I have some questions about the 1% vs. the 99%.First, what does your net worth need to be to be in the 1%?

Be careful, asking questions of Liberal talking points often leads to dispelling them and exposing the empty attitude behind them. All this is a measure of personal wealth. The government doesn't play into it. However, leaving that out shows this whole statistic to be more about attitude against the wealthy and wealth than anything else. It also feeds on the mistaken idea that wealth is like some big pie. For Bill Gates to make another million, he has to take it out of Joe Factoryworker's pocket. It doesn't work like that. Wealth is created.

This is a silly question in that it doesn't really matter.

With 350,000,000 people living in the U.S., it is easy to see that 3,500,000 would be 1%. If we consider only individuals with incomes--excluding young children, the number would be somewhat smaller.

The top 1 percent, as calculated by the Washington Post's Wonkblog, are those who took home at least $516,633 last year, and had a net worth in 2007 of at least $8,323,000. An average member of that 1 percent will earn $1,530,773 in income this year. http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2011/10/14/who-is-thi...

Of course, the exact configuration of the 1% is a bit more complicated, since as you point out personal income and personal wealth figures are not always published. Another thing to note is that the figures are based on 2007, but things have changed, and in fact change every day. There may be some people who were not part of the 1% in 2007 but are now, while there may be others whose income or personal fortunes have fallen.

Your comments about the federal government are meaningless, since we're talking about individuals, not government or corporations.

The IRS requires that you report your net, and gross worth.

There are three hundred million people in the US, taking the top 1% of that number gives you the amount of people you need to count who make the most money.

There is a difference between what our government owns, which is actually what we own, and what a private individual controls.

It does seem odd, mainly because so many financial resources are in the hands of so few, when we are supposed to be a country with equal opportunities for all, and it seems like the deck is so stacked against the average person.

If you were part of the 1%, you wouldn't be here. Much of net worth is reported with income taxes. The value of commodities and assets often require reporting. It is pretty simple to back-track to where the money leads...who owns/runs that apartment complex....that hotel chain....that manufacturing company...who does the most investing in the stock market (all of which is reported to the SEC)...and so on.

If you don't work, like many in the OWS crowd, you have zero income.

So then, a poor slob working at minimum wage would be in the 1%...:-)

PS: On the serious side, such information can be found on the Internet.

If fact this morning it was mentioned on Squawk Box but I missed the

web name. I'm sure someone here will know.

Wealth is measured via tax returns and legally-required SEC filings.

"Public" wealth used by the government can be influenced by the vote of the majority, and is less of a concern to the OWS movement than the privately accumulated wealth of the so-called 1%, which they believe has the ability to use that private wealth to unduly influence government policy for their own benefit.

Pretty easy to research.

http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth....

http://financemymoney.com/who-controls-wealth-in-a...

If I can't answer any of these questions, neither can some college student who has just blown his whole fall semester sitting cross-legged in his own sh!t in some park, surrounded by dirty needles, clogged pot pipes and empty McDonalds bags, holding a cardboard sign with a declaration on it that someone should pay his tuition for him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkQJ0IBqr-I

I think it's all estimates... and it's probably just estimates of "private property", in other words, not including gov. property...

and yes, it does seem odd, I think that's kind of the point...

I've heard many so I think its whatever they feel like.