Perhaps one of the reasons why the concepts of the "poor getting poorer" is misunderstood is the fact that America is usually the only country studied. In reality, globalization has made sure that the actions of one in New York affect another in Cape Town.
Thus, if you study the world as one economy, the percentage of people living in complete and abject poverty has sky rocketed.
However, focusing on the U.S. alone, one could say that the vast majority of the poor are not poor with perhaps one of the most obvious reasons being the fact that the vast majority of poor Americans are fat which signifies excess as opposed to want.
This is partly due to welfare programs that overburden the middle class while the upper class pays less tax (a concept I've never understood). Perhaps the whole idea is to make sure people are "hazed" in the process of getting the "American Dream" so when they finally have that dream, they can appreciate it both figuratively and realistically.
I've seen real poverty. Truly poor people are not fat, that's for sure.
"Dr. Tenma, according to you, lives are equal. That's why I live today. But you must have realised it by now...the only thing people are equal in is death"---Johann Liebert (MONSTER)
"WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives"---Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler
