Economists: Everyone’s Getting Richer “Both parties claim” to want to “preserve the middle class,” note Stephen J. Rose & Scott Winship at The New York Times . But far better if it shrinks as “everyone gets richer.” That’s what their research shows has happened this last half-century: “The ‘core’ middle class shrank, but so did” the poor, near-poor and lower middle class. That is, “the traditional middle class shrank because so many families became better off.” Yes, this is “at odds with