do you think the rich are getting richer and the poor getting poorer?

Answer 1

No. Looking at national income statistics; even in real terms, all demographic groups are getting "richer"......but the upper tier groups are getting richer faster.

Answer 2

I don't think the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer on the surface. If you look deeper, with inflation that would have some validity. You dollar (or pound or whatever) wouldn't buy as much as it did months earlier. It is true that the poor person is going to notice this more just from the fact that they don't have much extra in their budgets. The rich person will likely not notice anything because they have an abundance of wealth. I don't like to promote "class envy" because there has never been a poor person that hires and writes a paycheck to a rich person. If you hit the rich person with taxes that are too high, he or she will simply let some of the poor people go that are on the payroll. It's an easy concept. Everything can't be even because some people are inventive like Bill Gates. The rich need to be rewarded or they won't bother if they are reduced to being poor.

Answer 3

I do not have data from countries outside of the US. However, in the US this is actually not true if you look at the numbers. It's not the case that the poor are getting "poorer". Rather, the rich are getting so rich that income dispersion between the top and bottom 10 percent (dispersion is just a fancy name for difference) is getting wider. So by comparison, it seems that the poor are getting poorer, but overall even some of the lowest income brackets are relatively better off today than a few decades ago.

I am not making a judgmental conclusion as to whether this is a good thing or not, but strictly speaking, the poorest income levels aren't getting poorer.

Of course, it's bad to have poor people, and it is a sad trend that the wealth is not more evenly (equitably?) distributed.

Answer 4

It depends on how you look at it. In the OECD countries (read rich West) the number of people living in poverty had actually decreased in the last two decades. However, the disparity in incomes between the top and the bottom has widened significantly. For example, the income of the average CEO in a fortune 500 company is 300 times that of the average worker. That's not to say that the CEO's don't deserve it or that the workers are worse off, it's just that the gap between rich and poor has widened.

Also, in the last 20 years, countries in Asia and Latin America (the so-called 3rd World) have become richer and have been able lift large numbers of their population out of poverty. Think of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, India and China. The only exception to this growth story is Africa, which has actually become poorer in the last 2 decades.

Answer 5

As long as people who make $1 a day continue to have 10 children, and people who make six figure incomes or greater have an average of between 1 and 2, the rich will continue to get richer, and the poor will continue to get poorer.

As long as modern medicine expands the typical human life expectancy, older people will maintain the wealth that has appreciated to them (often in the forms of large appreciation in their real estate), conserving this wealth towards longer and longer life spans.

As long as developed nations are not effectively able to keep immigrants from crossing their borders if there aren't enough jobs, then there will be a continuous influx of poorer people that will make those societies as a whole seem poorer.

Of course, not all of this is 'bad' - it depends on one's point of view.

Answer 6

The US data show that the poor are getting better off each year. That is, there incomes are improving year after year. But, the data also show that the rich are improving at a slightly faster rate.

Thus, even though the "tide is raising all boats", the rich are rising a bit faster than other people.

You can see this in the US census data:

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/histinc/ie1.html

Answer 7

damn right. its so difficult to get anywhere. its seems impossible to get a mortgage as a single parent, even if i do work all the hours i can. unfortunately, being a care worker is not the best paid job (although i think it should be better paid as it is doing something worthwhile and helping people), and i still have the responsibility of a family. rent is too high aswell, i am paying £650 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment! i cant get a council house or help with rent as i have recently sold my house, which had to be halved with my husband in the divorce and to pay off my debts (incurred from bringing up my children with no maintenence or help from my ex). it is most definietly a mans world (unless ur a wealthy woman!)

Answer 8

The rich can be richer ONLY IF the poor are getting poorer...
And it happens every day...

Answer 9

yep. Globalisation means rich and poor countries are becoming more equal, but within individual countries the different classes are becoming more unequal.

Answer 10

here in the uk, definitely. They always put taxes on where rich people don't even notice them, and which kep the poorer from having nice things. It is not a fair system!