by Hans Eisenbeis
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Iconoculture has been doing our best to help fill out a meaningful and informative portrait of “the 1%” to improve understanding of the top income-earners in the US. Who are they, where do they live, what did they do to become our wealthy and privileged overlords?
- A January 2012 analysis of 2010 Census Bureau data gives some insights into the educational status of the 1%. The highest proportion of one percenters studied economics during college — but that only accounts for about 5% of America’s wealthiest tax bracket (NYTimes.com, 18 January 2012). It turns out that science majors are especially well represented too. Health and medicine, biology and zoology are all majors that are well represented in the top 1% as well.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS
- It’s a myth that America’s richest individuals are all amoral Wall Street tycoons with business degrees from the Ivy League. Though many may be, there are also plenty of professionals — medical doctors and administrators especially — who are doing very well, thanks.
- This suggests that while Americans value the hard sciences, they may begin to consider pay inequity in the medical fields, and support healthcare reform.
- Businesses wishing to target the wealthiest Americans would do well to remember that many are highly skilled scientists and technicians.
RESOURCES
