In case we thought we were alone.......

[connieb]

... in the idea of the 1% and the control here is how the same issue is playing out in Switzerland. Which is very interesting because there is high degree of wealth inequality there - even though the country has basically no poverty. And, it is sort of interesting to see the attitude that the wealthy don't deserve it as it is playing out there compared to here in the US.

The Swiss have a far more egalitarian society than we do. And, in general they are very humble type people. So, even though there has always been a lot of wealth inequality - there hasn't always been a lot of flashiness about it. Which is changing and starting to get on people's nerves there.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/21/us-reutersmagazine-davos-swiss-rich-idUSBRE90K0F420130121

 

[LeRoy_Was_Here]

From your link: The top 1 percent in Switzerland control more than a third of the nation's wealth, which is slightly larger than the share owned by the richest 1 percent in the United States. Switzerland also has the highest density of millionaires in the West, with 9.5 percent of all households having $1 million or more, and the greatest number of ultra-rich families — 366 households worth more than $100 million. Ten percent of all the world's billionaires live there.

This astounding concentration of wealth riles the Swiss, although their economy has held up relatively well through the financial crisis. For all its prosperity and success in international banking, Switzerland is a country still firmly rooted in its farming past, a nation with no history of monarchy or even aristocracy.

LeRoy: I submit to you, that Switzerland CLEARLY has an aristocracy today. The 1% who control one third of the nation's wealth IS the aristocracy. Or at what point would you call them an aristocracy? When the 1% controls TWO-thirds of the wealth? What if that 1% controlled 80% of the wealth? Would they be an aristocracy then?

 

[Queen Titania]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Switzerland



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States


Look at the suicides


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-related_death_rate

 

[Queen Titania]

Poverty related or not eh ?