That's why the concentration of wealth into a very few hands at the top marches on, not because of "wages".
If someone one owns a billion dollars of stock foobar, and foobar grows 10x, then that person is now worth 10B and "made" 9B. However they have not sold anything so while they can be reported as making 9B, they are none of it was directly cash and not taxed; at least not yet.
However, while Bezos "only" has a salary/bonus of 1.5 million a year, it is very common for executives to have total comp packages in the 10s to hundreds of millions a year. These can easily be converted into hourly rate equivalents because there is only so many hours you can work a year.
They can cycle debt to avoid ever having to sell a single share for their entire life, at rates more favorable than any middle class person has access to.
We can fix our tax code with legislation to address this loophole, our politicians just don't have the will to do this currently (largely because many of them amass fortunes through stocks and insider tips, IMO).
The historical critiques of class warfare have some good points, because there's obviously a privileged class here that's doing really well on the backs of labor, and this privileged class can afford to buy (and let's face it, it's really bribe) itself ever more privileges for a very tiny share of their wealth.
If the definition of "rich" is "independently wealthy," that family certainly doesn't meet it. They still have to work for a living.
If it means you never have to worry about where the next meal is coming from or losing the roof over your head, sure, a lot of people are "rich." And maybe this is better than 90% of humanity does, but it's still not a reasonable first world standard for being "rich" IMHO.
No they don't. They could live in a median dwelling with a median income indefinitely on the interest of what they've saved over the past few years.
If you're saying that they have to work for the living that they're accustomed to, so does Musk.
"Shaq is rich. The white man that signs his check, is wealthy." [Chris Rock]
