Salon.com > The one percent

I’m successful but depressed

Thu, 02 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Cary,

You are an amazing voice of reason out there, so I am writing to you. In a nutshell, I am miserable. I am 39 going on 40. Anyone looking at my life from the outside would think (and they are correct) I have nothing to complain about. I have three great kids, wife of many years, am a successful professional who makes enough money to perhaps not be a 1-percenter, but certainly a 5-percenter. Heck, I was a college athlete and am still in good shape. So why do I feel so worthless?

I am OCD and depressive. I used to drink, and stopped cold-turkey several years ago because I figured out I was drinking myself into a stupor to turn off the feelings of hopelessness, and the next day, when I would be sick, was the lowest. And as my kids got older I did not want them to see me out of control like that. I was not "addicted" to alcohol, i.e., I was able to stop. It was simply my therapy of choice for these feelings of wanting to be dead.

Who really benefits from a rise in the Dow?

Mon, 11 Mar 2013 15:20:00 +0000

I was listening to the radio this weekend and heard some equity market cheerleaders going on about how the melt-up in the stock market lifts almost everybody’s fortunes. While I agree that it’s important not just for the top 1%—a lot of pension funds and 401(k)’s get a boost from the bull—the vast majority of the value of the stock market is held by the wealthiest households. I’m sure that’s a big “duh” for a lot of readers but the idea that the market lifts all boats is probably more pervasive than you think.

The figure below comes from wealth scholar Ed Wolff through EPI’s State of Working America (you should really just read their wealth chapter—one stop shopping for this info). It shows who owns stock market wealth over time. The little smudge at the bottom is the bottom 40% of households, and the middle fifth doesn’t do much better. The top 1% holds over a third of equity market wealth and the top 10% holds about 80%.

What does that mean in dollar terms? In 2010, according to Wolff’s analysis, the stock holdings of the middle fifth were worth about $9,000. The holdings of the top 10% were worth $500,000, and those of the top 1%: $3.5 million.

Obama opens doors to progress, Romney slams them shut

Wed, 31 Oct 2012 11:45:00 +0000

Progressives who found ourselves inconveniently placed when Sandy collided with two other storms and overwhelmed us are probably in a mood to view with particular seriousness that the Romney-Ryan budget would slash FEMA to ribbons while Obama's doesn't; and that not so long ago Mitt Romney was denouncing federal disaster relief as "immoral" (“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction. And if you can go even further and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better”).

Still, we are at that point in the election cycle when some progressives have been busily listing what they despise about Democrats, going on to remind us how tired they are of lesser evils and how weary their hands grow from holding their noses. In 2000 we were told how bad a campaign Al Gore ran, how soft he was on corporations, how little he did about climate change when he had the chance, and how pure of heart Ralph Nader was. This year we are reminded that Barack Obama failed to close Guantánamo, kept the stimulus too small, hired Tim Geithner, dispatched drones, made up a kill list, and, like Mitt Romney, supports oil drilling and collects corporate dollars.