It is mostly accepted among economists that poor people are better off today than they were in the 1970s. I'm not going to task with providing a source for tha

It is mostly accepted among economists that poor people are better off today than they were in the 1970s. I'm not going to task with providing a source for that (mostly because you aren't defining what you mean by "poor.") But I'll submit that it's far more widely acknowledged that things have deteriorated very substantially for the middle class in U.S., by nearly every measure, since the 60s-70s. To the extent that some people seriously question whether the U.S. even has a "middle class", by this point. But as for the poorest, I think that direct observation of (1) inflation-adjusted decline in wages (especially the minimum wage) since 1974, (2) dramatically increased health care, insurance, and higher education costs, (3) rising real estate costs (and the foreclosure morass), (4) permanent outsourcing & again, dramatically increased competition with the migrant (illegal) labor pool would tend to weaken your claim that things have gotten better for those in lower-skilled / lower-earning brackets. On the other hand, it's possible there are rich people that acquired their wealth through underhanded means. The article is not claiming that the richest get that way through underhanded means. And even if (on an individual level) the increasing accumulation of the wealth (among the wealthiest) was entirely above board, that doesn't mean this isn't a long-term problem for the welfare of society as a whole -- including, by direct implication, the long-term welfare and financial security of the richest. ... because the welfare of the poor and rich are separate issues. They are not linked in any simple-minded fashion. No, but they're linked in a nuance, complex, systemic fashion, whether you like it or not. "We're all in this together", is the basic point. In summary, I think the recent fad of discussing "income inequality" ... It's not a fad. It's a very basic, fundamental question about the long-term survival prospects of our society as whole -- including the wealthy and not-so wealthy.