Money is like The Force

Like duct-tape, money has a dark side, a light side and it holds the world together. While there is a common theme among our generation to bash and villainize "the one-percent", I would argue that the image of the one-percenter has been romanticized into that of a malicious, monstrous, wallstreet executive-type. While I don't disagree with the claim that there exists a sect of the population that fills the aforementioned image, I do believe that the upper-income earners of the country are not inherently evil and are not out to destroy the working class.

A few statistics that changed how I thought about the one-percenter:

• The top 1% of households in the US make >340k annually. (2010 Census)
• The top 1% of income earners in the US make >194k annually. (2010 Census) 
• The median salary of a bachelor's degree holding adult (82k) is in the top 9%. (2008 Nat. Cen. for Ed. Stats.)
• The median salary of a master's degree holding adult (99k) is in the top 7%. (2008 Nat. Cen. for Ed. Stats.)

To me, these statistics told me the real "one-percenter" isn't really that rich. Now, that's not to scoff at nearly two hundred thousand dollars annually for an individual, but that amount is far from the "driver-please-take-me-to-my-private-jet-while-I-day-trade-shares-of-BRK-A-on-my-iPad-11" image that many perceive them as. 

The one-percent give back quite a lot to the country (maybe not as much as they should but that's for another day). The top one-percent in the US pays 45.7 percent of the total income tax revenue (2014 Tax Policy Center). 

What I'm trying to say is, I don't think money turns people into monsters and the anti-one-percenter movement is a little misguided. There certainly is a problem with wealth distribution but I don't believe there is an evil cult of Illuminati CEO's manipulating the system. The one-percent has simply become the scapegoat for the flaws of the current conditions, like the witches of Salem. 

The decline of the middle and working class of the US can be attributed to a lot of things, just like the harsh conditions that the communities in colonial America faced. There is worry and stress about what the future holds and instances of corporate greed, such as Bernie Madoff, has started a witch hunt on America's wealthiest, just as an admission of witchcraft spiraled into hysteria in Salem. 

Another neat factoid: 32k annually puts you in the top percentile of the world (Oxfam), which is about 40% of the US population (2010 Census). So I think we could all show a little more gratitude for what we have and what our country has done for us.