Some adjectives referring to a class of people can be used as a noun with a plural meaning, for example “the rich get richer and the poor get poorer”. “The rich” means rich people in general, and “the poor” means poor people in general. Note that we do not add a final “s” or change the noun in any way. (The only exception I can think of is "the others", which is sort of a plural pronoun.) This is a common usage with adjectives of nationality ending in -ese or -ish: “The British are coming, the British are coming”. This pattern cannot be used with adjectives ending in -an: The Americans (not the American) are coming.