The New York Times recently ran an article pointing out that only this year (2018) have median incomes (the income of the middle person) recovered to the level they were prior to the great recession of 2009.

What about the incomes of the top five percent? How long did they take to recover? Well according to according to this data from the Tax Policy Institute, the mean income of the top five percent was 295,388 in 2009 (before the fall), 287,201 in 2010 and 311,444 in 2011, obviously we have to adjust for inflation, but even when we do so that’s still a net gain within two years.

It took two years for the rich to recover from the great recession. It took about nine years for the median (that is to say the typical) person’s income to reach pre-recession levels.