2401 Top Woes

There's some good news on the economic horizon.  The top one percent has finally crossed a new threshold in their quest for security.

They now have more wealth than the entire rest of the world combined.  I know.  Congratulations.  The top one percent now has as much value as the other 99 percenters all put together.  That's 100% amazing.

But hey, don't think that burden rests easily.  Those poor 70 million people have it tough in ways us easygoing regular people will never face.

Poor people get to pay 11% of state and local taxes because they don't have to pay tax preparation specialists to make sure they only pay 5.4%.  Nor do rich people get to not have checking accounts so they can pay hefty fees for cashing checks and buying money orders. 

Nor can they avoid things like the big to-do in Davos Switzerland.  It's called the World Economic Forum.  It brings together the crème de la crème, CEOs, Political Leaders, you know, just folks.  Unfortunately for them it just got a whole lot more expensive.

The Swiss National Bank recently decided to remove the cap on their nation's currency, so the franc suddenly jumped in value, making everything that was already very expensive way more expensive. 

For example, a bottle of champagne at the Belvedere Hotel which is apparently the Davos hostelry of choice, seems downright hostile now as they'll charge $400 for it instead of the paltry $343 they charged a couple of weeks ago. 

Plus, the annual Summit registration charge jumped up quite a chunk.  Last time the top corporate membership fee was 600,000 francs.  It's now 673,000.  Oh, the humanity.

Still, that's just 67.3 times the annual income of the average worker in the world. 

So.  Quite a deal. 

America, ya gotta love it.