Turner and Madar 1

Andrew Madar and Nate Turner

Mr. Frank
English 1030-044
September 22, 2014
The Discourse Community of the 1%

Before we can understand the discourse community of the wealthy we first need to
understand how they got to where they are. Wealthy people have put a lot of time in their field
of expertise. Many people have inherited their wealth and their wealth can be considered old
money. However, many of the wealthiest individuals the most recent generations know and
recognize are entrepreneurs that created a booming business. One example of an entrepreneur is
Jim Dolan, founder of the Dolan Company. The Dolan Company provides business information
and professional services to financial and real estate sectors throughout the United States. When
he was a child, well before starting up his company, Dolan found his calling in entrepreneurship
through several other activities and jobs he performed. Dolan, as a kid, used to buy fireworks in
the summer when they were very cheap and would hold onto them until Christmas time and then
sell them to his friends at a 300% profit, (Jordan). Big names like Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg
and Sam Walton made it big with the unique ability to create a business and understand how to
market, invest and sell their products. These entrepreneurs have created products and businesses
that have positively impacted and spread to many parts of the world. Some were born into a
wealthy family and acquired their familys business. Others climbed the ladder of a business and
eventually made enough money to invest into other things that became successful, thus yielding
major profit. In order to make money, money has to be spent; therefore the rich have become

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rich because they knew how to invest their money at the right time in the right places. This is
often times what separates those who strike it big from the other 99 Percent.
Many people in the United States are dissatisfied with the unequal distribution of wealth
amongst the country. In turn, protestors all over the country have organized and claim to be in
the group known as The 99 percent. They protest through large cities like New York City,
Chicago, and Boston, speaking out against what they feel to be an unequal system.
Conversations are starting that focus on the growing gap between the wealthiest one percent and
the other ninety-nine percent of Americans (Jilani). People do not think it is fair that the
wealthiest one percent own over 40 percent of the nations total wealth. One of the protesters
wrote a sign that says, I am aged, old, and frail. I have paid taxes all my adult life. Now, I have
to choose between medicine and food. It feels like a very slow death. I AM THE 99%
(Jilani). This is just one of millions that is now doing everything that they can to make ends
meet. All the while, these people feel as though the wealthiest few could spare some money to
help provide food, shelter and medicine for some of those struggling to get by. These people
have always had to make the tough choices in life. What is the best investment of my money at
this point? Can I afford to buy this or should I forgo it altogether? Most of the American people
have never had the comfort of not having to worry about finances on a daily basis. This could be
some of the cause of the unrest of the majority of Americans who feel some people are too
wealthy.
The general public opinion of the one percent is that most of them are greedy and
selfish. Bruce Drake of the Pew Research Organization helped organize surveys which found,
Views are mixed: Americans view the well-to-do as more intelligent and more hardworking but
also greedier. Often times this can be a misconceived notion, as the wealthy do a lot of things

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that are good for the general public. Another statistic from Drakes research shows that Despite
widespread perceptions of economic inequality, there was little indication that it had fueled class
resentment. Nearly nine-in-ten (88%) said they admired people who get rich by working
hard. This proves that, in general, the public respect the hard work that the wealthy have put in
to get to where they are, but many have displeasure with what they do with their money once it is
acquired. Despite all the negativity surrounding the one percenters, it is well documented that
most of them do donate huge sums of money to charities. Bill Gates has done some of the most
well documented charity work which includes creating his own foundation. The Gates charity
motto starts as Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. Since the Gates
Foundations inception, it has donated billions of dollars to various charities. This is a small
number compared to all the donations and charity work that has been amassed by all the
billionaires in the world. Almost every single billionaire has a foundation set up so that they can
make a positive impact. The rich could very well donate only because they feel pressure from
the masses to do so as a result of their wealth, but no one will ever go on record saying this. So,
even though, many people feel as though the motivation for the rich to give donations is a tax
break, those who donate feel differently. They donate because they are also humans, not a
different being. They too feel compassion and a sense of pride in donating to those who are less
fortunate than them. In an article published by step.org, statistics were found using a survey of
high net-worth donors and their philanthropic advisors. They found that, While advisors
believed that the majority of HNW (High Net-Worth) individuals would reduce their giving if
the estate tax was eliminated, just 6 percent of HNW individuals indicated they would reduce
their charitable giving if this tax policy would change, showing that the wealthy are not just

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motivated by tax breaks but also by being good natured humans. Charitable donations are just
one of the many ways that wealth gets redistributed amongst the social classes.
The wealthiest people in the world, specifically in the United States, are often negatively
associated with the profession that is politics. Politics is often portrayed as being controlled by
the wealthiest. Much of the common public opinion can be justified by facts about the political
game that is continuously ongoing. Robert ONeill of the Harvard Kennedy School analyzes
the paper of Harvard faculty researcher Filipe Campante on the increase in political influence of
the wealthiest. He begins this paper with the statement, As another heated political season
begins, attention is focused on the Super PACs created to funnel unlimited contributions to
political candidates, on billionaire political patrons, and on big moneys influence on the
political process. Especially as more wealth is concentrated into fewer hands, (O'Neill). ONeill
is saying, plain and simple, that the wealthy have immense amounts of resources which they
contribute to the political scene. The ninety-nine percent feel as though they are being cheated
in the political system because they believe all the politicians are influenced by those with
massive amounts of money. They dont feel as though they are able to have a fair say in what
goes on in Washington and other political locations.
The ninety-nine percent are those who describe themselves as being opposed to the
concentration of wealth that is the one-percent. These self-proclaimed ninety-niners often
express their displeasure with the economic system through occupy movements such as
Occupy Wall Street. Brian Stelter of the New York Times references both the Republican,
often associated with the one percent, and Democratic, often associated with the ninety niners,
views on the identity of the 99% in his article about the group. The general feel is that
Republicans are opposed to the idea of a ninety-nine percent movement because it is divisive

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and un-American. On the other hand, the Democrats have used the idea as a political platform
to get votes and kick start legislation. They often politically attack the wealthy, who also happen
to associate more so with the Republicans than the Democrats, in an attempt to rally votes from
the middle class. The whole idea of the ninety-nine percent is to bring attention to income
inequality and have done so effectively using occupation movements and social media. The
general feel of the public tends to be that the one percenters are the enemy of the common
people. This leads to an ironic situation, which is that huge sums of money are spent blasting
those with huge sums of money and those who are making such attacks often have lots of money
themselves.
The wealthiest people in the world have it easy but at the same time they also have it
really hard. Although they are sometimes hated and seen as greedy people because of what they
actually do with their money, they are also seen as people of hard work and dedication. They
have put in tons of work their whole lives to become what they are and once they are at the top
they are constantly criticized by the rest of the population. Every single thing that they do is
watched closely and if they make a mistake they end up on the news. A recent example could be
Donald Sterling and his fallout with the public. Although the wealthiest one percent are seen as
bad people, they actually do a lot of things that help out charities and organizations around the
world. Bill Gates is a great example, giving out hundreds of millions of dollars a year to help
those in need around the world, especially in the United States. The wealthiest people in the
world live up to high standards each and every day and in the end they are also, on the most
basic level, humans like everyone else and thus deserve the respect that each person deserves.

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Works Cited
"Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation." Foundation Fact Sheet. Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
n.d. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
Drake, Bruce. "Americans See Growing Gap between Rich and Poor." Pew Research Center
RSS. Pew Research Organization, 5 Dec. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
Jilani, Zaid. "How Unequal We Are: The Top 5 Facts You Should Know About The Wealthiest
One Percent Of Americans." ThinkProgress RSS. Think Progress, 3 Oct. 2011. Web. 18
Sept. 2014.
Jordan, Robert. How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America. Northbrook,
IL: Redflash, 2010. Print.
O'Neill, Robert. "Inequality Increases Political Influence of Wealthiest." Harvard Kennedy
School -. Harvard Kennedy School, Spring 2012. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
Stelter, Brian. "Camps Are Cleared, but 99 Percent Still Occupies the Lexicon." The New York
Times. The New York Times, 30 Nov. 2011. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
"USA - Study Reveals Misconceptions about Why Wealthy Give for Charity." Step.org.
Step.org,

29 Oct. 2013. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.