"In just the period since Bush took office until the middle of 2004, for example, corporate profits grew 40 percent while real wages barely registered a 0.3 percent blip. And the Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that more than half of all corporate profits go into the pockets of the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans. "We're back to serfs and royalty in the Middle Ages," says Edward Lawler, professor of management at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business. Bush's tax policies are exacerbating that feudal tendency. The moves to eliminate taxes on inheritance and on dividends mean that the country is moving towards a model in which Paris Hilton would pay a lower rate of taxes than her cleaning lady, according to Martin Press, a high-profile tax attorney and registered Republican. This wealth transfer is evident in every statistic. From 1979 to 1998, those who earned in the top fifth of income grew 38 percent wealthier while the bottom fifth's top percent lost five percent of real income. Today, the financial wealth of the top one percent exceeds the combined wealth of the bottom 95 percent- America has the worst wealth distribution of any first-world nation."