Many of the "rich" aren't rich.

They are indebted. Living way above their true means.

Since 1/3 of our economy was based on housing & real estate, another 1/5 or so was related to easy credit cards, many of the "rich" find themselves with 1/2 the income and all the debt.

I've been poor, I understand and can survive poor, these saps won't find it as easy.

Your comment reminds me of a discussion I had with my OB-GYN when I was pregnant with my first daughter. He owned a mult-million piece of real estate and a couple of vacation homes. We were discussing the price of insurance and he went on to explain how much his malpractrice insurance cost and his office costs. He than said, "You know Deb, we are all in the same boat"
and left the room.
And I looked over at my husband and said, Nah, his is more like a yacht.

Little boat or a yacht, your income dictates how much upkeep you can put into it and what kind of boat you have to start with. Most or at least a lot of people who are rich are rich on paper only. They're wealth could come from land investment which at this point is probably costing them cash they don't have. In some ways I think they are worse off then people who had nothing to start with.

Having more to lose to begin with doesn't make you a sorrier site.

The rich now have a cash flow problem to keep all that real estate/businesses going, keeping people in jobs, etc. If they can't come up with cash, that means people go out the door (the most expensive cost of doing business is salaries/benefits). The rich may survive, but those of us on the lower money scale may not. We need the rich to have the cash flow to keep us in jobs (money).