You know how they say “the rich keep getting richer”? That’s not just a handy little saying, the rich really have been getting a lot richer. The wealthy Americans have widened the money gap between them and typical families by more than double in the last 50 years. So if you didn’t know an actual Richie Rich living in a ginormous mansion with all kinds of fun gadgets back then, you might now.

Way back when in the days of yore, or 1962, the 1% had 125% the net worth of the median American household, reports CNNMoney. So where are we at now? The new report says the rich are probably 288 times richer than you are.

Meanwhile, the middle class is going in the other direction. Those of us not living in cartoon-like mega mansions have been slowly losing wealth over the decades. In 1983, the median household worth was $73,000 and now that number has taken a dive to $57,000.

As the middle class made a slide, in that same time period the top 1% saw their average wealth go from $9.6 million in to $16.4 million. If everybody had gotten richer, the median household worth would’ve been up to $119,000.

But beyond having thinner wallets, what does it all mean? The wealthiest Americans have more stock to invest, and that stock keeps growing, despite the effects of the Great Recession. Homeowners on the lower side of the wealth gap are more likely to be underwater and have no equity on their mortgages, which will continue to create a tough situation in which it’s trickier to grow richer.

The wealthy are 288 times richer than you [CNNMoney]

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