When we think of debt, we generally think of middle to lower-classes.  However, this is not the case anymore. The nation's personal borrowings show that the upper-class is piling on debt faster than the middle class, though for very different reasons.

According to the Federal Reserve Board's Surveys of Consumer Finance, the nation's richest 1% took on $342 billion in new debt between 1998 and 2004, the latest year for which data are available. (The 1% represents households with net worths, including primary residence, of at least $6 million.) Economists say that debt number has probably continued to grow since 2004, because interest rates remain low by historical standards.

Just as the rich control a disproportionate share of national wealth, they also account for a disproportionate share of debt. The richest 1% now hold 7% of the nation's debt, with a total of $650 billion in borrowings, up from 5% in 1998. Debt for this group grew faster than for any other group in the Federal survey. Total debt held by the top 1% increased 150% between 1998 and 2004, compared with growth of about 100% for those in the 50th-to-90th percentile wealth range. The rich, in short, have joined the great American borrowing binge.

The reason behind the richs' debt?  Simply that they are continuing to buy and buy and buy.  After buying a few homes and funding ever-more lavish lifestyles, today's risk-friendly rich are embracing debt as a way to expand fortunes and fund increasingly materialistic lives.

Yet, there are some differences in the borrowed funds for the rich in comparison to the rest of the nation. Unlike many lower-income Americans who rely on credit cards and home-equity and other loans to meet living costs, the rich often use debt as a financial tool. Their debt is generally used for mortgages on their primary or nonprimary residences, according to the Federal data. They may have plenty of cash to pay for their investments and "toys," but they would be better off keeping the money in higher-returning investments or businesses.

It is suggested that the rise in the growing amount of debt among the rich stems in large part from the growing pressure among the elite to keep up with richer peers. The biggest differences in wealth today are among the rich, with simple millionaires getting shoved aside by decamillionaires, centimillionaires and billionaires.

In short, there is continuous game that involves the top 1% struggling to keep up with the top 1/10th of 1%," he adds. Those people trying to keep up with the top 1/100th of the top 1%. There is a drive by the merely rich to keep up with the obscenely rich.