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You would think that as a nation we suffer equally in economic downturns, but recent Census Bureau data, indicates otherwise. I know that you, as well as I, have always heard, the rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. But no one actually believed that until these recent findings proved the theory true.

Once upon a time in this country, there wasn't a great distinction between the higher-income, the middle-income and the lower-income. Maybe there was greater distinction between the truly wealthy and the well-to-do, but that was the greatest gap. That's not the picture we look at today.

The losers, here, and I state loser with the plural emphasis, have been the middle and low-income Americans. Although there have been economic gains in this country, the gains have been on the part of the higher-end wage earners, not the bread and butter wage earners that helped to build America. The corporate executives, the presidents, the positions that are commission, bonus, and incentive dependent have seen the growth. The middle and lower income Americans have seen only shortfalls.

On the average, 45 out of 50 states have witnessed increasing income gaps over the last 20 years, and that is a frightening statistic. What does this say about our economy, the regulations under which we all live, and the attitudes of our lawmakers (who by the way, are among the higher-end wage earners)? It certainly seems a long way from the principles upon which this country was founded, and grew in the early years. The principles we believed and operated under then, were that hard work should pay off. That for any individual willing to come to America and work hard, there was a life of prosperity, not poverty. Today, we are living a realization that this is merely an ideal, not a philosophy of our government and lawmakers.

We have had the strongest economy ever over the last twenty to thirty years, and the fact that even under these excellent conditions, we have failed to close a gap spells serious problems; that we witnessed its further widening is an affront to the hard working, honest citizens of this country. What does this say to our approaching generation of workers? That fat corporate bonuses, the Enron and HealthSouth scandals, and the day of “corporate dominance” is the successful path to follow. Pay no heed to the working man, the unskilled laborer, the production worker in a non-union plant.

What do the statistics revealed in the census say to us? Here are just a few: In some southern states, the poorest family's incomes increased by less than $1000, the richest family's incomes increased by an average of $40,000. (This doesn't include bonuses and incentive pay). The ratio of bottom and top income measurements revealed that for many of the 45 states, there is a 10 to 1 difference; in other words, the top income measurements were 10 times those of the bottom income measurements. To give you a point of reference, during the 1970s, there was not one single state where the difference was greater than 3. Amazing information, is it not?