Future: Another Nine Shift prediction comes true!

Yes, yes yes!  Another Nine Shift prediction has come true.

When we wrote NineShift in 2003, some 6 years ago, we predicted the rich would become poorer. Shift Number Six.
Now The New York Times has confirmed it has happened, using the same words we used,

"The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer."

Click here for the story by David Leonhardt and Geraldine Fabrikant.  Check out the NineShift book for why, how and what it means for the 21st century.

Comments

[Stephen Downes]

Hasn't come true yet. This story is based on speculation, not actual data. The most recent data released by the IRS, 2007, has the rich getting richer, just like always.

"The I.R.S. has not yet released its data for 2008 or 2009. But Mr. Saez, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said he believed that the rich had become poorer."

Also, the data are calculated by averaging the income of the top 1% - this number drops not because the rich get poorer but because _the number of poor people increase_, resulting in a downward shift of the top 1 percent. Do the math - you'll see what I mean.