A study done by the RAND corporation found that the wealthiest Americans have taken $50 trillion from the paychecks of the bottom 90% of American workers over the past four decades.
This figure put the last half-century's growing inequality in stark relief. If inequality had stayed the same from the 1970s through today, a median American wage earner would have brought home more than $1,000 more a month.
The numbers are bad for the middle class.
We don't mean the middle third of American household wealth when we talk about the middle class.
The middle class in America used to signify a broad swath of workers who felt economically stable in their day-to-day lives, and who could afford upward economic mobility for themselves or their children.
According to a report from the year 2015, only 50% of Americans actually meet the broadest economic definition of middle class.
Most Americans used to think that if they worked hard and played by the rules, they would have a better life than they did.
More than two-thirds of Americans think their children and grandchildren will have worse lives than they do, which is a sign that the definition of middle class is in danger.
The middle class used to signify security and opportunity, but now Americans think it means they're barely hanging on to stability and the foundations are crumbling beneath them.
The top decile of American earners lost less wealth over the last 40 years than the top 1%, according to the report.
The American middle class used to be a trademark of the American middle class, but less than one in 10 of us enjoy economic stability and upward mobility for our children.
Matthew Stewart, an Oxford University professor, argues in his latest book, "The 9.9 Percent: The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture," that the wealthy group of Americans is working hard to codify their position in the economy by making it harder for
Stewart said on a "Pitchfork Economics" episode that the 9.9% work hard to make sure the values in their own neighborhood stay high, that they don't allow new construction, and that they consolidate their position geographically.
"That's one of the ways in which this elite group is starting to separate itself from the rest of society, but it's probably the most important one," he said.
It's already bad enough that you have to be wealthy in America in order to have the same economic stability that a majority of the population used to enjoy.
When a small group of economically stable households try to work the system to ensure their own stability at the expense of everyone else, you're looking at an unsustainable, yawning inequality gap that's in danger of consuming the poorest Americans through bankruptcy, housing inequality, and the million other disasters.
This kind of consolidation is bad for the economy. The 9.9% can't summon the kind of consumer spending that it takes to spur economic growth. The nation will enter a negative feedback loop of lost jobs, closed businesses and sluggish spending if there is no middle class. The math doesn't add up.
America's prosperity was the result of a growing middle class. America is hobbling its capacity for economic growth by draining the middle class of wealth and putting it in the hands of a group of wealthy elites.
Only by investing in a growing middle class and restoring economic security for millions of American workers can we rebuild a lasting prosperity for everyone.
