The IRS report for the richest 400 Americans shows that only 6.5% of their income came from wages and salaries. The rest - 93.5% - came from unearned income. "Unearned income" is the profits that accrue to the rich by virtue of their ownership of things. When corporate profits, for example, go up, the wealth of the rich increases.
The rich themselves do not create those profits, though. The profits are mostly created by the people who work at the corporations - the profit "creators", so to speak. The rich benefit from the hard work of others, but they mostly don't participate - not unless they feel like, anyway.
Link: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/07intop400.pdf
The rich themselves do not create those profits, though. The profits are mostly created by the people who work at the corporations - the profit "creators", so to speak. The rich benefit from the hard work of others, but they mostly don't participate - not unless they feel like, anyway.
Link: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-soi/07intop400.pdf