Yes the rich are richer, but there are also more OF them. Isn't that good?

Question

The rich tend to have fewer kids than the rest of us - yet the number and proportion of the country that IS rich is growing. That has to mean that middle class people are becoming rich. Not all of them but more than was the case a generation ago and even a decade ago.

Every income level is better off than either a decade or a generation ago, and for most of us these levels are weigh stations, not a permanent status.

So most of us are moving up, albeit at different rates. Hardly anyone is moving down.

Isn't that better than the alternative?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1229294/posts
http://www.nytimes.com/specials/downsize/21cox.html
http://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/1988/05/art1full.pdf
http://www.frbsf.org/econrsrch/wklyltr/el97-07.html#winners
http://www.dallasfed.org/fed/annual/1999p/ar95.html
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/28/news/economy/millionaire_survey/index.htm?cnn=yes
http://money.cnn.com/2006/03/28/news/economy/millionaires/?cnn=yes

Answer 1

I have no problem for anyone getting richer. Heck I do better every year, nothign wrong with that. If people want more money all they have to do is earn it on their own.

Answer 2

A person's income tends to increase over time, not much of a revelation there.

Also, we're talking about percentiles, and that's a bit misleading. The difference between lower class and middle class is about $30,000 per year in income, which is a lot of money, but this is a bit deceptive when turned into a percentile.

The difference between middle class and upper middle class is about $450,000 in income per year.

The difference between upper middle class and upper class is about $500,000 in income per year.

The result is that the gap in the 80/20 relation is much greater. It's much much easier to move from the bottom 5% of earners into the top 50% of earners. Graduating college and getting lucky with a base job will get you there on its own, especially since the economy is producing more low-wage jobs now. It is much much harder (if not almost impossible) for the average American to get from the 50th percentile into the 80th percentile, or the 90th percentile. There is a glass ceiling and the difference between the middle class and the upper class in income and wealth is gigantic.

So those numbers are a bit misleading. That person being tracked in 1975 to 1990 who was in the bottom 5% and ended up in the 60th percentile really only increased their income by a few $10,000 incriments over 15 years... that's fine, and it is success, but it's not rich and it's not resounded success.

Though the upper class is growing, it's growing in relative proportion with the growth of the population... maybe beating it by a small margin. However, that top 1% has a greater percentage of wealth per person than it has in about one hundred years...

And no, that's not good.

Answer 3

I think you have to look at the middle class who are losing ground and why. Single biggest reason for bankruptcy in the country is credit card debt and large portion of those are using credit cards to pay off medical expenses and medication. Not only is the divide becoming greater between rthe rich and poor financially, but socio-economically as well. The middle class is the fiber of this country. As it erodes, so will this country.

Answer 4

Interesting! I looked at one of your sources, The New York times, and that article was about the fact that the wealthiest 1/5th of the population received 1/2 of the wealth created in the last 20 years.
Do you often post resources that fly in the face of your assertions?

Answer 5

What's happening is the middle class is either becoming rich or poor. So the number of rich and poor are increasing, with the middle class decreasing. And the gap between rich are poor is also increasing.

Answer 6

Actually poverty is on the rise. As wealth consolidates and comes into the hands of fewer and fewer people, poverty is rising as people lose more control over their own lives and land. Real wages in the U.S is declining. The middle class is losing ground fast in this country. And because of globalization and uncontrolled capitalizm, the poor are growing in size and their poverty is getting worse:
http://www.epinet.org/content.cfm/briefingpapers_sept01inequality
http://www.apsa.com/imgtest/TaskForceDiffIneqDevSinha.pdf
http://www.worldhunger.org/articles/books/chossudovsky.htm

Answer 7

What has been proven by government statistics, both in Canada and the US, the SPREAD between the rich and the poor is much larger, and the middle class is slowly disappearing...

Answer 8

Basic rule for democracies and republics.. the middle class is your nation.. a healthy middle class ='s a healthy nation.. a faltering or dwindling middle class.. well you get the point... republican economics have moved some people up, and others down.. the point is they move people out of the middle class.. and in doing such weaken our nation...

Answer 9

The important statistic is the income distribution, It is more leptokurtic and skewed left than ever before... (meaning the amount of income that is going to the rich is obscene.)

Answer 10

Rising waters raise all boats, 50% of new American businesses are home based, and rich people hire people because I know I never received a paycheck from someone poor.