The Gilded Age

It's tough out there for rich people. Us poors and our tenement shacks are sometimes within full view of their well moneyed eyes, there's a slight possibility that they might have to pay taxes at the same rate they did in the late nineties, and while we in the hobo underclass are poorly educated (or at least massively debt ridden for the education we were able to cobble together out of twigs and $200 textbooks) we are not so uneducated as to be unable to realize the massive inequality in income distribution that has only increased over the past decade. Plus they also have all those additional rich guy problems like an unclean mansion, road salt stains on their Bentley, and constant fear of a peasant uprising.

But good news is still out there for our beleaguered riches. It's that whole income disparity thing I mentioned. It's truly staggering how good the news is for them.

The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George W. Bush that Democrats say disproportionately benefits the wealthy.

Each household in the top 400 of earners paid an average tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest since the agency began tracking the data in 1992, the statistics show. Their average effective tax rate was about half the 29.4 percent in 1993, the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration, when taxes were increased.
...
The top 400 earners received a total $138 billion in 2007, up from $105.3 billion a year earlier. On an inflation-adjusted basis, their average income grew almost fivefold since 1992, the data show.

$138 billion for 400 families. On the other hand, the bottom fifth of this country, 24 million people, are worth a collective $247 billion. If they just pooled their money, they could out fancy pants our financial elite. So, you know, poor people win again.

I'm just thankful all those Bush tax cuts went through. Sure it might have added $1.8 trillion to the deficit and put income inequality at 1920's robber baron levels, but thankfully all the jobs and economic growth that these rich people have been able to provide because of the tax cuts they received have been able to stave off drastic job losses because of the financial crisis they also caused. It's great that it was able to work out that way.