If you like. and now they "earn" a lot more, mostly because the middle class "earns" proportionately less. Presumably the middle class must be slacking off, working fewer hours, fewer weekends, taking less responsibility, facing less stress. Serves them right, then. I really hate to say, "go read a book", but the Austrian school of economics answers these very questions.
Go read "Human Action" by Ludwig von Mises.