It's an either-or situation - you're either "rich" or "poor", there's no middle in this case.
1) The rich become wealthier, and the number of poor people increases. 2) The middle-class folks lose their jobs and become poorer. If you need a job, and can't get one, you're poor. If you don't have a job and don't need one, or if you wouldn't need one if you quit, you're rich. The existing middle class is getting squeezed out. There's a serious concern for the decline of the middle class in the US. For example, over the past few years, paychecks have failed to increase as much as productivity - that means the stockholders are reaping increased wealth while you work harder. "Since Bush took office, the middle-income group has declined by 1.2 percentage points, and now constitutes less than 45% of all households. At the same time, households with less than $25,000 in income have grown by 1.5 percentage points, and now make up 29% of all households. So a large number of households have slipped out of the middle group and into the lower-income range over the past three years." http://www.factcheck.org/article249.html Matthew Small -----Original Message----- From: G [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 9:27 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Re: also circulating the email lists....re katrina > The rich in the US get richer, the poor in the US get poorer. American > free > trade is a great idea for stock holders and foreign countries, and a > terrible idea for the US. > > Matthew Small Ok, couple of questions: 1) "The rich get richer, the poor get poorer". People love to use this phrase, but what does it mean? Does it mean the already rich, get richer, and the already poor get poorer? Or does it mean that more people who were close to becoming rich, become rich, and those close to becoming poor, become poor? In other words, does the NUMBER of poor and rich grow? 2) If the rich, 2% of the US Population, get richer, and the poor, 12% of the Us pop (i believe the most recent figure was 12% of americans live at or below the poverty level) get poorer.....what happens to the 87% of us "middle class" folks? Do we get "middle classier"? Do we stay where we are? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:175360 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
