Well, it's possible for their to be distortion from the top x% garnering a disproportionate amount of the growth in wealth. So while a country grows 2% per yea

Well, it's possible for their to be distortion from the top x% garnering a disproportionate amount of the growth in wealth. So while a country grows 2% per year the concentration could be at the top. This causes variation in wealth distribution to increase and this is what leads to the perception of people getting poorer. Poverty is a relative measure. In the past 30 years in the U.S. wealth has dramatically shifted to the top 1%. That is, the top 1% have a much higher portion of the nation's overall wealth today than they did 30 years ago.