Obviously there are many possible answers, because the answer depends on knowing more about the question - who are the 99 per cent of WHAT?
But since the question is offered as a slogan, I am genuinely interested to know more about it.
In a democracy, being part of the 99% means that you are in power. From a political point of view, it is not correct that 99% voted for or against any of the three main British political parties. So the 99% aren’t all those opposed to the Coalition government, for example, because the Coalition got a lot more than 99% of the electorate, even if you include non voters in the 100%.
From a social point of view, Giving What You Can has a calculator which allows you to work out whether you are in the 1% when it comes to income.
According to Wikipedia, in 2011, “average individual earnings in Britain were £26,000, while the average income for working-age households was around £33,000. That same year, the after-tax earnings of the median household was around £26,000 per annum.”
Entering even the lowest figures, of £26,000 per annum, in the Giving What You Can calculator, shows that this falls within the richest 1% in the world.
Perhaps the 99% figure refers to the poorest 99% in the UK, rather than the world. According to Wikipedia again, the top 1% of UK taxpayers for the most recent years quoted earned £149,000 or more before tax. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies reports that increasing taxes on those in the 1% will actually reduce the amount of tax they pay.
According to the BBC website, “The people with the top 1 per cent of incomes pay very nearly a quarter of all the income tax” already.
So, who are the 99 per cent and what are they saying should be done to the 1% which isn’t already happening?
Picture: The Occupy London camp outside St Paul’s Cathedral in London by David Gould for The Guardian newspaper
