 I can't believe Sally thinks she can come to our party. Yes, she isn't nearly as rich as we are. I hate this reality show, Trash! How can you stand to watch this? Huh? Sorry, I don't really have a personality outside of preaching about economics. I just do whatever you guys are doing. Shush, I'm trying to watch. Oh, buddy. No, this is everything wrong with this country. The 1% flaunting its wealth in front of us just begging for class warfare. We must overthrow the bourgeoisie. Actually, the popular conception of the 1% and the 99% as non-overlapping classes is mostly inaccurate. What? How could that even be possible? Yeah, how could that be possible, you fool? You foolish fool? The king of fools. Because people are constantly moving in and out of their income brackets. According to an article in the New York Times by professor of social welfare, Mark R. Rank, 12% of Americans will find themselves in the top 1% for at least one year, and 39% of Americans will spend a year in the top 5%, and more than half of all Americans will at some point be in the top 10%. These facts conflict heavily with the popular conception that the U.S. has made of distinct economic classes rather than fluid income brackets. Another important detail that's often overlooked is work experience. Inequality arguments almost always ignore the natural increase in wages over a career. But a large contributor to what we call income inequality is the fact that older people work many more years than younger people, and therefore earn more money. But I thought the middle class is shrinking. It is, because the upper class is growing. Ah, they get everything. No, Bob, that's a good thing. It means that steadily over time, more people are leaving the middle class and becoming rich. Adjusted for inflation, the number of people earning less than $75,000 per year has steadily shrunk since 1970, whereas the number of people earning six figures or more has steadily grown. It's not to say that things are always fair, or that every rich person came by their money ethically, but one thing's for sure, the common conception of social class in America being an unchanging plutocracy is sorely mistaken. Hey folks, thanks so much for watching. If you enjoyed this, please check out fee.org for more educational content. Thank you.