The top 1% changes a lot. Most people don't stay in the top 1% for many years in a row. Many people below the 90th percentile benefit from the growth of the top levels when they have their brief time in the top 1%.
My point is that while we frequently use the 1% as a reference for discussions on inequality, the driving force of wealth accumulation isn't that some people make 350k+, and people understandably get caught up in those semantics.
There are plenty of Silicon Valley low level engineers who are in the top 1%. Doctors and top lawyers are in the top 1%.
I would fathom most in the top 1% are wage earners and not owning so much capital they can live off of it.
According to BLS, median physician salary doesn't quite make your list, at 208k. Median lawyer is more like 120k. And you are assuming there are two such wage earners per family here, which is probably the minority case. I know a few two doctor couples, by I know far more where the other career either doesn't exist or is much less lucrative.
Any way you cut it, top 1% of income, let alone wealth, doesn't look anything like a typical job and it doesn't do anyone (other than the very wealthy) favors to pretend otherwise.
To say that all top 1% are "capital owners who don't need to work" isn't accurate. There are plenty of wage earners in the top 1%.
I’m certainly not arguing that all of the 1% are living off capital only, but it’s worth noting that the people in there that primarily do it off a wage are unusual even amongst high wage earners.
Absolutely the top 0.01% is different than the top 1%. But that doesn’t make the top 1% just folks.
” This fraction declines and for the top 1 percent (those making $783,000 or more), their income is about equally split between capital and labor income.”
I’d bet if you looked at those in the top 1% but under $1M range the vast majority of income is salary.
https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox/let-me-tell-you-about...
Most people are unlikely to reach top 1% for income in any one year of their lifetime.
The top 1% for wealth is even a much higher bar to reach: you need to hold over $10 million. People ain't moving in and out of that bracket very often.
As a Sheikh once said 'My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Lamborghini, his son will drive a Lamborghini, but his son will ride a camel'.