Detroit is a shining example of life without the 1%. Also, Milwaukee is rapidly joining Detroit. I lived in a neighborhood that was littered with the remains of what a previous generation of Milwaukee's 1% had left behind. In the end there is no realm of human endeavor where there isn't a 1% that dominates that skill. Which is why people need to figure out what they are good at and then do that well.

Good Article

It's more believable and scary to think "What would the world be without the Middle Class?" After all, the 1 percenters can afford to shove much of their wealth into off shore protected accounts or get citizenship at tax favorable countries, and invest in those countries. But, the suffering and dwindling middle class have no place to go except to hid their little wealth under their mattress or in a hole in the big tree in their back yard.

If we only have citizens that consume all their income for their basic needs and a few luxuries, we will have no savings, no investments, no capital. We will, at best, have achieved the pie that does not grow. Our piece will stay the same size as long as the population does not grow and some bully does not take it.

The 1 percenters not only created the wealth that defines our pie but their excess wealth provides the capital to expand the pie, allowing our slice to grow.

American prosperity is a gigantic game of musical chairs with a population in a hypnotic trance. It must collapse since this prosperity has been purchased with debt (17 trillion current and over 100 trillion mandated). The only question is when and how bad the collapse will be.

Places exist without the 1 percenters. I'm thinking of Detroit.