The rich are indeed getting richer, while the middle class is struggling to stay afloat:

Growing numbers of middle-class Americans say they aren’t better off than they were five years ago, reflecting economic pressures amid growing debt, a study released Wednesday shows. Their short-term assessment of personal progress, according to the study, is the worst it’s been in nearly half a century.

The survey by the Pew Research Center, a Washington-based research organization, paints a mixed picture for the 53 percent of adults in the country who define themselves as “middle class,” with household incomes ranging from below $40,000 to more than $100,000.

Particularly worth noting:

Middle-class prosperity also lagged compared with richer Americans. From 1983 to 2004, the median net worth of upper-income families — defined as households with annual incomes above 150 percent of the median — grew by 123 percent, while the median net worth of middle-income families rose by just 29 percent.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080409/ap_on_bi_ge/middle_class_poll

I highly recommend the following article:

What’s it Going to Take? Challenging our Faith in Wealth

Here is a brief excerpt:

Eighty percent of people think that if they work hard enough, they’ll be rich. And so, there is no outcry against soaring profits for corporations and tax cuts for the rich because everyone believes that some day they will be rich, and they’ll be happy. Read more