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In reply to the discussion: They once inhabited a vast swath of North America but their numbers have been greatly reduced [View all]bhikkhu
(10,730 posts)For the US population: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&client=ubuntu#q=us%20population
For the relative percentages of the different classes over time: http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/most-americans-arent-middle-class-anymore/
The 538 article breaks down the class divisions a little different than what I was looking at originally, but it is more informative. Instead of a simple "upper" class it lists "upper middle" and "highest". If you combine those two you arrive at the increase of 7% from 1970 to 2015. If you apply that to the population numbers, you arrive at an increase of 38 million people in the upper income classes, as I stated.
And its not really an argument, just a listing of a fact, assuming the data is accurate.