The “Rich Get Richer” Myth

by | Jun 4, 2023

The “Rich Get Richer” Myth

by | Jun 4, 2023

Some 94 percent of Americans who reach “top 1 percent” income status will enjoy it for only a single year. Approximately 99 percent will lose their “top 1 percent” status within a decade.

Now consider the top 400 U.S. income-earners—a far more exclusive club than the top 1 percent. Between 1992 and 2013, 72 percent of the top 400 retained that title for no more than a year. Over 97 percent retained it for no more than a decade.

– Chelsea Follett, High Turnover Among America’s Rich

Keith Knight

Keith Knight

Keith Knight is Managing Editor at the Libertarian Institute, host of the Don't Tread on Anyone podcast and editor of The Voluntaryist Handbook: A Collection of Essays, Excerpts, and Quotes.

View all posts

Our Books

Recent Articles

Recent

The Slobbering Beast of Power

The Slobbering Beast of Power

Beneath the uniforms, costumes of power or the suits of fashionable exuberance lurks naked flesh. Often flabby and unimpressive. The victims of such know the putrid stench on their breath, the sickly odour of sweat, the repulsive effluent of discharge as it penetrates...

read more

Stop Funding the NGO: No Grift Overlooked

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are non-profit, voluntary, and independent citizen groups operating at local, national, or international levels.   The very nature of NGOs needs a complete overhaul.   The very term NGO has an undeserved cache of innocence and...

read more

Recent Writing in Defense of Free Immigration

"The Trumpian Ice Age: The Frigidity of Collectivism" "Immigration Policy in an Nth-Best World" "Free Movement Increases Wealth" "Static Analysis Clouds Immigration Debate" "More on Immigration and Public Property" "Immigration Control Threatens the Rule of Law"...

read more

Pin It on Pinterest

Share This