edit:

I believe those studies suffer from the below flaw.I believe you're using anecdotal evidence from a conservative opinion columnist in place of the findings of a multitude of studies.
I believe this to be 100% true, and your links/arguments reinforce this belief.Most of the media publicize what is happening to the statistical brackets — especially that "top one percent" — rather than what is happening to individual people.




making them unreliable/inaccurate.
oh you just accpet it because you see no alternative... 

Makes you wonder huh.
but tracking 'teams' isn't that far removed from brackets doe?
