I suspect Mr 5% was trying to argue that the top 5% of the *salaried* is not the same as the top 5% of people (some of whom will have inherited wealth or wealth generated in the past)? Even if true, he made a mess of it. https://twitter.com/KeejayOV2/status/1197653765777772550">https://twitter.com/KeejayOV2...

But on a *perception* level, one can understand where he& #39;s coming from without condoning the sentiment.

Mr 5% is from the Bolton area and is probably proud of what he& #39;s achieved. And yet he& #39;ll look around (especially when visiting London/South East) and feel small again.

Earning £81k pa does not a "rich" man make.

Chatting with a South East friend over dinner a few years ago, he moaned how the rich - "the top 10%" - should pay more tax. On c.£90k pa at the time, I told him he was in the top 10% and probably the top 5%. He didn& #39;t feel it.

Of course he didn& #39;t - he lives in an average 1960s end-terrace house yet is surrounded by obvious wealth, miles deep.

Mr 5% may be proud of what he earns, but he still sees a "huge number" of people with more than him. And I& #39;d guess he has no inheritance coming.

These salaried people& #39;s perception is that they are striving and stressing daily yet it& #39;s never enough. "There& #39;s still a large swathe of the country who can afford the houses & lifestyles" they once dreamt of.

So they get pissed off when threatened with more tax.

Where they& #39;ve gone wrong is they& #39;ve lost perspective & lost sight of the millions on minimum wage and below average wage. I don& #39;t know about Bolton but that& #39;s very easy to do in the South East where a household income of £100k doesn& #39;t feel like much.

And that creates Mr 5%s.

(And I& #39;m not actually sure that viewing the stats from a wealth perspective rather than an income perspective makes much difference to the picture of where personal wealth resides anyway. Mr 5% is still more likely than not to be in the top 5%.)