The one percent

About

The 1% refers specifically to the top 1% of earners in any given economy -- most commonly the United States, but it can also refer to other countries or even the global economy. More generally, it refers to the fact that a very small segment of society owns a disproportionately large percentage of society's wealth, a disproportionality which intensifies as you look at smaller and smaller pieces of the top percentiles.

This disproportionality is an effect of economic disparity, which has been increasing continuously since the late 1970s when employee wages stopped reflecting continued productivity gains.

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