 2011
  39. ^ Occupy Wall Street And The Rhetoric of Equality Forbes November 1, 2011 by Deborah L. Jacobs
  40. ^ Recent Trends in Household Wealth in the United States: Rising Debt and the Middle-Class Squeeze—an Update to 2007 by Edward N. Wolff, Levy Economics Institute of Bard College, March 2010
  41. ^ Wealth, Income, and Power by G. William Domhoff of the UC-Santa Barbara Sociology Department
  42. ^ a b "Tax Data Show Richest 1 Percent Took a Hit in 2008, But Income Remained Highly Concentrated at the Top. Recent Gains of Bottom 90 Percent Wiped Out." Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Accessed October 2011.
  43. ^ “By the Numbers.” Demos.org. Accessed October 2011.
  44. ^ Alessi, Christopher (October). "Occupy Wall Street's Global Echo". Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved October 17, 2011. The Occupy Wall Street protests that began in New York City a month ago gained worldwide momentum over the weekend, as hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in nine hundred cities protested corporate greed and wealth inequality. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  45. ^ Jones, Clarence (October 17, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street and the King Memorial Ceremonies". The Huffington Post. Retrieved October 17, 2011. The reality is that 'Occupy Wall Street' is raising the consciousness of the country on the fundamental issues of poverty, income inequality, economic justice, and the Obama administration's apparent double standard in dealing with Wall Street and the urgent problems of Main Street: unemployment, housing foreclosures, no bank credit to small business in spite of nearly three trillion of cash reserves made possible by taxpayers funding of TARP.
  46. ^ Chrystia Freeland (October 14, 2011). "Wall Street protesters need to find their 'sound bite'". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
  47. ^ Michael Hiltzik (October 12, 2011). "Occupy Wall Street shifts from protest to policy phase". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
  48. ^ Anne-Marie Slaughter. "Occupied Wall Street, Seen From Abroad". The New York Times, 10/6/2011.
  49. ^ Sponsored by. "America's jobless recovery: Not again". The Economist. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  50. ^ "Does a secretary pay higher taxes than a millionaire?" PolitiFact. Accessed October 2011.
  51. ^ Global Stock Selloff: Is another financial crisis coming?
  52. ^ a b Jim Kuhnenn Obama Unveils Deficit Reduction Plan, 'Buffett Rule' Tax On Millionaires. Associated Press. September 19, 2011, accessed October 19, 2011.
  53. ^ Boxer, Sarah B. "Romney: Wall Street Protests 'Class Warfare' - Sarah B. Boxer". NationalJournal.com. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  54. ^ "Obama Unveils Deficit Reduction Plan, 'Buffett Rule' Tax On Millionaires". Huffingtonpost.com. September 19, 2011. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
  55. ^ Krugman, Paul (November 24, 2011). "We Are the 99.9%". The New York Times.
  56. ^ a b c Cox, Jeff. "Protests Target 'One Percent,' But Who Exactly Are They?". CNBC. October 19, 2011.
  57. ^ Josh Barro. "We Are the 99 Percent—Even Rich People". National Review Online, October 5, 2011.

Further reading

External links

"We Are The 99 Percent" music video.
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