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>Almost all of the growth in top American earners has come from just three economic sectors: professional services, finance and insurance, and health care, groups that tend to benefit from regulatory barriers that shelter them from competition. >The groups that have contributed the most people to the 1 percent since 1980 are: physicians; executives, managers, sales supervisors, and analysts working in the financial sectors; and professional and legal service industry executives, managers, lawyers, consultants and sales representatives. Not a surprising result at all when you consider that the bottom of the top 1% has an income of high 6 figures to somewhat above $1M. That number is something very achievable for the most successful "professionals" -- doctors, lawyers, bankers (not HF managers), traders, and there are a lot of these people out there! It's a natural consequence that if you look for a large number of people earning $1M, you'll end up with highly successful "professionals" rather than outlier level wealth from business ownership, which is much more rare. |
First, you're assuming that all these "professionals" are not also business owners, which is often false; doctors and lawyers earning enough to put them in the top 1% are most likely owners of or partners in a private practice.
Second, if we restrict "business ownership" to those who are not "professionals", the fact that it is rare is a consequence of regulation, not an independent fact. Regulatory barriers don't just benefit "professionals" who have the requisite qualifications; they also hamstring people trying to start businesses not in those particular "professional" sectors.
So the result is only "not surprising" if you take the level of regulation we have now for granted.