The rich are getting poorer; the poor are getting richer

Thomas Sowell points out the secret truth that the Liberal Elite know too well but want to keep the masses from finding out: the Class War has been waged based on faulty intelligence.
For my entire life, the Democrats and the Liberal Elite in particular have been yelling loudly about "income inequality" and yammering nonsense about the "rich getting richer while the poor getting poorer." Never mind that the "poor" in America are largely food-secure, sheltered families with unimpeded access to plumbing, electricity, heat, cable television, and cellular phones. The Liberal Elite lament loudly that the "rich" are becoming more dominant. Of course, the Liberal Elite is large populated with ridiculously wealthy individuals such as Al Gore, John Kerry, and John Edwards, so they know a thing or two about arranging statistics to exclude themselves from the discussions.

However, Sowell points to a recent IRS study which tracks individual, not incoming bands, and sees how these individuals have progressed over ten years. The results? Half of those in the top 1% 10 years ago, and three quarters of those in the top 1/100th of 1% then, are not in those respective classes now. He does not point out more specifically that those in the bottom fifth of income have had their incomes doubled on average during that time period even after inflation is factored in.

What does this mean? America remains the one place in the world where someone like Bill Clinton or John Edwards can go from nothing to everything, built it himself most easily. America has the most opportunity to allow those in the bottom to work their way up, most opportunity for those at the top to fall, and we must resist the Liberal Elite's attempts at forming a dependant underclass which locks those within it in perpetual near-poverty.

That "Top One Percent"
Not an enduring class.
National Review Online

People who are in the top one percent in income receive far more than one percent of the attention in the media. Even aside from miscellaneous celebrity bimbos, the top one percent attracts all sorts of hand-wringing and finger-pointing.

A recent column by Anna Quindlen in Newsweek (or is that Newsweak?) laments that "the share of the nation's income going to the top 1 percent is at it's highest level since 1928."

Who are those top one percent? For those who would like to join them, the question is: How can you do that?

The second question is easy to answer. Virtually anyone who owns a home in San Francisco, no matter how modest that person's income may be, can join the top one percent instantly just by selling their house.

But that's only good for once year, you may say. What if they don't have another house to sell next year?

Well, they won't be in the top one percent again next year, will they? But that's not unusual.