Everyone has to pay a bit in order for society to move on, grow, and evolve into a better society. Development of all forms is essential to life. However, the poor by their very definition are stagnant. Their growth is likely to be on the loss side, whether in terms of health, education, or employment. They sink to the lowest dregs of the bottom of the barrel. Here there is no room for movement, very much like the fact that the elite really have nowhere to go to get away from the rest of us. It behooves them to play nice.
There is no doubt that the poor have been getting poorer and the rich have been getting richer much more rapidly in recent years. The biggest problem is that the rich can afford to buy off the politicians who are policy makers, while the poor cannot buy anyone off because they are struggling to buy food, shelter, and other essential items for bare bones living. It is a vicious and unending circle of survival hell. The other end of the spectrum is that of the very wealthy, who have more money than God could ever use. A psychological factor kicks in then; if a person has money, they seem to have an insatiable urge to get more. Also they do not want to give up what they are already holding and go to great lengths to keep it.
To break out of the circle is like a miracle. Most people do it when they inherit a little property. This tiny loophole for the poor is ending. When the real estate market flipped upside down and backwards, absolutely it went down in order of poorest first. When there is any kind of trouble, it is always the poor who bite it first. The loan payments on property had gotten so astronomical that the real estate business and the loan business were walking hand in hand in a fraudulent marriage of outright theft from US citizens. The resounding crash is ongoing.
Next goes the middle class, or what is left of the middle class, and in recent years the middle class has been squirming and uncomfortable. They surely cannot move forward; so they are left sliding slowly backwards into the pits of poverty hell. They cannot elect representatives to correct the policies because the money people buy them out at every turn. If the politicians cannot be paid off for their votes, they are threatened by other means. This is the great American way.
When the wealthier citizens see the economy foundering, they stop spending money altogether, thereby creating an even more serious imbalance in the money flow. The psychological factor of greed is a strong motivator. The wealthy do not see that paying a higher percentage of taxes actually protects their investments because it allows the system to function. When the system stops functioning, all of society is at risk.