One percenter or 99er?

Paul Solomon "occupies" the business desk at PBS's The News Hour

Here’s an interesting quiz to take while you’re kicking back this weekend with your $100 glass of wine or $1 can of beer. It’s from Paul Solomon’s Business Desk blog and tests (at least informally) whether or not you “live in a bubble”–in terms of economic and cultural privilege.

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8 Comments on “One percenter or 99er?”

  1. Pete Klein says:

    I took the test, got a 69, so I guess that makes me average in the mind of Paul.

  2. Pete Klein says:

    What I forgot to add is that I am not a beer drinking, white male who wants his country back.
    I don’t want it back. I want it to go forward.

  3. tootightmike says:

    SAY IT PETE!! Not back to the dark ages, not back to the inquisition, not back to prohibition, or Jim Crow, or McCarthyism. We want to move forward into the 21st century.. The current gang of candidates are offering us their visions of a return to Puritan ideology, Robber Baron economics, and Cold War fearfulness…movements that line the pockets of the very few, and we’re not buying it.

  4. Ken Hall says:

    Subsequent to one examining the verbiage and the the graphs, you, then make the determination as to which band/set you are a member. I consider mine to be the “first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents”. After one determines her/his band/set then one may ascertain one’s relationship to the typical score of the members of that particular set, i.e. 62/66.

    Perusing the comments to the original article it appears to me that majority of those commenting failed to comprehend the point I make above. For some reason, even those touting college degrees were under the impression that their score should determine their band/set rather than their relative position within the set of which they are a member.

    An interesting aside for me was the discovery that the USAF NCO rank insignia for the top three ranks were modified in 1991. When I left the employ of the USAF MSgt was 6 rockers, SMSgt and CMSgt were the same 6 rockers with one or two over top chevrons.

  5. Paul says:

    Pete, me? Let me take the test and see where I stand. From your comments I would put you in the 1%. Sounds like life is good.

  6. Paul says:

    I got a 58.

  7. Lucy Martin says:

    The NYT has an interesting review of this book on the question of social/political identity:
    THE RIGHTEOUS MIND: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
    By Jonathan Haidt

    It looks like a very instructive explanation of how liberals and conservatives can comfortably justify their views. (And it’s not simply because they’re mis-informed, as each side likes to think of the other.)

  8. Bob S says:

    I got a 39 which I understand makes me a first generation upper middle class guy. I wonder if that has anything to do with the generally negative reaction my comments elicit at this site?

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