You don't get rich by working hard, not in America anyway [View all]

[kpete]

According to the IRS, which recently released 2009 data from the 400 richest individual income tax returns, the real runaway growth in wealth has come from capital gains. In the last years of the bubble, the "Fortunate 400" made nearly half their income from capital gains (a.k.a.: profit from the rising value of an investment, such as stocks or property) and less than 10% of their income from old-fashioned wages. The average income of a top-400 earner grew by 650% between 1992 and 2007 to a whopping $344 million. Over that time, the average salary barely doubled. But the average capital gains haul increased by 1,200%. How do the richest get richer? Not from their wages. From their investments. ...Derek Thompson, The Atlantic

http://prairieweather.typepad.com/big_blue_stem/2012/07/you-dont-get-rich-by-working-hard-not-in-america-anyway.html