In 1992, the 400th richest person in America made $24 million.
1992年，美国富豪第400强个人收入为2240万美元。
In 2007, the 400th richest person in America made $138 million (or $87 million, inflation-adjusted).
而2007年，美国富豪第400强个人收入达到了1.38亿美元（扣除通货膨胀因素后的收入为8700万美元）。
Now, that almost certainly wasn't the same guy. There's a lot of churn at the top of the money pyramid. In all of the 1990s, only 25% of the Fortunate 400 made more than one appearance. But the overall message is the same. The rich keep get much richer.
现如今，我们几乎可以完全确定这两者并非同一人。这座财富金字塔上的顶端人物在不断减少更替。在整个20世纪90年代，只有四分之一的富豪400强曾经不止一次地在财富榜上露面。但总体趋势是不变的——富人们越来越富。
According to the IRS, which recently released 2009 data from the 400 richest individual income tax returns, the real runaway growth in wealth has come from capital gains. In the last years of the bubble, the "Fortunate 400" made nearly half their income from capital gains (a.k.a.: profit from the rising value of an investment, such as stocks or property) and less than 10% of their income from old-fashioned wages.
最近发布了2009年度富豪400强个人所得税申报表数据的美国税务局表明，财富的快速增长来自于资本收益。在过去几年的泡沫经济中，这些“400强富豪”的收入几乎有一半是来自于资本收益（也就是投资增值的利润，比如说股票投资或是房地产投资），而那些过时的财产来源只占了不到收入的十分之一。
The average income of a top-400 earner grew by 650% between 1992 and 2007 to a whopping $344 million. Over that time, the average salary barely doubled. But the average capital gains haul increased by 1, 200%. How do the richest get richer? Not from their wages. From their investments.
1992-2007年间，每位400强富豪的平均收入增长了6.5倍，竟有3.44亿美元之多。在这段时间里，人均收入仅仅增长了一倍，而平均资本收益所得却增长了12倍。这些富豪们是怎样变得越来越富有的呢？答案是投资而非工资。
Here's a look at the average salary and average capital gains income of a top-400 earner since 1992. Y-axis is labeled in thousands of dollars and all-time highs are noted in the graph.
让我们看一下自1992年以来一位400强富豪的平均工资收入和平均资本收益收入。在这幅纵坐标以千美元为单位的图表中，史上最高记录被标注出来了。
Three last things:
必须要知道的三件事：
(1) Who are these people? As Tim Noah explained on our business page, a 2010 study studied the top 0.1 percent, who currently make at least $1.7 million. That's 45-times less than our Fortunate 400 group in 2009, but it's the closest we've got. Four in ten in this group were executives, managers, and supervisors at nonfinancial firms. Eighteen percent were financiers. Next came law (7 percent), medicine (6 percent), and real estate (4 percent). My guess is that the top 400 skews toward finance and chief exec even stronger. A lawyer/doctor making $2 million I can imagine. But $77 million?*
（1）这些人是谁？正如蒂姆·诺亚在我们的商业版上解释的那样，2010年有一份研究取富豪榜的千分之一为样进行调查，发现这千分之一最近赚了170万美元，比2009年少了45倍。这是我们所能得到的最接近的数字。这个榜单上十分之四的富豪是总裁，经理或非金融机构的主管。他们中的18%是金融家。紧接着是法律界人士（7%）、医学界人士（6%）和房地产商（4%）。我猜想这些富豪更大多是金融家或首席执行官。一个律师或医生挣200万美元还是可以想象的，但是7700万美元？......（见注释）
(2) Capital gains absolutely dictate the wealth of the richest Americans. As Matt O'Brien graphed for us, that's why the income of the top 0.1 percent hugs the S&P so closely.
（2）资本收益对美国富豪的财富具有决定性作用。正如马特·奥布莱恩用图表展示的那样，这就是为什么那千分之一的收入跟标普如此接近。
(3) Remember that as this is happening, the long-term capital gains tax rate has fallen from 28 percent in 1990 to 20 percent for the latter half of the 1990s to 15 percent under George W. Bush.
（3）记住。尽管这些事实正在发生，但是长期资本收益税率已经从1990年的0.28降到20世纪90年代末期的0.2，而到了布什政府时已经降到0.15了。
*I'm wrong! Just received an email from a friend informing me that, although we typically think of corporate lawyers pulling the biggest money, the very tippy-top of the lawyer pyramid are trial lawyers who can "easily" make more than that in a year on the right case.
注释：我错了！我从朋友的一封邮件中得知，尽管我们总认为律师合伙人的获益最多，但其实顶尖律师（即出庭辩护律师）在一个合适的案子中可以轻易挣得比其他人一年所挣得的还多的钱。。
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