18 Jan, 2012 : What do the upper 1 percent of Americans have on their mind? / Canadian confesses to murder of girlfriend

What do the upper 1 percent of Americans look like and what’s on their mind?   01-17-2012 13:51 Triggered from Wall Street, New York, and having spread all over the world, the “Occupy Wall Street” protest’s main slogan was that the gap between the top 1 percent versus the other 99 is too wide. The New York Times has interviewed some of the upper 1 percent of the rich in the United States and reported that their lifestyle and values are not all stereotyped but of various kinds. They are not clustered in New York and Los Angeles which can be readily imagined but also live in places like Denver and Dallas. The range of wealth in the 1 percent is huge _ from households that bring in $380,000 a year up to billionaires like Warren E. Buffett and Bill Gates. The top 1 percent of earners receive just about a fifth of the country’s pretax income in a given year. Compared to 30 years ago, it’s about double their share. They pay just over a fourth of all federal taxes, and they accounted for about 30 percent of giving charity, the paper reported, quoting data by the Federal Reserve. They received 22 percent of their income from capital gains, compared with 2 percent for everybody else. They work longer hours than the general public. They are three times more likely to work more than 50 hours a week. Married 1-percenters are just as likely as other couples to have two incomes, but men earn 75 percent of the money, compared with 64 percent of the income in other households. In interviews, though many of the rich lean toward the Republican Party, 1-percenters have a wide range of views on the U.S. economy. Some say President Barack Obama is ruining the economy, while others point out that Republicans in Congress are embargoing the whole country. And for tax, some of them favor a flat tax while some believe the rich paying a higher tax rate would be desirable. Some cheered on Occupy Wall Street, saying it was about time, while others wished the protesters would just get a job or take a bath. And they regard today’s recession as something that will pass, like so many previous ups and downs. Of the 1-percenters who took part in the interview, almost all _ conservatives and liberals alike _ said the wealthy could and should shoulder more of the country’s financial burden and almost all said they viewed the current system as unfair. To many, the 99 percent versus the 1 percent distinction was thought as unjust, since it is overlooking the wealthy’s hard work and moral character and criticizing them just because they are rich.” Adam Katz , who runs a charter flight company, said, “This kind of division doesn’t make sense. The rich have both created many jobs and contributed to charitable causes. I’m not hurting anyone. Rather, I’m helping a lot of people.”   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------   Canadian confesses to murder of girlfriend 3 years ago 01-17-2012 18:41   By Kim Tae-jong A Canadian has turned himself in to police, confessing to the murder of his Korean girlfriend three years ago, police said Tuesday. She was previously thought to have drowned by accident. Police have sought an arrest warrant for the 38-year-old, who confessed to the crime because of feelings of guilt about her and her family. According to Yongsan Police Station, the man came to Korea in 2001 to work as an English teacher. He met the then 21-year-old college student in January, 2009 and they started a relationship. But he soon began having delusions that she would recruit other people to kill him, and out of fear, he decided to murder her. On March 23, he took her to a deserted area by the Han River in Seoul and jumped into the water holding her. Then he lied to the police, saying she drowned accidentally while trying to retrieve a tennis ball from the water. The Canadian denied his involvement in the death and was later freed from the investigation after an autopsy failed to find any evidence to show she was murdered. The case was closed. He went back to Canada that year but his guilt has finally led him to confess his crime. He came back to Korea Saturday and admitted what he did to the police.