Bad News with a silver lining

[Thumpalumpacus]

The data you provided shows that the income of rich people is growing faster than the income of poor people and the middle class. I don't know where you've been the last 5 pages of this thread but my position on that has been "So What?".

Yeah, that apathy has been apparent in many of your posts on the topic, and not just in this thread.

If Bill Gate's income doubles next year....his standard of living doesn't change one bit. I ask the question....what really matters?...what is really important? Growth of income or growth of standard of living? I would bet the the standard of living for poor people and the middle class is growing a heck of a lot faster than the standard of living of the rich is growing.

What you're ignoring is that limited income necessarily implies limits to standards of living. No matter how the rich choose to live, unemployed or underemployed folk will not have the ability to raise their standard of living, precisely because the widening income gap gives the wealthy inordinately more power to use in shaping the economic policies of the country ... which then redirects wealth even further away from the lower and middle classes, as the numbers demonstrate.

It is not a red herring to point out you guys are looking at the wrong data to make an accurate comparison of the plight of the rich versus the plight of the middle class/poor over the last 30 years. You found one statistical anomaly and you hang your hat on it instead of looking at the entire picture.

No, I'm looking at the entire picture. And I'm providing you with numbers, and not this argument from perspective that you're hanging your hat on. I'm bringing facts. You're bringing cake for them to eat, along with a side of apathy. Good for you; you don't care. I do. Inequality in the distribution of wealth is dangerous for any country, as any student of history can tell you.