Who is the Party of the top 1% of earners?

The top 1% use both parties. It doesn't matter who wins.

The party that just gave the largest tax cut ever to the 1%ers.

Always in His Presence said:

The media is a never ending source of information telling us that the Republican Party is for the ultra wealthy particularly the oft repeated tax cuts for the rich.

Who do you say it is?

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I'm not sure what it is now but it used to be Democrats. We have seen some switching side over the last few years

Always in His Presence said:

According to pew research -

It is the Democratic Party

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Your claim may not be wrong, but that chart isn't proof of it, because it doesn't show the "top 1%". Pew defines the lower bound of "upper income" as "triple the median", which if you look at the $ values representing the breaks between those groups and match to income quintiles, would put "upper income" as roughly the top 10-15%.

A household with an income of $210,000 would look like a pretty run-of-the-mill married couple with bachelors degrees, maybe masters, and unremarkable white collar jobs. This is me and most of my neighbors. It might actually be a bit low for my neighborhood.

If it were a single-income household, maybe the breadwinner would be something like a middle manager, software developer, or lower-paid doctor (e.g. pediatrician). These are far from the "1%" you're trying to describe. I googled a bit and couldn't find voter registration breakdown for the actual 1%.

iluvatar5150 said:

Your claim may not be wrong, but that chart isn't proof of it, because it doesn't show the "top 1%". Pew defines the lower bound of "upper income" as "triple the median", which if you look at the $ values representing the breaks between those groups and match to income quintiles, would put "upper income" as roughly the top 10-15%.

A household with an income of $210,000 would look like a pretty run-of-the-mill married couple with bachelors degrees, maybe masters, and unremarkable white collar jobs. This is me and most of my neighbors. It might actually be a bit low for my neighborhood.

If it were a single-income household, maybe the breadwinner would be something like a middle manager, software developer, or lower-paid doctor (e.g. pediatrician). These are far from the "1%" you're trying to describe. I googled a bit and couldn't find voter registration breakdown for the actual 1%.

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Yeah top 10-15%, thats occupied mostly by the hardworking educated professional class.

Who knows how the top 1% are inclined? Well, I have my suspicions. But the OP data doesnt help us figure it out, as you note.

durangodawood said:

Yeah top 10-15%, thats occupied mostly by the hardworking educated professional class.

Who knows how the top 1% are inclined? Well, I have my suspicions. But the OP data doesnt help us figure it out, as you note.

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The lower bound for the top 1% is around $800k, which is mostly going to be business owners, executives and senior management, doctors in some specialties, law firm partners, finance people at the Director level or above, some high-end sales reps, and some very senior engineers at FAANGs.

I would not be surprised at all if that crowd skewed Republican.

iluvatar5150 said:

The lower bound for the top 1% is around $800k, which is mostly going to be business owners, executives and senior management, doctors in some specialties, law firm partners, finance people at the Director level or above, some high-end sales reps, and some very senior engineers at FAANGs.

I would not be surprised at all if that crowd skewed Republican.

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Dont forget all the tip top rock and pop stars and actors. They must number well into the hundreds! And I bet they mostly vote D.

If temporarily embarrassed millionaires can vote against their economic interests, then so can actual millionaires.

'The party of' in these formulations is not about demographics but about 'Cui bono?'

GoldenBoy89 said:

The party that just gave the largest tax cut ever to the 1%ers.

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That's operates on the assumption that money is the only form of "currency" out there, and the only lever of power and influence.


When you boil it down to practical terms (and how the two parties pander to various rich people):

One party says (to a small group of uber wealthy people) -- if you back us, we'll make sure you get to keep an extra $400k of your income rather than paying it to taxes, and we'll get some of those inconvenient regulations out of the way for the businesses that you own.

vs.

The other party who says (to a different group of uber wealthy people) -- if you back us, you won't get the tax break, but we'll make sure the institutions of academia, entertainment, and 75% of the mainstream media promote your preferred viewpoints on all of the non-economic social issues to influence the public over to your side, and we'll occasionally try to squash opposing viewpoints on your behalf.


Basically, they're appealing to two distinct different types of "thirsts for power".

One is mostly greed-based based, with a dash of "I have a lot of money, so I want to be able to get rid of laws I don't like that prevent me from making even more"

The other is more power craving that involves wanting to be able to manipulate public viewpoints in order to have everyone else think the way they do.


If I may use a Batman villain analogy to describe which types of rich people the 2 parties appeal to...

The republicans appeal to "The Penguin" type of rich person,
The Penguin doesn't seek to prove philosophical points; he simply wants to be rich, respected, and feared. His crimes are almost purely elaborate (ethically compromised) business ventures designed to have more money -- regardless of who it hurts.

The democrats appeal to the "Riddler" type of rich person.
The Riddler wants people to acknowledge his "genius" and see the world through his lens. His strategies are elaborate demonstrations designed to reshape how people think about intelligence, authority, and who deserves to hold power.


Or to put it more succinctly, the Koch/Mellon ilk and Soros ilk are two very different types of billionaires motivated by two very different types of power. The former just want a lot of money (and the removal of impediments that could stop them from making even more), the latter enjoy the ability of being able to manipulate people into seeing things "their way", but making it feel like it was their own choice.

ThatRobGuy said:

The republicans appeal to "The Penguin" type of rich person,
The Penguin doesn't seek to prove philosophical points; he simply wants to be rich, respected, and feared. His crimes are almost purely elaborate (ethically compromised) business ventures designed to have more money -- regardless of who it hurts.

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People who would, and often do, create suffering, because avoid harm costs $$$.

ThatRobGuy said:

The democrats appeal to the "Riddler" type of rich person.
The Riddler wants people to acknowledge his "genius" and see the world through his lens. His strategies are elaborate demonstrations designed to reshape how people think about intelligence, authority, and who deserves to hold power.

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People who for better or worse are just trying to convince us of their view of a more beneficial course of action.

Interesting generalizations there! But what happened to your both sides are equally bad m.o.?

Always in His Presence said:

The media is a never ending source of information telling us that the Republican Party is for the ultra wealthy particularly the oft repeated tax cuts for the rich.

Who do you say it is?

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And the media is correct. Do you see Dems cutting medicaid for the sake of lower corporate taxes?

Look up a list of the wealthiest Americans and then determine whether they're mostly democrats or republicans.

ozso said:

Look up a list of the wealthiest Americans and then determine whether they're mostly democrats or republicans.

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Mostly Republicans:
List of wealthiest Americans by net worth - Wikipedia

ozso said:

Look up a list of the wealthiest Americans and then determine whether they're mostly democrats or republicans.

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How would you know how they vote once in the booth?

GoldenBoy89 said:

How would you know how they vote once in the booth?

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The poster above you didn't seem to have any difficulty with it.

Always in His Presence said:

Nope, and I don’t see Republicans doing it either

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Medicaid cuts in Trump's ‘big beautiful bill' will leave millions uninsured, threaten rural hospitals
Twice as many companies paying zero taxes under Trump tax plan

To offset those tax cuts they cut medicaid funding.

ozso said:

The poster above you didn't seem to have any difficulty with it.

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Do you disagree with their conclusion?