An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%

[Bryan Hancock]

G. William Domhoff maintains this site with some analysis of the top 1%, wealth, etc. There is some great information on here about how wealth is distributed in our country for those interested in things like this. The site is here:

Power In America - Wealth, Income, and Power

I found this article particularly interesting:

An Investment Manager's View on the Top 1%

The frequently-mentioned "1%" is actually very misleading. It is pretty clear that the top .1% has a fundamentally different power structure and plays by a different set of rules. These are also the folks that are truly living a comfortable living off of amassed wealth. I found this passage to be pretty damning:

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In my view, the American dream of striking it rich is merely a well-marketed fantasy that keeps the bottom 99.5% hoping for better and prevents social and political instability. The odds of getting into that top 0.5% are very slim and the door is kept firmly shut by those within it.
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The author doesn't really provide a compelling line of reasoning after that aside from a simple analysis of it being hard because the data don't lie. The author clearly has a ton of experience dealing with folks with money though and analyzing their concerns and finances.

Many on this site seem to be aiming for this 99.5%+ mark to live the good life. I thought it would be interesting to see what people thought of the article and the chances of amassing enough wealth to generate a sizable income from their wealth. Thoughts? Opinions?