John Stossel on Income Mobility Myths

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It's true that today the rich are richer than ever. And the wealth gap between rich and poor has also grown: Now the top 1 percent own more assets than the bottom 90 percent.

But focusing on this disparity ignores the fact that over time, the rich and poor are not the same people. Oprah Winfrey once was on welfare. Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton was a farmhand. When markets are free, poor people can move out of their income group, writes John Stossel. And in America, income mobility—which matters more than income inequality—has not really diminished over the past few decades.