The 1% and the Rest of Us

One of the major accomplishments of the Occupy movement has been to draw global attention to the massive disparity of income, wealth, and privilege concentrated in one percent of the world's population. In The 1% and the Rest of Us, Tim Di Muzio offers the first empirical and theoretical study of the culture, politics, built environments, and social behavior of this extremely wealthy minority. In doing so, he examines the fallout of this socio-economic order and its devastating consequences for the other ninety-nine percent of the population. Drawing on case studies and incorporating provocative insights into the worldviews, politics, and lifestyles of the economic elite, Di Muzio reveals how the one percent is creating a world unto themselves in which the accumulation of wealth has become a powerful symbol of control over society and the natural environment. This timely and thought-provoking book offers the first in-depth analysis of the global political economy of the one percent, and, at the same time, demonstrates how unflagging resistance can continually challenge and call into question its power and dilute its influence.

The first historically informed, theoretically rich and empirically detailed study of what Occupy has called the 1%.

Introduction: Towards a Global Political Economy of the 1%1. The Unusual Suspects: Identifying the Global 1%2. Capital as Power and the 1%3. Wealth, Money and Power4. Differential Consumption: The Rise of Plutonomy5. Society vs. the Superman Theory of Wealth6. The Party of the 99%: Resistance and Future Prospects