These petty jealousies of the rich and super-rich have been chronicled by insiders within this group and are revealing. Figures make it more lucid, clear and telling.
Two economists, Brian Bell and John van Reenan of Center for Economic Performance at London School of Economics have studied carefully the super-rich of Britain. Probing into the top notch of 1% they observed that within this zone distribution was as much skewed as it was inside the broader economy. Of the 1%, the top 2% have pocketed 11% of the share of wages in 1998 and 13% during 2008. In the category of financiers, who are represented disproportionately within the 1% group both in America and Britain, the tilt leaning towards the highest notch is prominently noticeable.
Political scientist Jeffery Winters has found another method to gauge the difference between the super-rich and those who are only rich. His MPI or Material Power Index measures the earnings of the 10% Americans at the top of the ladder taking it to be the multiple of the average income of the 90% at the bottom of the ladder. This index indicates that similar to the slopes of a mountain that becomes steeper with ascension, income concentration in USA gets sharper as one becomes richer. The MPI reading of the 10% at the top is 4 – four times more than the 90% at the bottom. But the MPI reading of the 1% at the top is 15. When one reaches the 0.1% at the peak the MPI high jumps to 124! According to Winters this line demarcates the plutocrats from the vulgar super-rich. Commenting on the 0.1%, Winters writes "There were about 150,000 Americans whose average incomes were $4 million and above in 2007. This is the threshold at which oligarchs dominate the landscape".
Winters notes more dampening news for those who are merely rich. Studying the tax policy during the past one hundred years he has concluded that the super-rich have outfoxed neighbours who were less rich. When the federal government levied income tax for the first time in 1913, it targeted only the 0.1%. During the course of the following one hundred years this burden was transferred down the ladder. Within the 1% group, the richer you are the lower is your tax rate that is effective.
