While most contributors here are using more appropriate terms, such as wealthy or rich or oligarchy, some folks here are falling into the right-wing messaging/framing trap of using the the phrase "top earners". "Top earners" is one of the most obnoxious, Orwellian labels that the conservatives and the MSM have ever created.
While I expect media companies owned by Rupert Murdock or GE to engage in this kind of right-wing framing, I would like Kossacks to please consider using more accurate and less conservative-narrative-reinforcing terms.
I avoid this phrase like the plague, and am uncomfortable even repeating it in this diary, but it seems that some Kossacks have fallen in this rhetorical trap. I'll explain over the jump...
It is a pretty smart word game that I'll break down for you real quick:
Subject: Earners
By using this phraseology, we are implicitly accepting that the super wealthy, most of whom have jobs that create little or no tangible productive value, have actually "earned" the this income. Using the phrase inherently accepts that these people deserve to have these vast riches, when, in fact, most of them are only in these positions because of familial networks, either directly(inheritance) or indirectly(mommy or daddy got you a job on Wall Street).
Adjective: Top
The adjective is less important than the subject, but by implying that these people are "at the top", we grant them superiority. This further legitimizes the idea and social-darwinistic framing that the conservative movement uses to justify the current inequalities that we are facing.
I know that when a term is constantly bandied about, by the MSM, it is very easy for it work its way into your vocabulary. That's how the echo chamber works, and it is very, very effective. That being said we, have to stick to our own rhetorical guns. These people are rich. They are the oligopoly, the "American Aristocracy", and when we fail to refer to them as such, we are failing to reinforce the progressive messaging and framing necessary to push back against what I'm sure are poll tested phrases, like "top earners".
There are others, on this site, that are much better in explaining the whole messaging/framing/overton window thing, and I'll let them do that, but this is a growing pet peeve of mine, and I just wanted to vent.
Remember we can't win a messaging war if we're shooting ourselves in the face.