Welcome to the one percent. What you do with your money will determine whether you stay there. The difference between you and the rest of the club is they have an income and you don't. If you don't make that money work for you instead of spending it, if you fall victim to the belief that a lot of money is equal to infinite money, you will go broke very quickly, or even fall into debt. That different world you mention has plenty of ways to spend all of your wealth and more overnight, and should you fall from grace and rejoin the ranks of the 99 percent, you will no longer be able to take advantage of the pity the rest of us enjoy because you had a taste. One more thing, you may not "support these groups" now, but give it time. A few tax seasons spent dueling with the IRS for half of everything you own will turn anyone into a Republican, and if you're truly as rich as you hint at, the GOP will actually be on your side! Good luck with your wealth and try not to be a douchebag.

Sphincter says what?

Dude, your problem is that you have clearly not participated in a certain practice of the filthy rich - the excessive consumption of HUGE PILES OF COCAINE and MALT LIQUOR. You might want to consider buying an ounce or so of the wondrous white powder and locking yourself in your bedroom with a 100$ bill. I'd suggest firing some up in a bong, or dissolving some of your Bolivian Gun Powder in deionized water and shooting a little up (tell the pharmacist you're a diabetic..)

Wasn't this already printed somewhere else?

Takes as many Asian sex tours as you want but they'll never compare to the moral inspiration of camping out on SCCC's lawn.

You have violated the cone of silence. For that, you are banned from future "quash-the-poor" planning retreats. Shame on you. How dare you share our dastardly secrets with the unwashed masses.

"The difference between you and the rest of the club is they have an income and you don't."

Yeah, those morally and intellectual superior 1%ers have more of an income sitting around on their fat asses and living off of other people's work than most people who actually do the work. Anyone who's not born to money and buys into America's Horatio Alger myth (a character in FICTION)is just as big a sucker as this guy says.

@1 -- "The difference between you and the rest of the club is they have an income and you don't." Seriously? I doubt it. I would guess most of the 1% make their money off of their investments (capital gains and interest) rather than income. That doesn't mean that none of them work, but suggesting that most of them earn more from income is unlikely.

Besides, if you take a look at the richest people in America (or the world) you will see a lot of people who got rick by inheriting their money (3 Walton's in the top ten, for example).

Just having money means you can live off of the interest. Generally speaking, 4% is fine. But if you want to be conservative, then try 2%. So, if you have 10 million dollars, then you can live off (the inflation adjusted equivalent) of 200 grand a year until you die. Taxes are pretty low (because it is interest and capital gains, not income) so you get to keep almost all of that 200 grand. Doesn't sound hard to me.

@5 You're right, I've seen this somewhere else too. It's a rip off of an occupy sign I think. How fucking lame.

You may feel like you've got little in common with the 1%'s -- but you earned your money exactly the same way most of them did.

This was published in the Portland Mercury, The Stranger's PDX paper.

It sounds kinda hoaky. Freshman comp.

@15: Nicely put.

Really doesn't matter if it was published before or not. It didn't tell me anything I don't already know, and I am one of the lowestf the 99%. In fact, I'm more like -2%.

I will never understand people like you, @9. You come to a newspaper website, a site that requires you to READ; you find an article, you read it, go to the comments, read the first three sentences of the first comment, then dash off a response. What the fuck, you couldn't be arsed to read the rest of my post? Did you honestly think you wouldn't miss anything? Well you did. I said exactly what you did in your response... in the very next sentence! This is a curious situation @9, I agree with you 100% and yet I hate you with every fiber of my being. I actually would have preferred a simple "tl;dr" instead of your cringe-worthy response, which by the way was just as long as my original post. You're not willing to read other people's posts in their entirety, what makes you think people will read yours? In conclusion, eat a bag of rancid dickmeat and die in a fire.

Enjoy it, for when the revolution comes the 1% will be the first against the wall.

I am in my mid-40s, and officially part of the 1% for about 2 years. One of my brothers is probably in the top 1/2% of earners, and has been so since his late 30s. Neither of us inherited a dime, neither of us has annual income that is primarily investments or interest (because neither one of us is in finance), and neither of us sit around all day profiting from the sweat of others. I work about 60 hours a week, not counting time on my laptop at home. I paid about 30-35% of my income in taxes last year. For the record, I have voted democratic my entire life and donated to the Obama campaign this year. I didn't enjoy paying $120k+ in taxes last year, but I understand why it has to happen. I don't want to pay more, but I would rather do that then see the taxes raised on people who are struggling to put food on the table and feed their children, or see cuts to vital social services.

But I think the characterization of the wealthy as people who inherit money, and sit around all day earning interest and having ritzy private parties where they mock the 'lower classes' and make plans for financial world domination is pretty ridiculous. I call BS on this I,anon. Though I agree with some of the sentiment.

I want someone to prove to me that more one percenters are Republican rather than Democrat. I think both camps are equally likely to represent elite rich assholes. I also doubt that working class voters are exclusive Republican.

I'm skeptical about rich people getting spontaneously invited to events where people scheme about getting richer at the expense of the working class. This anon probably sought out whatever events these were on purpose, the whole facade of secretly not supporting rich people is absurd. If you think rich people are so greedy and undeserving, its not actually that tough to give money to charity.

@14 & @22 - Agreed. Sounds like BS to me. I'm sure there actually are a lot of rich assholes, but there are plenty of poor ones, too.

Truly poor people vote Democratic, when they do vote, which is rare. Republicans win elections because they appeal to middle class, white, male, middle-aged/elderly voters. Traditional definitions of "working class" don't seem to include those people.

Fake. Even members of the lucky sperm club don't talk like this.

P.S. If you want an example of people who earned their money's POV check out @20 above.

The "so called event" where the powerful elite meet to devise their plans is called the Sundance Film Festival.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-things-ric…
read this, rich dude, and give something back.

@ Brandon J, Actually, he made a good point contrary to your post. He pointed out that since his money will earn capital gains and interest, and since he has no "imcome", the IRS will take very little of his money from him. Less than they take from someone with an "average" income.

@ Brandon J, Actually, he made a good point contrary to your post. He pointed out that since his money will earn capital gains and interest, and since he has no "imcome", the IRS will take very little of his money from him. Less than they take from someone with an "average" income. They won't be fighting over "half of everything he owns" anytime soon, that is just crazy talk.

@20, so you grossed roughly 350-400k last year? That's quite a bit more than most of us, but I don't think you get to claim membership as part of the megarich as the I, Anon writer seems to do.

Has Occupy or an economist actually delineated the 1% line for 2011?

Re: my own post because I'm rad like that:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/…

@20, Unless you're a multimillionaire, you're just a little higher up in the pile of hoi poloi (sic?).

Why don't you use your money to do something good then?

u may be rich...i guess...but you sound like an 80 year old granny with a severe case of cotton cunt.