'Progressive' politics not so progressive

Globe and Mail reports:

Which American families with children increased their earnings most in the past 15 years - the poorest or the richest? For most people, the answer comes as a surprise. For "progressive" people, it comes as a shock. The answer? The poorest.

Divided into five groups with the same number of families in each, the highest-income group reported 50-per-cent higher earnings in 2005 than in 1991. Moving down, the next three groups reported 20-per-cent higher earnings.

At the bottom, the poorest group recorded 80-per-cent higher earnings. Adjusted for inflation, these families - the poorest 20 per cent of families with children in the United States - achieved by far the highest percentage earnings gains.

And these poor families mostly increased their incomes the old-fashioned way - by working more.

Imagine that.