You're completely right on both counts. That's precisely what they do. Income is definitely not the whole picture. I don't disagree with anything you've writte

You're completely right on both counts. That's precisely what they do. Income is definitely not the whole picture. I don't disagree with anything you've written here. I just think that conflating growth in value of assets and liquid cash is misleading, and using a snappy sloganeered idiom to do so compounds the error. That this is done in pursuit of illustrating an absolutely critical and nuanced political point about finances makes it, in my opinion, all the more important to be clear. I recognize that this is a position with which reasonable people might differ.