Forum Post: Stereotypes are hurting this cause!

Definition of Stereotypes: “A stereotype is a commonly held public belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. Stereotypes are standardized and simplified conceptions of groups based on some prior assumptions.”

Stereotypes are especially likely to be wrong in conflict situations. When people are engaged in a conflict, their image of their opponent tends to become more and more hostile. As communication gets cut off, people make generalizations and assumptions about opponents based on very sketchy and often erroneous information.

They see faults in themselves and "project" those faults onto their opponent, preferring to believe that they are good and their opponents are bad. Eventually, opponents develop a strong "enemy image," that assumes that everything the other side does is evil or wrong, while everything they do themselves is good. Such negative stereotypes make any sort of conflict resolution or conflict management process more difficult." http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/fixstereo.htm

In an article published in the New York Post on November 7, 2011 Michael Tanner, a Senior Fellow at the CATO Institute described the most common stereotypes being used as social weapons against the 1%.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_real_percent_mDxpXnIgtFGBv8xlexdfVO

STEREOTYPE: “The rich” are either “trust-fund babies” who inherited their money, or greedy bankers and hedge-fund managers. Certainly, they haven’t worked especially hard for their money.”

TRUTH: “Roughly 80 percent of millionaires in America are the first generation of their family to be rich. They didn’t inherit their wealth; they earned it. How? According to a recent survey of the top 1 percent of American earners, slightly less than 14 percent were involved in banking or finance.

Roughly a third were entrepreneurs or managers of non-financial businesses. Nearly 16 percent were doctors or other medical professionals.

Lawyers made up slightly more than 8 percent, and engineers, scientists and computer professionals another 6.6 percent.

Sports and entertainment figures -- the folks flying in on their private jets to express solidarity with Occupy Wall Street -- composed almost 2 percent.

By and large, the wealthy have worked hard for their money. NYU sociologist Dalton Conley says that “higher-income folks work more hours than lower-wage earners do.”

STEREOTYPE:” While the recession has thrown millions of Americans out of work, the rich have been getting even richer.”

TRUTH: “Because so much of their income is tied up in investments, the recession has hit the rich especially hard. Much attention has been paid recently to a Congressional Budget Office study that showed incomes for the top 1 percent rose far faster from 1980 until 2007 than for the rest of us. But the nonpartisan Tax Foundation has found that since 2007, there has been a 39 percent decline in the number of American millionaires.

Among the “super-rich,” the decline has been even sharper: The number of Americans earning more than $10 million a year has fallen by 55 percent. In fact, while in 2008 the top 1 percent earned 20 percent of all income here, that figure has declined to just 16 percent. Inequality in America is declining.”

STEREOTYPE: “The rich don’t even pay their fair share in taxes: Millionaires and billionaires are paying a lower tax rate than their secretaries.”

TRUTH: “As for not paying their fair share, the top 1 percent pay 36.7 percent of all federal income taxes. Because, as noted above, they earn just 16 percent of all income, that certainly seems like more than a fair share.

Maybe Warren Buffett is paying a lower tax rate than his secretary, as he claims. But the comparison is misleading because Buffett’s income comes mostly from capital gains, which were already taxed at their origin through the corporate-income tax.

Moreover, the Buffetts of the world are clearly an exception. Overall, the rich pay an effective tax rate (after all deductions and exemptions) of roughly 24 percent. For all taxpayers as a group, the average effective tax rate is about 11 percent.”

STEREOTYPE: “The rich don’t care about the poor! “

TRUTH: “Households with more than $1 million in income donated more than $150 billion to charity last year, roughly half of all US charitable donations.”

STEREOTYPE: “The rich don’t create jobs!”

TRUTH: “The rich provide the investment capital that funds ventures, creates jobs and spurs innovation. The money that the rich save and invest is the money that companies use to start or expand businesses, buy machinery and other physical capital and hire workers.

It has become fashionable to ridicule the idea of the rich as “job creators,” but if the rich don’t create jobs, who will? How many workers have been hired recently by the poor?”

TRUTH: “No doubt dishonest or unscrupulous businessmen have gotten rich by taking advantage of others. And few of us are likely to lose much sleep over the plight of the rich.”

TRUTH: “But shouldn’t public policy be based on something more than class warfare, envy and stereotypes?”

Michael Tanner is a Cato Institute senior fellow.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/the_real_percent_mDxpXnIgtFGBv8xlexdfVO#ixzz1iLgWb4dl

Point-If OWS wants to gain the trust of the majority-they must FIRST be trustworthy.