You said you would bring up 4 points that indicate we're all doing better. I listened and took notes. My responses are below each point.

1. Income is going up.
Income has gone up, incrementally. But the cost of living, adjusted for inflation, has risen faster. And those costs have not been reflected in the polls to which you refer. The cost of housing is astronomical and is not coming down, despite the "bubble bursting." The cost of gas, of clothing, utilities and education is almost beyond the reach of many people who are in poverty. You talk as if everyone makes $100,000 a year. That's not so. As a solo parent (due to the death, not divorce, of my husband), I was doing well to make half that. But to get that, I had to sacrifice not some, but ALL my time with my kids. I put in over 15 hours a day. I wore myself out, literally. And this in a trade that is not and never was covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act. During one pay period, my employer STOLE my entire paycheck! Without the protection offered by the FLSA, I had no viable recourse for getting my earnings paid to me. I have not been able to save any money, and what savings I did have went to emergencies. My kids were without health care during those years, because I simply could not afford the premiums. What good does it do to get benefits at work, if you can't use them? A visit to the doctor's office would wipe out nearly 2 days' pay, with insurance. So I didn't use it either. I had to let my dental problems go until I lost my teeth, because I couldn't afford the cost of the work I needed.
2. Racism is not a factor. Hmmm... this one is hard to argue, but I've seen the effects. There are more blacks and hispanics who are impoverished than whites. Why? Because the cost of an education is too high. If your family makes too much, and it doesn't take much, you don't get the student aid to go to school. Yet the cost of going to school is so high that few families can afford the cost for even one, let alone several kids to attend college. One employer that I worked for for 10 months said that I OWED them $2000 when I quit. My daughter was signing up for college at that time, and the college could scarcely believe their eyes when they looked at my tax forms. How do you live on ZERO income?? They wanted to know. Believe me, it happens.

3. Immigrant households do better than Americans in raising their income. Well, yah..! If you're coming from Mexico and making $.36 cents a day, and then once you get here, you get $5.15 per hour, that's a substantial improvement. They're just taking all the jobs away from Americans, that's all. And you'll say that no American wants those jobs. Speak for yourself, Mr. M. Maybe YOU don't want those jobs. I guarantee you, there are plenty of Americans who would be happy to get a job at all, even if it was pushing a lawnmower for $5 per hour.

4. ??? You never did say what the fourth point was. You had your guests on instead.