We have been hearing for a year about the top 1% in our society. The Left and our affirmative action president insists that this tiny number of people need to pay more taxes. The rest of the society has been responding that these people already pay more actual taxes than nearly everyone else combined.
I want to remind my readers that for the previous 60 years, since the Second World War when leadership was an important issue, we have always talked about the 2% of our society that are leaders.
Many studies of leadership have shown that different circumstances generate different kinds of leadership. Sometimes on a sinking ship an unexpected person emerges as the one who is calm and knowledgeable. In an airplane accident still another type of person will be able to respond.
The qualities of leadership are not always known or appreciated in advance.
The proportion of people who are leaders, in any society, in any environment, remains extremely low. The military found that only 2% of any cross-section of our population are leaders. This seems to be true in my experience.
Therefore it is rather bizarre that the Left should be picking on 1% of the population and ignoring the fact that 2% of the population comprises our leadership both entrepreneurial and political.
Does this mean that only half of our leaders are being appropriately rewarded? Half of 2% is 1%.