Other families shift back and forth between employment at poverty wages and dependence on public assistance. Contrary to popular perceptions, such families exist in roughly equal proportions in both urban and rural areas. Indeed, since the early 1980s, the rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer. Studies by the U.S. Bureau of the Census and others have documented the increasingly strong relationship between education and income. Lifetime earnings for those with at least some college education or a college degree greatly exceed lifetime earnings for high school dropouts and high school graduates.
Graduate degrees increase lifetime earnings even more.
Better educated Americans not only have greater economic power, but have greater political power as well. The United States is the only Western nation where the affluent register to vote in a much higher proportion than do poor and low-income individuals. The affluent can afford to buy private services in lieu of public services, while the poor have no such choice, even when limited government subsidies are available. In this country, there is a gap between those who pay for public services and those who benefit from public services, and it is growing wider. The affluent can afford to buy private services in lieu of public services, while the poor have no such choice, even when limited government subsidies are available.