Forum Post: I am the 1%

Hi Guys,

Well, I looked up my income. I head a department in my (non-financial) company, so I also get a bonus. (although this is only the first year I have held this role).

If I get the 2nd level of my bonus this year.... I will squeek into the 1% by income category for my country (I am from the UK).

But I wouldn't be here if my country hadn't provided the assistance I needed to get up here...

• I received grants, not loans, that paid all my university tuition and some living expenses.

• I received government student loans that paid my accomodation and food

• Loans I only have to pay back if my income is over $25k a year and only ever at a maximum of 9% of my income over $25k a year.

• I receive healthcare provided by my government that means if I lose my job, or have any kind of disaster befall me or my family, all healthcare required will be provided with not one additional penny contributed from me.

• I have laws that protect my job and mean I cannot be fired at will and that all efforts must be made to retain me and I get a severance package if made compulsorily redundant.

I read the stories on "We are the 99%" and want to weep for how uneccessary the situation is for many of you. There but for the grace of god go I. My parents are lower middle class (Sellf-Emp Hairdresser and Supermarket Manager). They couldn't afford to pay for US rates of tuition, and I couldn't either. If I lived in the US I wouldn't be where I am. I can tell you that. Although I am the 1%.... I know in my heart I am really just one of the 99% who has been extraordinarily lucky.

If your government provided for you what my government provided for me 90%+ of the impossible situations I read the 99% are in would have been entirely avoided.

In my country taxes on people like me pay for this. For healthcare for all (no co-pays). For (when I was at uni) tuition fees, and for reasonable student loans that are setup so that only those successful on the back of them have to pay. For worker protections.

In your country taxes on people like me should pay for this too.

And I'm not in some socialist utopia.... I live in the UK... probably the 2nd most capitalism orientated large developed country after the US. There is no reason the US couldn't do the same, no reason at all.

Hell, I'd be happy to pay more taxes in my country to help the 99% in the UK... and my taxes are higher than what the equivalent American would pay by a long shot.

Despite being one of the 1% I am with you, not with my "economic class".

In the developed nations of the 21st C.... No child should go hungry or without winter clothes.... No parent should have to choose between food or medical care for them or their children.... No person from a poor family who has the intelligence to go to university should be slammed with a $30-$50-$100k debt as part of their attempt to make a better life for themselves........ Veterans should be treated with respect and have full compensation provided for their injuries.... A full time job should pay enough for a single parent to care for thier family (thats 1 full time job.... Not 1 full-time + 2 part-time to scrape by).

I can't join you in your protests because I am still working all the hours I can. But I can send you money, and have done so.

I want you all to know that this system is SO FUCKING UNFAIR that even some of the 1% can see how unfair it is. Your coalition is BIGGER than the 99%...... it's the 99% + the small portions of the 1% who still have a conscience.

Tax us, so that you have the chances in life I had.

I hope we get to see democracy return in both your country and mine. Real democracy where 1 person has 1 vote....not where each $ gets one vote.

Best of luck to you all. I just hope that we still live in a world where people power CAN still overcome monied interests.

TGP