And it’s off to the races…

“What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.” Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations.

One in three Americans is poor or near poor… US Census Bureau, 2010 census data.

One can conceivably argue that the measure of poverty is outdated and that the chasm many millions of middle income families face can be avoided by hard work and self-responsibility, but it is hard to argue with the data that shows the allocation of wealth and income concentrating at the top of the pile and how this redistribution of resources makes life precarious for many millions of people. Jared Bernstein provides some 2011 year-end graphics to illustrate this point.

http://jaredbernsteinblog.com/the-best-of-cbpp-graphics/

Or perhaps to put it another way:

http://blogs.ajc.com/mike-luckovich/2011/12/21/1222-mike-luckovich-cartoon-the-middle-class/