[Iftheshoefits]

That's part of it, sure. The other part of it in America is the successful suppression of any sort of labor movement and the success of efforts by the very rich to drive a wedge between the merely affluent and the middle and lower classes.

America has a real strong strain of the "I'm not poor, I'm merely a temporarily embarrassed millionaire" sentiment.

[ryandrake]

Old article [2003] but I bet still relevant today: 39% of Americans believed they are (19%), or will one day be (20%), among the top one percent. Until this "Don't squeeze the rich because, hey, I'll be rich one day" attitude changes, labor and equality movements will always be uphill battles.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/12/opinion/the-triumph-of-hop...

[evanpw]

If you relax the constraint a bit and replace top 1% with top 5%, then almost 40% of Americans will make it at some point. And 12% of them will hit the top 1%.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/opinion/sunday/from-rags-t...

[ryandrake]

Cool follow up link, however it distinguishes between the difficulty of reaching the 1%/5%/etc. for a single year vs. sustaining this state. I'd argue the concept of "being one of the 1%" implies being able to sustain this level for longer than a year.

[jgmmo]

Organized labor getting everything they wanted is what led to basically all US auto companies going bankrupt.

[Frondo]

You ought to read this:

http://mediamatters.org/research/2014/03/05/myths-and-facts-...

[tsotha]

Mediamatters? Seriously? Well, okay. Let me find an equally credible source:

http://www.aei.org/publication/maybe-patriarchal-labor-union...

[Frondo]

If you can find factual errors in the source I linked, or errors in interpretation of those facts, I would be keen to hear them.

[tsotha]

Oh, I'll accept your link uncritically if you do the same for mine.

[Frondo]

Of course I didn't tell you to accept it uncritically.

[cpncrunch]

They quote EPI and Brookings. EPI is 29% funded by unions, so not exactly neutral. The Brookings report concludes that price was one of the factors causing an erosion of market share, and presumably employee wages are a factor in that.

[michaelchisari]

American unions were always pussycats compared to German and Japanese unions, which didn't suffer near the same fate.

[mikeash]

There are lots of situations where letting either side have free reign is bad, and the best is for both sides to be in healthy competition.

[Iftheshoefits]

Thanks for illustrating my point.