Or, as George W. Bush might say, from the haves to the have-mores.

But that doesn't mean the American people should continue to sit still for conscious federal actions that make those trends even worse. Far beyond matters of fairness, a thinning middle class poses a clear and present danger to the economic survival of the whole nation.

Under the Bush administration's tax cuts, the tax burden on the wealthiest Americans is shrinking. At the same time, federal housing, health and education assistance to the poor and working classes also declines.

But the overall cost of running government, from welfare to warfare, is not shrinking. Thus a proportionately greater share of the tax burden has been shifted to the middle classes, and that which isn't being paid for that way just runs the nation further into debt.

Citizen for Tax Justice figures that the average Utahn has seen his or her share of the federal debt rise by as much as $3,800 per year since 2001, while their annual tax savings have amounted to less than a third of that. That means the burden on those who pay for, and depend on, government services will only grow for years to come.

Meanwhile, those whose investments benefit from the higher interest rates caused by increased federal deficits will see their positions improve even more.

Figures released by the Census Bureau show that the richest 20 percent of Americans controlled 44 percent of the wealth in 1973. By 2002, it was 50 percent. Meanwhile, the share of wealth that runs through the fingers of the bottom 20 percent shrank from 4.2 percent to 3.5 percent. Employment is stagnant and take-home pay for non-management workers is, adjusted for inflation, at its lowest point since 2001.

It's not all the fault of the federal government, of course. Rapidly advancing technology reduces the need for workers and the pressure to pay them any more. Globalization, driven by that technology as much as any government policy, would tempt corporations to export their jobs and investments even if federal tax law didn't encourage it.

But federal policy should, to the degree that it is humanly possible, be geared to bolstering the opportunities of working men and women and their families. Not out of kindness, but out of the realization that there are only so many BMWs to be bought, or sold, and the rest of us rely on a middle-class economy to make a living.