[coladirienzi]

Your graphic is fine, for college graduates.

80%. Countem' 80% of the work force DOES NOT have a college degree. I suppose the 'little people' don't count in your feudal view of our society.

I have an MBA myself, but I know that if the 'little people' are angry and starving, people like you and
I will find ourselves on the way to the guillotine.

Look beyond your own sweet a** for a change, or you may possibly lose it.

[Clemenza]

Must be one of those Rerum Novarum un-American Catholic Reactionaries.

If you don't like the law of the jungle, move to France.

[1rudeboy]

Real wages are rising (long-term) for all but those who do not have a high-school diploma, and they can be helped more effectively/efficiently in a fashion other than being bought-off. As for your 80% figure, color me a sceptic.

[Mase]

I suppose the 'little people' don't count in your feudal view of our society.

Do you consider the middle class to be a part of the group of "little" people you referenced? Does the information below lead you to believe that this large segment of our population is angry, starving and itching for a revolution, French style?

• in 1967 only one in 25 families earned an income of $100,000 or more in real income, whereas now, one in six do. The percentage of families that have an income of more than $75,000 a year has tripled from 9% to 27%.

• The percentage of families with real incomes between $5,000 and $50,000 has been falling as more families move into higher income categories -- the figure has dropped by 19 percentage points since 1967.

• The middle class has not been "shrinking" or losing ground, it has been getting richer. For example, the Census data indicate that the income cutoff to be considered "middle class" has risen steadily. Back in 1967, the income range for the middle class (i.e., the middle-income quintile) was between $28,000 and $39,500 a year (in today's dollars). Now that income range is between $38,000 and $59,000 a year, which is to say that the middle class is now roughly $11,000 a year richer than 25 to 30 years ago.

• The upper-middle class is also richer. Those falling within the 60th to 80th percentile in family income have an income range today of between $55,000 and $88,000 a year, which is about $24,000 a year higher than in 1967.

• Median household wealth for 2004, is estimated at $105,000 in 2004. This is almost double the median family-wealth level of 1983 and nearly triple the level of 1962.

• The media and the poverty lobby have seized upon the news that the poverty rate has spiked upward to 12.7% in 2004, up from 11.3% before the recession. This rise was widely reported and condemned, but again this is a short-term phenomenon attributable to the aftershocks of the recession. What was not widely reported was that the 12.7% poverty rate was the lowest coming out of any recession in the last 25 years, and that the poverty rate has been lower than 12.7% in only five of the last 25 years. It certainly is better than the 15.1% rate poverty-rate peak in 1993.

The Great American Dream Machine