MixedNew York TimesUnfortunately, Stewart’s portrait of the 9.9 percent draws on few firsthand interviews with members of this class. He relies instead on examples culled from sources like Slate and on made-up characters such as \'Ultramom,\' a cartoonish figure ... Such caricaturing may resonate with the popular anger at elites. But it fails to lend much insight into what Stewart calls \'the mind of the 9.9 percent,\' or for that matter, to demonstrate that such a uniform thing exists ... In contemporary America, the lives of the wealthy bear increasingly little resemblance to those of working-class people, much less to those who are poor. Stewart is surely right to view this as a problem and to question why it has generated so much less outrage and concern than the obscene fortunes of the superrich. But the growing chasm between the 9.9 percent and the rest of society only underscores why pushing beyond reductive stereotypes to explain how affluent professionals think about, and justify, their wealth and privilege is important. Doing so can help illuminate both how deep the economic disparities in America have become and how inequality is validated and sustained.
