toponepercent

The ordinary man and woman on the street has no chance of ‘winning’ when it comes to investment or finance, according to a new report.

In a special report published by Business Insider, an investment manager said that the financial system is so corrupt that 99.9 per cent of Americans have little hope of profiting from it.

The manager, who remained anonymous to protect his relationship with wealthy clients, published an open letter on his website in frustration at the fact that millions of ordinary citizens were effectively being scammed by the financial system.

In an article entitled ‘Who Rules America’, published by the University of California at Santa Cruz, he wrote: “Work by various economists and tax experts make it indisputable that the top one per cent controls a widely disproportionate share of the income and wealth in the United States.

“The 99th to 99.5th percentiles largely include physicians, attorneys, upper middle management, and small business people who have done well. Wealth distribution is highly skewed towards the top 0.01 per cent, increasing the overall average for this group. The net worth for those in the lower half of the top 1 per cent is usually achieved after decades of education, hard work, saving and investing as a professional or small business person.”

Perhaps even more worryingly, he revealed how even those that are financially comfortable with an income of $400K or more are caught up in a system where they can never truly be free of money worries – because ultimately, they do not control the system.

The people on average incomes, unfortunately, do not even come into the equation. He went on to explain: “In my view, the American dream of striking it rich is merely a well-marketed fantasy that keeps the bottom 99.5 per cent hoping for better and prevents social and political instability. The odds of getting into that top 0.5 per cent are very slim and the door is kept firmly shut by those within it.

“Membership in this elite group is likely to come from being involved in some aspect of the financial services or banking industry, real estate development involved with those industries, or government contracting. Some hard working and clever physicians and attorneys can acquire as much as $15M-$20M before retirement but they are rare.”

So how do those in the very top rungs of society make their money? The answer: OPM (Other Peoples Money).

The manager went on to explain: “The higher we go up into the top 0.5 per cent the more likely it is that their wealth is in some way tied to the investment industry and borrowed money than from personally selling goods or services or labor as do most in the bottom 99.5 per cent. They are much more likely to have built their net worth from stock options and capital gains in stocks, real estate and private business sales, not from income which is taxed at a much higher rate. These opportunities are largely unavailable to the bottom 99.5 per cent.”

In short, his analysis confirms what many of us have sadly come to realise. Those at the top not only have access to privileges that many of us can only dream of, but they have rigged the system in such a way that the American dream is just that: a dream which only makes sense if you’re sleeping.

Elsewhere in the world, we see the same patterns. Millions of people languish in poverty and exist on minimal benefits, while those at the top enjoy unfettered wealth, at the expense of the hardworking men and women who help them to make their billions.

So who are these billionaires? Are they hardworking company owners who have struggled through blood, sweat and tears to get in the position they are in now? Give over. They are essentially the banking cartels and families who not only run, but have designed the system.

And that is a fact that is beginning to dawn on many people across the world, including the author of the report who added: “Folks in the top 0.1 per cent come from many backgrounds but it’s infrequent to meet one whose wealth wasn’t acquired through direct or indirect participation in the financial and banking industries.
“I think it’s important to emphasize one of the dangers of wealth concentration: irresponsibility about the wider economic consequences of their actions by those at the top. Wall Street created the investment products that produced gross economic imbalances and the 2008 credit crisis.”

Tax loopholes are another big issue. The report explained how these are not just harmless ways for the well-to-do to enjoy hard-earned breaks from years of building their empire.

These are in fact endemic symptoms of the corruption, purposely built into the system in order to maintain the status quo.

He added: “I could go on and on, but the bottom line is this: A highly complex set of laws and exemptions from laws and taxes has been put in place by those in the uppermost reaches of the U.S. financial system. It allows them to protect and increase their wealth and significantly affect the US political and legislative processes. They have real power and real wealth. Ordinary citizens in the bottom 99.9 per cent are largely not aware of these systems, do not understand how they work, are unlikely to participate in them, and have little likelihood of entering the top 0.5 per cent, much less the top 0.1 per cent. Moreover, those at the very top have no incentive whatsoever for revealing or changing the rules. I am not optimistic.”

You can view the letter in full here.

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