A statistical quirk gives all of us who follow income distribution patterns a misleading picture of “the rich”. Obama and other politicians artfully take advantage of it.
Think of the life cycle of many small businesses (btw, this also applies to long-term real estate investments): The entrepreneur builds the business over several decades, struggling at first (often earning less than his workers), but eventually learning, growing, building a valuable and saleable asset. The struggle is worth it because the goal all along is to sell the business before retirement & reap a big capital gain.
Assuming it works and the business did not fail during the lean years, a big capital gain is the real reward for all that effort. What do the government’s statitics say about this individual in the year he sells out? He’s rich! Maybe makes a million, maybe makes Obama’s threshold quarter-million, and is taxed accordingly. His lifetime income may be quite modest. But government figures, every year, portray these entrepreneurs & RE investors as fat cats because of an accident of the calendar. Gullible voters fall for a populist message as a result.
