Running out of the rich to soak?

NY Times:

The rich have been getting richer for so long that the trend has come to seem almost permanent.

They began to pull away from everyone else in the 1970s. By 2006, income was more concentrated at the top than it had been since the late 1920s. The recent news about resurgent Wall Street pay has seemed to suggest that not even the Great Recession could reverse the rise in income inequality.

But economists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.

For every investment banker whose pay has recovered to its prerecession levels, there are several who have lost their jobs — as well as many wealthy investors who have lost millions. As a result, economists and other analysts say, a 30-year period in which the super-rich became both wealthier and more numerous may now be ending.

The relative struggles of the rich may elicit little sympathy from less well-off families who are dealing with the effects of the worst recession in a generation. But the change does raise several broader economic questions. Among them is whether harder times for the rich will ultimately benefit the middle class and the poor, given that the huge recent increase in top incomes coincided with slow income growth for almost every other group. In blunter terms, the question is whether the better metaphor for the economy is a rising tide that can lift all boats — or a zero-sum game.

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The decline of the rich seems to coincide with the Democrats retaking Congress in 2006, thanks to many of the now formerly rich. It will certainly be harder to become rich with a Democrat Congress and White House. Their policies are aimed at punishing and confiscating what wealth they have left.

I have never considered myself rich, but I have known a few rich men and for the most part liked them. Some even gave me jobs or work.

On the other hand the poor usually wanted my services on a pro bono basis. I got along well with both.

But, I always resented the way the Democrats treated the rich. When they attempt to confiscate their wealth to give it to the poor, they are usually investing in an economic sinkhole. For the most part the rich are much wiser in their investments than the government. That is how they got to be rich and were able to hire people to make more money.

What this story should point out also is that Obama's plan to balance the budget on the back of the "rich" is doomed to failure. Democrats are running out of other peoples money to spend on buying votes.