Finding the 1%

If you, like me, are sympathetic to Occupy Wall Street, but you don't live near Wall Street or Zuccotti Park, where do you go to be most likely to find those who enjoy membership in the top 1% of America's wealth gap? Thanks to this map from the Brookings Institution, now you know.

Looks like Dallas and Houston are in the race, so clearly oil and real estate banking money still matter. Los Angeles is there, of course; Hollywood and mainstream media money are anything but down for the count. And obviously you've got Chicago, Boston, and Washington DC in play as well. But in the end, it's pretty clear that OWS has rightly targeted where most of the truly wealthy reside: the financial capital of the world, where the hedge funds and credit card companies and investment speculators play: the greater New York City area, including Long Island, Fairfield County, CT, and most of New Jersey.

So there you go. I like and support the local Occupy Wichita movement here in my corner of the heartland, but it's undeniable where the real action is, and rightly ought to be. In the meantime, maybe I'll head down to Dallas over the holiday break--at least the protesters probably won't be dealing with much (if any) snow there.