For we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it.

BBC: Obama inauguration: Full text

"We, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it, " he said.

BBC: Inauguration Day: Obama signals little compromise

"We are a generation with few shrinking violets, " concludes Twenge.

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But the slow death of local newspapers and their replacement by ever-larger media conglomerates means that news coverage is being managed by a shrinking number of people at a few mega-oulets.

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But the list of nuclear projects keeps shrinking, down from nearly 40 a few years ago when the economy was pumping and natural gas, which sets the price of electricity, was high.

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Wall Street speculation reaping huge profits for a few while manufacturing was leaving our shores and a shrinking number of people were doing fantastically well, but more and more people had to get by with falling incomes even while the cost of everything from college to health care was skyrocketing.

WHITEHOUSE: The White House

There's so much iffy paper still on the books that 2009 is more of a workout year with few major profit centers igniting and others, like the collateralized debt business, shrinking to insignificance.

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