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Inequality Is Because You Earned It

You earned being in the 1%, so don't be guilty about it.

By Joel Ross | Updated on May 31, 2014

Since I make the assumption that many of you reading this are successful, and part of, or aspiring to be part of the 1%, I offer this as a dose of reality to offset the drumbeat of politicians and media types who have ratcheted up the rhetoric attacking all of us who are successful.

The latest hot topic in the media and politics is inequality. The new hero is Thomas Piketty and his book Capital. The politicos, and Picketty and many in the media would have everyone believe we all just found a suitcase full of money outside our door one morning, we invest it with nil risk and magically we who have amassed capital to whatever extent are going to take over the world. Having started life with nothing at all, and noting that virtually all of my friends and most of my business acquaintances also started with nothing to not much, I know these assumptions by these inequality obsessed people to miss the entire point. Of the so called 1%, which is the name for all of us who have earned a sufficient amount to have capital to invest, almost all have started a company and made it valuable, worked their butts off for a company or companies which were able to pay them for their efforts, or had an idea which they were able to turn into a success. Picketty and others seem to ignore that today those with capital earned it through their labor and brains, and by taking risks and making sactrifices. We work 60 hours a week, take major risks and sacrifice free time and other things to be able to amass a capital base to then invest. We saved a portion of what we earned so that we would have a capital base. We don’t work 40 hours or less, and then go home with no responsibility. The average salaried worker does not spend free time researching and gathering new insights, or networking.

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