Hypocrisy in the 99 percent

For about half a month, roars of applause have erupted from the stands of Reliant Stadium each night as some one-percent singer-songwriter closed the night with some hit single, produced by one-percent studio developers and record labels, advertised thanks to some fat cat Wall Street name like British Petroleum or Ford Automotive. And of course, the whole night was only made possible thanks to the one-percent elites sitting up in their luxury pillbox, staring down at us lesser folk as we enjoyed our overpriced stadium food and seats.

Who would have thought that the rodeo, a celebration of rugged Western heritage and the penniless pioneer headed out to strike his fortune in the open plains of the Wild West, was now a product of the one percent?

That’s the easy way to put it, and exactly how most of the Occupy Wall Street protestors now reassembling in Zuccotti Park — with their iPhones and iPads — would put it as well. And of course, they’ll be doing so by furiously posting about corporate greed to their Twitter and Facebook accounts.

It’s very easy to condemn the obviously well-off, imagining all the evil things they must have done to get to their positions.

Hard work hasn’t paid off for the protestors, so the amount of hard work put into a cause or goal by the upper class must be irrelevant. Maybe that’s why Occupy Wall Street still doesn’t have a clear cut goal. No goal means no effort, right?

But there is a hidden one percent in the rodeo circuit. They’re riding in from Reno and Cheyenne and little towns all across the Lone Star State, making the biggest appearances of their lives here in the Bayou City.

They’re the ancestors of a breed that some Americans wish to acknowledge only as a product of Hollywood.

They’re the professional bull riders of America and they’re a part of an even bigger group — the working one percent.

There have been plenty of criticisms about the extravagance of the one percent; I’ll even admit to wanting to make a piñata out of the next CEO who fires an entire branch while accepting a corporate bonus for himself. That’s one of the few things I might agree with Occupy Wall Street protesters. Corporate CEOs shouldn’t pay fewer taxes than people who make three or four times less than they do by writing the budget-cut as an “investment.”

While that might seem a justifiable reason to blast the one percent at full strength, take a few steps back. Forget Mitt Romney and his corporate cronies, and instead, think of Old McDonald, who, provided he was a good enough bull rider or steer wrestler, could have walked away with $100,000 in prize money, making more in one night than what apparently 99 percent of Americans can’t make in a year.

Considering this is only one of many events on the Built Ford Tough professional bull riding circuit, the capacity for that fortune to grow depends completely on the hard work and determination that bull riders put into their work as well as the luck of not getting a bull named “Widowmaker 3000.”

Wait a second. Hard work? A bit of luck? Sounds like the America I knew. One that didn’t depend on social entitlement programs, but just on the amount of sweat you’re willing to pour out and the bit of good luck that’s come your way.

The working one percent of Americans don’t exist because of corporate or government handouts. Small business owners with good business sense are members of the one percent along with these bull riders. And they have to make the same excuse that those Wall Street CEOs make every time someone asks them about taxes — they get away with lower taxes because they have money to invest back into their work.

Coming from a millionaire living on a hill, that might be hard to swallow. But if it was coming from a bronco buster out of Fayetteville, I’m guessing those OWS protestors might change their tone when he said he had investments to make.

Contrary to popular belief, not all people in the one percent are malignant tumors living off the tax code, writing off massive tax breaks as “investments.” — unlike some in the one percent who are just that.

The working one percent, like the cowboys of our Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, must make investments simply so they can stay in business.

It’s called breaking even and the reason they’re allowed to pay less taxes than Warren Buffet’s secretary is because all that prize money goes right back to raising cattle and training themselves to be better ropers and horsemen.

Besides sponsorship deals, their only income comes from rodeo circuit winnings and livestock they manage to sell on the side.

They’re entirely self-sufficient; they make their own money and nobody is paying for them to go anywhere — especially when they’re just starting off. They must pay for travel expenses, health and life insurance, and the cost to transport all their equipment and livestock.

Some steers sell for $250,000 a head, well over the criteria to be taxed straight into the ground by the Buffett Tax. But after calculating all the necessary expenses, which are written off as investments, the prize money needs to be so big because it if weren’t, people would stop riding in the circuit because of the expense. Or in terms relating back to the one percent, they would stop because operating costs would be too high.

So as OWS kicks off another round of guideless rabble-rousing, ranting against the one percent in New York and denouncing their corporate greed, remember the cowboys and cowgirls as they head home safely, some very content with their winnings and others lamenting the fact that they now have to pay for everything out of pocket with no prize money to soften the blow.

Remember them and their urban counterparts; remember the small business owner who must make actual investments to keep themselves afloat but are now being denounced as evil by people who can apparently afford Internet access and little else.

A good and proper investment can make a whole lot of difference between financial security and just scraping by.

James Wang is a history major and may be reached at [email protected].