Most of the Top 1% Deserve it

to have earned or to be given something because of the way you have behaved or the qualities you have:

If you say that a person or thing deserves something, you mean that they should have it or receive it because of their actions or qualities.

In reality, 43% of Harvard’s white students are either recruited athletes, legacy students, on the dean’s interest list (meaning their parents have donated to the school) or children of faculty and staff (students admitted based on these criteria are referred to as ‘ALDCs’, which stands for ‘athletes’, ‘legacies’, ‘dean’s interest list’ and ‘children’ of Harvard employees). The kicker? Roughly three-quarters of these applicants would have been rejected if it weren’t for having rich or Harvard-connected parents or being an athlete.

Here’s the thing– Harvard is insanely competitive. The admittance rate for the class of 2025 was 3.43%, the lowest rate in the school’s history, in a year that saw an unprecedented surge in applications. But as more and more comes to light about Harvard’s admissions process, it’s clear that the school’s competitiveness is not just based on academic strength or great test scores, but also whether or not your parents or grandparents have donated significantly to the school.

If your parents count themselves among the top 1%, you’re 77 times more likely to attend an Ivy League college than your peers from families in the bottom 20% of the U.S.’ income distribution. So much for meritocracy and equal access.
That’s according to the new research by Stanford economist Raj Chetty and co-authors. They show that 14.5% of students in America’s elite universities (eight Ivy League colleges, University of Chicago, Stanford, MIT, and Duke) are from families in the top 1% of income distribution, compared with only 3.8% from the bottom quintile. That’s a dramatic overrepresentation of the richest Americans.
Why the focus on Ivy League universities? Of course, the pool of top institutions of higher education extends far beyond that group. But in mobility terms, say the authors, you’re more likely to move from the bottom quintile into the top 1% if you attend elite colleges, including those that comprise the Ivy League. In other words, elite colleges can confer mobility in powerful ways.

The study’s authors point out that most colleges successfully manage to level the playing field, narrowing the post-graduation income gap between students from different family backgrounds by the time they reach their early-to-mid 30s. But shares of students from low-income families at institutions with some of the highest mobility rates, including SUNY-Stony Brook and Glendale Community College, declined sharply in the last decade, indicating that amid rising costs, colleges that offer the best pathways to success are getting out of reach for poorer families.

The authors’ investigation into the role of higher education in fostering (or hindering) intergenerational mobility in the U.S. builds on previous work in a similar vein. Last year, in a study titled “The Fading American Dream”, Chetty and other scholars showed that the proportion of Americans who earn more their parents, adjusting for inflation, fell from 90% for children born in the 1940s to 50% for those born in the 1980s. Their work underscores serious threats to the so-called American Dream, the cornerstone of which is faring better than the previous generation.

While income inequality is a fundamental component of the U.S. capitalist economy, a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found that 61% of Americans think that it has gone too far. Today, the top 1% of earners in the United States account for about 20% of the country’s total income annually. Meanwhile, the lowest-earning quarter of Americans account for just 3.7% of income every year. 

Nationwide, it takes an annual income of $538,926 to be among the top 1%. Among the approximately 1.4 million taxpayers who meet this threshold, the average annual income is about $1.7 million – about 20 times the average income of $82,535 among all taxpayers. Wealth, however, is far more concentrated in certain parts of the country than in others, and as a result, the amount it takes to be among the top 1% in each state varies considerably. 

Using adjusted gross income percentile data for the 2017 tax year from the IRS, 24/7 Wall St. determined how much you need to make to be in the 1% in every state. All data is derived from federal 1040 individual tax returns and is inflation adjusted for 2019. The annual income floor needed to be in the 1% ranges from less than $350,000 in some states to well more than double that in others. 

The top 1% owned a record 32.3% of the nation’s wealth as of the end of 2021, data show. The share of wealth held by the bottom 90% of Americans, likewise, has declined slightly since before the pandemic, from 30.5% to 30.2%.

the sacrifices made
rarity of expertise required
sheer brilliance and creativity required

The deserving of wealth to a demographic, in context of this debate, should certainly be defined as follows:

That when weighing things up, the majority of the demographic are maintaining wealth at a rate and net-balance that is regularly proportional to either the sacrifices made, rarity of expertise required or sheer brilliance and creativity required to have achieved the outcome against all odds due to the individual.Furthermore, it is essential that was analyse trends and majority-scenarios within the demographics and not get too obsessed with miracle minorities.

Remember, those 90% are the workers, working to make the 1% richer in terms of business and then there comes the other issue... unfair endgame.

Household name McDonald’s accounted for around 200 thousand employees in 2021.

The world's richest 10% are responsible for half of all carbon emissions, a new report found.

     According to a New York Enterprise Report survey, business owners work much harder than their employees. It also found that about 33% of such business owners stated working over 50 hours per week. This is not the only study reporting such data. Other studies, like one conducted by Gallup, also found that some small business owners worked over 60 hours per week.

It is not only about the hours spent working on expanding the business, but small business owners also work under more pressure.

the sacrifices made

rarity of expertise required

sheer brilliance and creativity required

Around 41.4 percent of the wealthiest one percent have inherited some money.

Santa only has 500 presents, but the good kids list has 501 children — each as deserving as the other. Who will be the one unfortunate child to not get this gift?

    To even get a scholarship, one who is middle class to middle-lower has to be working let's say 20% harder than the same students getting creme de la creme with a great tutor, lack of household chores (maid's doing it) lack of drama at home.

Being a ghetto or trailer park resident with neglectful parents or perhaps abusive ones is not a setting where even a genius can end up in Harvard.

 Let me just slowly let this sink in, the top 1% have 2% more than 90% of the people have, as wealth.

You see, once you are in the 1% you don't tend to 'fall out' other than to 5% at worst. The reason is simple, you hire people. Hire the best stockbrokers to do your shares investment, hire the best managers to micromanage all parts of your businesses,

It can be very hard, and very consuming.

If you are considering starting your own business, be prepared for many long thankless hours, setbacks trials and tribulations, and it could be possible that you might take years to turn a profit. That's the reality of it.

you have to motivate yourself to go and work hard even obstacles there ( no customers , rude suppliers and scammers)

It is not easy! Usually you leave the safety and conformity of a weekly check. All you have to do is show up to work do your 8 hours and hopefully get overtime. All your worries are taken care of. Someone makes sure your taxes are paid, your insurance comes out of your check deducted by the business accountant. You just do your job. When you make that leap to owning your own business. You are taking a huge chance. This is your monetary investment. There are no sick days. You are the last one to get paid. you have to hire an accountant to do the above things. You have to personally shop for your own insurance. You take every business encounter personally. If you didn't get the job even though it might be over $10 on your bid you think it's you. You're going to lose sleep. And you never work 8 hours if your business is successful. Usually a minimum of 12. You've got to do the work and the paperwork until you get larger.... But the worst thing of all is finding responsible good people to work for you. That is the biggest obstacle that you will face

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     Every business owner — from Elon to your local corner store — runs through these problems.

Excruciating tasks with a chance of little reward.

     I also cannot put enough emphasis on how difficult it is to find a worker who actually works.

And for this, that deserves — or at least I think it should — some rewarding.

In little way do I condone the top .05% (billionaires and multimillionaires). Those people I admit do not believe deserve their ludicrous amounts of money — that being I do not think they are the devils they are portrayed to be.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that the net worth of the top 1% of American households has risen substantially. In 1962, the wealthiest 1% had net worths equal to approximately 125 times that of the average American household. Their net worths were shown to be approximately 225 times the net worth of the average household in 2009. The gap between the richest and the poorest more than doubled between 1982 and 2016.

     Say the company owner of McDonald’s gets 10 dollars a year per worker. Only 83 cents per month I stress. The owner will have generated 2 million dollars per year.

Santa only has 500 presents, but the good kids list has 501 children — each as deserving as the other. Who will be the one unfortunate child to not get this gift?

What makes it even more difficult is that people are unique and complex. What works with one person does not necessarily won't always work with the next. They don't teach you managerial skills in school. Going to university does not teach you how to manage people. Even management courses like MBA's don't teach practical people management. 

Imagine an irrigation pipe with a small leak. It may not be a big deal because the system is only on for 30 minutes a day. But what happens if it’s on all the time? Or if the water pressure doubles? When you increase the volume in the system, the effect of the flaws can be catastrophic. Money and power increase the volume of energy running through your system. They amplify your strengths and your weaknesses, whether you like it or not.

The higher you are on an organizational chart, the more influence you usually have. If you’re the CEO, you may be able to lift an employee’s mood with a smile or terrify them with a frown. They may watch your every move, consciously or not. This is the nature of power. You have more than they do, and everyone knows it, though it’s probably rarely talked about.

When a lottery winner claims their lump sum, the truth about them leaks out. Perhaps they can’t say no to friends and family, they lack self-discipline or they have immature ambitions, etc.

When a person takes a leadership position, the same kinds of things emerge. Let’s explore some of the most common.

• Micromanagement tends to happen when a manager has an overriding need to feel in control stemming from insecurity and fear. They justify their behavior in the name of producing great results, but in the long run, it often creates the opposite.

• Bullying comes from the same place, but the issues are deeper. Most managers don’t realize they’re doing it, but some justify it with Machiavelli’s “it is better to be feared than loved” theory. Inside every bully is a sense of powerlessness such that they have to prove their strength to themselves and others, and often a fear of betrayal that prefers intimidation over connection.

• On the other side, there’s the often rewarded over-responsibility. Over-responsible managers may coddle their people: They solve problems for them, reverse delegate and avoid uncomfortable accountability conversations. These managers usually gain self-worth by being busy and needed, and they may unconsciously disempower their people because they’re afraid of feeling useless themselves.

• Self-importance is another common management issue. While you may know the business better, it’s your job to develop your people so that you’re not the only resident expert. Self-importance is another expression of insecurity that can cause a lack of listening, devaluing followers and weak mentoring.

Are you starting to see the pattern? The more power you have as a manager, the more your personal issues can come to light.

Why, for most who enter it, does management present so many surprising hurdles and frustrate so many preconceptions and expectations?

…

First, management is different from anything you’ve done before. Becoming an effective manager is difficult because of the great gulf that separates the work of management from the work of individual performers.
Many managers think at first that managing others will be an extension of managing themselves. They assume they will be doing what they did previously, except they will exercise more control over their work and the work of others. Instead, they find they must make a great leap into a new and strange universe unlike anything they’ve encountered before.

…

Those who become managers must learn to see themselves and their work differently. They must develop new values, deeper self-awareness, increased emotional maturity, and the ability to exercise wise judgment.

…

It takes so much time and effort that it’s helpful to think of it as a journey. The changes are so deep and personal that they require time to take root, usually years.

And they cannot be taught. You and every other manager must make them yourself, based on your own experience as a boss. You make progress on your journey as you learn and change, step-by-step.

…

Instead of confronting a performance problem, they fill out the compulsory annual appraisal form and simply negotiate the wording with the person involved.

They do enough to meet budget because that’s all that’s required of them. Indeed, they stop thinking of what’s possible and focus on what’s expected.

They hire people who are good enough and will blend in. They progress to the point that management no longer feels new and strange. When they no longer fear imminent failure, they grow comfortable. They “manage,” in the worst sense of the word. That’s why years of experience are not necessarily an indication of managerial effectiveness.

The Economic Policy Institute reports that the net worth of the top 1% of American households has risen substantially. In 1962, the wealthiest 1% had net worths equal to approximately 125 times that of the average American household. Their net worths were shown to be approximately 225 times the net worth of the average household in 2009. The gap between the richest and the poorest more than doubled between 1982 and 2016

As of 2019, the average net worth for all American families was $746,820…

Okay, so what? How much is this person then spending on the business? Also why do they deserve 10 dollars a year per worker? How can you deserve rewards for someone else's work?

The entire 1% are multimillionaires... Entirely, meaning some are billionaires on top but they are a minority yes.

The 1% that are multimillionaires are extremely rich, the multimillionaire refers to their overall bank total, it doesn't begin to explore their net wealth.

This is nothing but rhetoric.

For instance, I said that what the 1% experience is lack of huge downswings that can cripple them. Meaning it isn't the reward that's massive for them continually, it's the punishment for bad decision making that's consistently lenient for them. To this, Pro is retorting that they don't have consistent reward and that apparently workers are not working. Sheesh, how are the companies profiting if their workers aren't working? What even is the premise of Pro's case then?!

The 1% are not profiting only from their own businesses, there's no way at all to be a 1%er solely from one business anymore, they all have their fingers in at least 2 more businesses and honestly how does any of this handle what I argued?

I would just say..

Try buying a pen for Rs. 10 and sell it to someone for Rs.15
(Just to relate)
And you will realize no one is ready to buy that stuff, because everyone knows that pen is worth Rs. 10/-.
Now you will have to add something to that pen to make it worth Rs.15/-, maybe better packaging, or some introductory offer or discount. But anything like that will eat up your profits. Anything you think off will cost a deduction in those Rs.5/- that you were about to make.

So you need to be innovative.

Henceforth, you can try the other way of making connections in the market, by supplying them that pen for cheaper rates and better schemes. But you are new in the market so people don't trust you, the wholesale buyers are not ready to give up on thier old contact so easily. Unless or untill you are ready to give them a big chunk of your Rs.5/- profit.

So you need to master the art of communication, to build relationships.

If you somehow start selling, and making some profits. You will immediately feel that you need more manpower to meet the demands. And that obviously will cost you a lot because now you need to pay salary regardless of what profit or loss you make. Moreover, its not easy to find good employees everytime.
You will have to be great at judging people's skills.
And then comes the tough part,
Retaining customers
Even if you manage to make sales and profits, you will always have to be in the hunt of ideas of how to make your customers stay with you longer and loyal.
Because the way you started your business, in the same way someone else would be beginning today. Who will be thinking of something more smart to snatch your market share.
Competition is really tough,

So you have to be the best in your niche.

Here i am not elaborating many obvious points such as maintaining quality, meeting the new customer needs, evolving your product daily to be better, maintaing your income to expense ratio and a tons more.

We haven't even talked about the Rs.10/- from which you got your first pen(business capital).

With all these you gotta manage your personal life, relationships, give time to family and friends.

And yes one more thing,

You will have to make people trust in you and your beliefs, so that they work with you to achieve something not just for paychecks.

But the hardest part,

Is to make yourself believe everyday, have faith in yourself.

You will have to self-console yourself, you will have to self-motivate, you are the only one to bear all the burden if anything goes wrong, your decisions affects future of many associated with you.

And you are not allowed to loose hope, because others hope on your hopes. You will have to sleep every day with the thought that today was not my day maybe, and will have to start again next day.

And this could stretch for days, months, years or decades maybe.

Depending upon how much you want to achieve.

I can't comment on how difficult it is to do Business, there are numerous factors that are required to answer that.

But yes, it's really not that easy how people presume it to be.

Musk is far from self-made. He was born in South Africa to an extremely wealthy white family that profited off the exploitation of workers in sub-Saharan Africa and apartheid-era South Africa. Much of his family’s wealth came from an emerald mine in Zambia owned by Errol Musk, Elon’s father. The African mining industry is known to be incredibly exploitative, with child labor, horrible working conditions, disease, abuse of workers, and fatalities all commonplace. The workers in these mines are mostly black native residents of African countries, while the owners are usually the descendants of rich, white colonists. Musk is not a “self-made billionaire,” he comes from an extremely privileged family that squeezed millions of dollars out of some of the poorest nations in the world. 

With a rich family to borrow money from, and massive amounts of wealth gained from the exploitation of African mineral resources, Musk could finally purchase Tesla. Yes, you read that correctly. While it is commonly believed that Musk founded Tesla, this is untrue, and another reminder of the power of PR. Musk invested millions of dollars in Tesla in the early 2000s and paid his way up the corporate ladder, becoming the company’s CEO in 2008. He eventually fought one of the company’s true founders, Martin Eberhard, for the title in a 2009 court case. If at first, you don’t succeed, complain and sue until you do!

This is not an isolated example, either. He also claims to be the founder of PayPal, when in fact he owned another company that purchased Paypal. Again, Musk fought for the title of founder, which he won with the help of his family’s wealth. Founding a company, especially companies like PayPal and Tesla, carries lots of prestige considering the hard work that it involves. But why work hard when you’re born rich?