Dr. Mike Walden, North Carolina Cooperative Extension economist in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at N.C. State University, responds:

"Actually it's not. And just to elaborate a little bit. We have seen income inequality grow larger. That is, higher income people have actually seen bigger increases in their income over the last couple of decades than lower income people have. And what some have questioned is whether this has led to bigger differences in spending. And the answer is actually, "no." Now clearly higher income people are able to spend more than lower income people. But that gap in spending has actually not increased as the income gap has gotten bigger.

"Now, why? Well, one reason is that higher income people tend to save more money. They don't spend it all. And another reason is that we have seen a large increase in the amount of income that we, through various programs, transfer effectively from higher income people to lower income people. And then I think a third big reason is that we have actually seen price declines for so-called necessities as well as for some luxuries, and that has sort of leveled the spending field for both the rich and the poor."