"Something to realize about money and wealth is that a lot of the wealth you see in people's bottom line is not money. It is the valuation of what they have. Say I buy a house for $250,000 and in 10 years it is worth $600,000. $350,000 was not printed up and handed to me. It was not transferred from poor people to me and made them that much poorer."

True. However, we see that type of inflation in stock markets with speculation as to where markets are going to go. I recognize that there is a 'speculative' dollar out there. That's part of the problem. You COULD if you so wished borrow against the total $600,000, whereas poorer people could only borrow against what they have as cash or kind. Their automobiles for example lose value each year, but real estate tends to rise. I live in a place where house prices have doubled in less than a year and a half. With that, places that rented for $500 have risen to over $1300 (per month). That is the result of greed on the part of landlords, because their amortization was being handled well with $500/month. That is part of the crunch the poor are caught in.