I'm curious as to what everyone thinks...

Does this mean that the masses are the poor, or that we're seeing the emergence of a new middle-class?
haKiruv | Homepage | 03.29.07 - 11:58 am | #

haKiruv,

It's not a middle class that is being created, but a very rich class.

If you break the population down into subgroups, most of the people who are below the poverty line do not work, and most people who do work are not poor.

More than one-third of total income tax revenue is collected from 2% of taxpayers.

There is nothing wrong with becoming rich.

Most non-profits would tell you that more than 50% of their contributions come from fewer than 5% of their donors.

The Torah tells us that Abraham became rich in terms to suggest that it was indeed a good thing.

Even the Prophets do not denounce the rich because they were rich, but only because they did not take care of the widows and orphans, and acted unjustly towards poor debtors.

There is no such thing as a modern society in which there are no rich people and no powerful people.

Even in the statist socialist societies there are rich and powerful people. (The largest private residence in all of Africa is Robert Mugabe's.) But statist socialism, by making it impossible for people to become rich by their own efforts in a free market, condemns the entire society to poverty.
Gandalin | 03.29.07 - 2:30 pm | #

" . . . the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans."

Is this before or after taxes?

Part of that "bottom 150 million" have no (legitimate) income.
non sequitur | 03.29.07 - 10:41 pm | #

"data showed" -- What data? Where did it come from? Who collected it?

Where did you get this information?
non sequitur | 03.29.07 - 10:43 pm | #

non sequitur, read the links...
Tzemach Atlas | Homepage | 03.30.07 - 7:12 am | #