Who are the top 1% income earners in the US

[minionofmidas]

I don't know if you could distinguish between honest Wall St. investors and sleazy one.

The one doesn't exist (at least not successfully, not for very long)? Though I guess you could have trouble at times distinguishing between a merely sleazy one and a thoroughly crooked one - though as a general guideline, the latter is probably better at thinking outside the box.

I haven't even attempted to argue I am simply trying to figure out what is it that you argue. You know, that's not really easy to get )

It is absolutely standard left-wing stuff, ag.  No innovation here.

As far as I am concerned, there is no such thing as "standard left-wing stuff". You might have something in mind, but, to the best of my knowledge you are asking me to guess, whether flying crocodiles are red or blue in color )

Brown.

[minionofmidas]

Wealth comes mostly from two sources in Western countries - either being very good at something people are willing to pay for or by working hard at becoming wealthy. Investment bankers are in the latter group. I'd argue that someone like Bill Gates or Tiger Woods are in the first.

Almost a perfect restatement of what I posted, but not quite.  (Replace "something" with "acquiring wealth" and you're spot-on.  Every one I know is very good at something, but few are super-rich.)  And according to Forbes, about a third are in the latter group.  The actual IRS data takes more digging.  I was able to quickly come up with dollar-figure delineators for brackets, and some other data, through their website, but the exact number of investment bankers, country music singers, all-star hitters, lottery winners, and chief executive officers doesn't appear on the IRS web page in an obvious way.  It may be there somewhere, but patient linking is not one of those things I'm very good at.

Of course, you can also inherit, so that would be a 3rd.

Of course.  We call that "acquiring wealth the old-fashioned way."

Ah. I thought that phrase meant highway robbery.