[Djehngo]

Is this part of the premise of the book or personal opinion?

[danieltillett]

Neither - it is an empirical observation. Have a look at this graph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Productivity_and_Real_Medi...

[vdaniuk]

Come on, personal opinion? Can one really doubt that governments are not working for the benefit of 99%? I don't think so.

[BrandonMarc]

It's worth noting that almost every single person with influence (president, cabinet, congress, scotus, the heads of all the federal departments of ___) is IN the top 1% (usually the 0.1%). Very few government officials (with serious influence) want to help the masses as much as they want to help themselves / their peers.

So any congresscritter who claims they are working for the benefit of the masses has my immediate suspicion. If their track record shows they're telling the truth, that's a different story, and frankly that's what matters anyway, rather than their election-year talking points.