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More on wealth distribution statistics: Also in last week's New York Times was an essay by David Brooks about why Americans keep voting for politicians who promise to make the rich richer. Here's the best paragraph:

The most telling polling result from the 2000 election was from a Time magazine survey that asked people if they are in the top 1 percent of earners. Nineteen percent of Americans say they are in the richest 1 percent and a further 20 percent expect to be someday. So right away you have 39 percent of Americans who thought that when Gore savaged a plan that favored the top 1 percent, he was taking a direct shot at them.

The Times has the article online, but by now it's hidden behind a wall of pay, so here are two other copies.

(Update 5/9/2003: One of the other copies has expired.)