For those of is comfortably in the top quintile, this is no doubt true. I'm certain many of us who post here have done quite well over the last decade. However the historical American middle class has, by and large, not benefited nearly as much. The vast majority of the gains have been captured by the top 0.1%.

Please don't mistake me for some kind of commie, PG's essay on the necessity for income inequality to drive innovation is convincing. But that doesn't mean we should celebrate shameless cronyism, kickbacks, and rent-seeking either.

Growing middle class income is nice, but income is a very poor metric to use to determine economic class. Net worth is what really matters.