- - Creating an American Aristocracy - -

The wealthiest—the top 0.1 percent, some 145,000 taxpayers with an average income of $3 million a year—are amassing wealth at an unprecedented pace, according to a recent study by the New York Times. They more than doubled their share of national income to 7.4 percent since 1980, their highest share since the 1920s.

The super rich—those with over $10 million in assets—increased by 409 percent, from 66,500 to 338,400. With only hourly wages to pay their bills, the vast majority can only dream of reaching these sums.

Nationwide, billionaires are richer and more numerous for the second year in a row, according to a Forbes magazine 2005 survey. The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans starts at $750 million and 78 percent of them were billionaires in 2004. This year, they increased their wealth by $300 billion, supporting the proverb "the rich get richer."

Meanwhile, the common working person's dreams of wealth became harder to achieve. Wages for most Americans didn't improve from 1979 to 1998 and the median male wage in 2000 was below the 1979 level despite productivity increases of 44.5 percent. Despite gains made in income during the 1990s, wages are now on a downward spiral. In May, The Financial Times reported that wages are falling faster than at any time in the last 14 years. Meanwhile hidden unemployment soars as U.S. economists declare a "jobless recovery."

Borrowing leads to identification with the rich, according to economists Fabrizio Perri of New York University and Dirk Drueger of Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. They trace the credit surge to the widening income gap between rich and poor from 1970 to 2000. Simply put, people feel richer because they consume more. While median income rose 11 percent since 1990 - less than 1 percent a year - spending jumped 30 percent and debt increased 80 percent.

Americans mimic the wealthy by going ever deeper in debt. Since 2001, they cashed out $480 billion in home equity, two-and-a-half-times more than they cashed out from 1993 to 2000. Americans now owe $766 billion in home equity loans and owe 45 percent of the value of their homes, up from 32 percent in 1973. Financial experts contend these higher mortgage debts will make families less able to weather financial shocks and will drastically curtail retirement spending.

After Bush's tax cuts, the 400 top taxpayers now pay at the same rate as those making $50,000 to $75,000 and many of the largest corporations pay no tax at all. Unlike the average wage earner, these people know their interests: 72 percent of the Forbes richest 400 who contributed to the 2004 campaign gave money to Bush.

When F. Scott Fitzgerald said the very rich "are different from you and me," he was right. The rich and corporations invest heavily on advertising to convince Americans to lower taxes, abolish regulations, and give them free rein to amass more wealth and create a virtual aristocracy. Meanwhile, the bottom 90 percent struggle to pay their credit card bills and only dream of getting wealthy "someday."