<story><title>Myths of the 1 Percent: What’s Putting People at the Top</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/upshot/income-inequality-united-states.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>balance_factor</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting what words are not in the article.  Words like heir, inheritance, profit, interest, rentier.  The word rent is there, but assumed as a tenant, not landlord.&lt;p&gt;I assume the Forbes 400 richest are in the 1%.  How did the Koch brothers get their $100 billion?  Where did the Waltons get their $140 billion?  Where did the Mars family get their $75 billion?  The article makes it sound like these people became rich when they decided whether or not to go to law school.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s important to note how in the US how FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) and health care affect the economy.  But a lot of what puts people at the top is at which hospital they took their first breath.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>blunte</author><text>The 1% is still a large number of people, and the people you refer to are the .1% or fewer.  That&amp;#x27;s not to say that their methods of wealth accumulation aren&amp;#x27;t worth discussing, but apparently that wasn&amp;#x27;t the group that this article was focused on.</text></comment>
<story><title>Myths of the 1 Percent: What’s Putting People at the Top</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/upshot/income-inequality-united-states.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>balance_factor</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s interesting what words are not in the article.  Words like heir, inheritance, profit, interest, rentier.  The word rent is there, but assumed as a tenant, not landlord.&lt;p&gt;I assume the Forbes 400 richest are in the 1%.  How did the Koch brothers get their $100 billion?  Where did the Waltons get their $140 billion?  Where did the Mars family get their $75 billion?  The article makes it sound like these people became rich when they decided whether or not to go to law school.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s important to note how in the US how FIRE (Finance, Insurance, Real Estate) and health care affect the economy.  But a lot of what puts people at the top is at which hospital they took their first breath.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ameister14</author><text>There are millions of people in the 1%. The 400 people at the very top aren&amp;#x27;t going to come into it much.</text></comment>