Overall the rich are not getting richer…

[Lethal_Poison]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Anyone who operates a soup kitchen, who says to a news reporter that his cupboards are full, will no longer recieve any donations.

Soup kitchens operate from donations.

They operate year around, yet the bulk of their donations arrive now.

They must present an argument to encourage donations, in season with when folks are willing to donate.

I also watched last night on TV as they were interviewing foks in a local soup kitchen. Two of the men wating were saying how much they loved it as: "Anyone who does not feel like cooking for themselves can come down here and be welcomed no questions asked."

Yes, obviously its a conspiracy on the national level by the food pantries to hoard more food.........that makes perfect sense!

[belovenow]

Originally Posted by cdelena

Statistics do not support the ‘rich get richer and the poor get poorer’ tag line.

A Treasury study examined a large sample of 96,700 income tax returns from 1996 and 2005 for Americans over the age of 25. The study tracks what happened to these tax filers over the 10-year period.

‘Only one income group experienced an absolute decline in real income -- the richest 1% in 1996. Those households lost 25.8% of their income. Moreover, more than half (57.4%) of the richest 1% in 1996 had dropped to a lower income group by 2005.’

‘One of the notable, and reassuring, findings is that nearly 58% of filers who were in the poorest income group in 1996 had moved into a higher income category by 2005.’

Free Article - WSJ.com

There's a major flaw in this study I don't think anyone in this thread has called out thus far.

The 18-24 age range as a group don’t earn as much, they have the highest chance to move upward, and they are college-aged (many go from no or little income to tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary within five years). Since this age range is significantly large, and a significantly large percentage of it are indeed attending college... I would argue that the entire study is skewed by them.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Lethal_Poison

Yes, obviously its a conspiracy on the national level by the food pantries to hoard more food.........that makes perfect sense!

Call it what ever you wish.

Food pantrys and soup kitchens operate year around, however the public is only in the mood to give donations from a week before Thanksgiving until Christmas.

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by mbuszu

There's a major flaw in this study I don't think anyone in this thread has called out thus far.

The 18-24 age range as a group don’t earn as much, they have the highest chance to move upward, and they are college-aged (many go from no or little income to tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary within five years). Since this age range is significantly large, and a significantly large percentage of it are indeed attending college... I would argue that the entire study is skewed by them.

Huh? Looks to me that the group you are worried about are not included in the study.

[njusa2013]

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" Is a COMPLETE FALLACY.
Without using any statistics I want you all to think of a PIE CHART (heck even a pizza pie will suffice).
So, you have a pie chart split into 3 categories the rich with a little slice, the middle class with the largest slice, and the poor with a small almost moderate slice. In this global financial meltdown it is true that many who were once middle class now unfortunately find themselves as part of the poor. Now picture the pie chart. As the middle class shrank a portion of their slice was taken up (by default) by the rich as well as a portion of that slice also taken up by the poor.
Therefore, the rich did not get any richer in dollar value but for the fact as the middle class shrank by default they now take up a larger piece of the total PIE.
Seriously though, almost everybody knows somebody that is wealthy ask them now "how is business" and see if they don't start off with "WOE TO ME!" With this global economic crisis NOBODY is and has been EXEMPT!

[stoutboy]

Originally Posted by njusa2013

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" Is a COMPLETE FALLACY.
Without using any statistics I want you all to think of a PIE CHART (heck even a pizza pie will suffice).
So, you have a pie chart split into 3 categories the rich with a little slice, the middle class with the largest slice, and the poor with a small almost moderate slice. In this global financial meltdown it is true that many who were once middle class now unfortunately find themselves as part of the poor. Now picture the pie chart. As the middle class shrank a portion of their slice was taken up (by default) by the rich as well as a portion of that slice also taken up by the poor.
Therefore, the rich did not get any richer in dollar value but for the fact as the middle class shrank by default they now take up a larger piece of the total PIE.
Seriously though, almost everybody knows somebody that is wealthy ask them now "how is business" and see if they don't start off with "WOE TO ME!" With this global economic crisis NOBODY is and has been EXEMPT!

You are truly delusional. Who Rules America: Wealth, Income, and Power

The evidence is overwhelming and not even seriously debated among economists.

[griffon652]

Originally Posted by njusa2013

"The rich get richer and the poor get poorer" Is a COMPLETE FALLACY.
Without using any statistics I want you all to think of a PIE CHART (heck even a pizza pie will suffice).
So, you have a pie chart split into 3 categories the rich with a little slice, the middle class with the largest slice, and the poor with a small almost moderate slice. In this global financial meltdown it is true that many who were once middle class now unfortunately find themselves as part of the poor. Now picture the pie chart. As the middle class shrank a portion of their slice was taken up (by default) by the rich as well as a portion of that slice also taken up by the poor.
Therefore, the rich did not get any richer in dollar value but for the fact as the middle class shrank by default they now take up a larger piece of the total PIE.
Seriously though, almost everybody knows somebody that is wealthy ask them now "how is business" and see if they don't start off with "WOE TO ME!" With this global economic crisis NOBODY is and has been EXEMPT!

Complete fallacy??? Seriously?? Sorry but this type of rationale is exactly why statistics are kept so we know by the numbers exactly what is going on in the world.

To the OP: Some of the poorest moving into other classes is irrelevant to the rich richer and poor poorer argument. Mathematically the best way to determine this is to pick two years and see by what PERCENTAGE the income of each CLASS has grown. I have done this and the results are always the same. The higher you are on the income scale the higher the percentage of increase in income. This applies if you compare someone of middle class to lower class also. The middle class individual will always have a higher percentage of income increase.

Don't take my word for it, do the math yourself. Here is the official data from our government pre-recession and current (2013 numbers not yet released). Guess which percentage of people had the highest percentage increase in income? I will give you a hint: anyone NOT in the 99%.

Wage Statistics for 2012

Wage Statistics for 2006

By the way feel free to pick ANY 2 years and the result will always be the same.
For example for the years the OP "stated for a fact that the poor got richer and rich got poorer" (1996-2005):

The poorest 33%: income raise was 135% (of the meager income they earn) or a mere +3.55 K extra/yr
Median (50%): 137% so it comes to +6.55 K extra/yr
The rich 1%: 144%!!! (of the already HUGE income they earn) this comes to +60 K extra/yr!!!

So for those years the rich got richer percentage wise and amount wise. To put that into perspective just the raise in income the rich received in that time frame (not their TOTAL INCOME) was approx. THREE times the TOTAL INCOME of someone in the middle class!!

[usayit]

If the rich weren't getting richer and the poorer weren't getting poorer then we wouldn't have all those discussions framed around how the poor don't pay income taxes and the rich pay the majority. Would we?

and this forum would immediately become boring. lol

[MrWillys]

Lovely, a let's feel sorry for the 1% thread while homeless beg in the streets thread. Ah, daddie cut her credit limit to $10,000 a month, and she is struggling.