Were he around to talk to the Occupy Wall Street protestors and others concerned about income inequality, Heraclitus, the ancient Greek sage, might well say something to this effect: Just as no man can cross the same stream twice because it is never the same stream, no static snapshot in time of the distribution of wealth in American society tells the whole story, or even the most significant part of it. The reason is simple: The American free enterprise system is so dynamic and provides so many opportunities for enterprising people that the distribution of wealth in this country is constantly changing.
But don’t just take our word for it. Consider these data compiled by the Federal Reserve and put in a chart by the American Enterprise Institute’s Mark J. Perry in Tuesday’s Examiner. The data showed that fully 56 percent of those who in 2001 were in the lowest 20 percent quintile of income earners had moved up to a higher income quintile by 2007. At the opposite end of the spectrum, 66 percent of those who in 2001 were in the highest quintile of income earners dropped at least one quintile by 2007.
