And yet the percentage is lower. It really doesn't matter the comparative amounts; to put this to an even more egregious extreme, if the top 1% had 99% of the wealth, and paid 20% of that in taxes, and the bottom 99% had the remaining 1% of the wealth, and paid 0 taxes, it's not a sign that all is well, and the fact that the rich are paying -all- the taxes does not somehow make it okay.
And, no, pretty much every business benefits. The whole "keeping up with the joneses" mindset that keeps the wheels of consumerism turning is predicated on class distinctions. Our economy is dependent on consumer spending, and the obscenely rich become rich, and remain so, because of that level of spending by the middle and lower classes (meanwhile they have so much wealth they can't find ways to spend it without literally giving it away)
"The upper class keeps all of the money, pays none of the taxes. The middle class pays all of the taxes..."
It's blatantly untrue, as are most things comedians say, but Carlin somehow is treated like a scholar. The spamming of his quotes only adds fuel to the culture war.
Consumerism is completely orthogonal to polarization. Video games and Netflix promote consumerism and keep the lower classes "distracted" from change. There's no need to intentionally stir conflict. See how much corporations were willing to spend against Trump on the last 2 elections.
And, see how many corporations also funded Trump. Political polarization keeps people from seeing the robber barons that are benefiting in excess from others own hard work.
> And, see how many corporations also funded Trump
Corporations aren't a unified block. Biden got over half a billion more in funding, which is telling.
> Political polarization keeps people from seeing the robber barons that are benefiting in excess from others own hard work.
This is a narrative invented because if people find a purpose to polarization, they can blame someone else besides themselves. What is the greatest distraction from the proletariat rising up against the "robber barrons?" It's Netflix, not Fox News. Without polarization, people won't suddenly be plotting about how to take down the rich. They'll go back to rewatching the Office. If anything, polarization brings more attention to class issues.
Apple, on the other hand, does not wade into the culture war. What they do instead is make money off people's status anxiety by selling luxury products to people on food stamps.
I agree with you about Twitter as their stock had been stagnant until Trump's election and people started equating tweets as news.
Maybe the 99% should have more wealth and income so that they could pay more taxes instead?
The mantra about wealth and income being about merit/hard work/etc, is partially true. A lot of wealth and income has to do with laws/privileges/etc.
The 1% paying more in taxes really means that they'd taken more of the wealth/income. So I don't think that's the solution.