New Book Argues America’s Millionaire Population Has Spread Across Every State

A new book titled The Everywhere Millionaire, written by economists Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick, makes the case that America’s millionaire population is larger than many people realize. The authors base their findings on Treasury and IRS data that linked tax records to individual businesses and their owners. This analysis reveals approximately 5 million households with assets of at least $5 million, whose combined wealth surpasses 13 times that of the Forbes 400.

It is unlikely that the wealthiest resident of your community works in tech or manages money for a living. Instead, they are likely the dentist who operates six offices or the contractor whose trucks you spot all over town.

The Stealthy Wealthy

Zidar and Zwick describe these people as “stealthy wealthy.” They get rich the old-fashioned way — through hard work over many years. Their businesses are ordinary, brick-and-mortar enterprises like dental practices, construction firms and delivery services.

Business owners benefit from a tax break because profits from pass-through entities, including LLCs and sole proprietorships, go straight to the owner’s personal tax return instead of being taxed twice like corporate income. They can then take a deduction on 20% of that income, which makes it easier for them to build up wealth than most W-2 workers can manage.

“This is not just a story about wealth being on the coast, Silicon Valley and finance,” Zwick, an economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told CBS News. “This is a much broader phenomenon, and also much closer to home for a lot of Americans.”

Dick Portillo’s Hot Dogs

The economists describe Dick Portillo as a typical millionaire. He was born into poverty in a Chicago housing project and began his career with a small hot dog stand in 1963, putting in just a $1,100 investment. From there he built the business into a large regional chain, and finally sold it to Berkshire Partners for $1 billion.

According to Zwick, a lot of these business owners care more about freedom and independence than they do about getting rich. He noted that the desire to be their own bosses drives many of them, rather than any hunger for wealth.

The researchers found that about three-quarters of these millionaires started their own businesses, while the vast majority did not inherit money. The typical everywhere millionaire is 62, married, and more likely to be a college graduate but not much more likely than the general population.

Their business is also their day job, and they’re not necessarily retired even though they’re in their 50s, 60s or older. “Often they’re still quite obsessed with what they’re doing,” Zwick said.

Yachts and Main Streets

The millionaires who are the subject of Zwick’s and Zidar’s research aren’t generally as unassuming as those studied by Thomas Stanley and William Danko in their 1990s bestseller The Millionaire Next Door. Many of these wealthy business owners aren’t shy about enjoying the fruits of their prosperity.

While yachts, mansions and similar luxuries abound, the enterprises themselves stay grounded in ordinary physical operations, unlike the eye-catching fortunes tied to Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

“You’re walking down the street, you look at a truck that’s delivering beer, and if you look on the door, you see the name of the beer distributor, and then you go look them up, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s an everywhere millionaire,'” Zwick said. “And you start to see them everywhere like that.”

What the Numbers Show

The findings show that the path to great wealth in the U.S. typically isn’t through a regular paycheck. It’s through ordinary enterprises that benefit from the same tax breaks and structures — pass-through businesses like sole proprietorships and partnerships.

Zwick noted that even though Elon Musk is extremely wealthy, the Forbes 400, which represents 3% to 5% of total household wealth in the U.S., covers a far larger group, and that matters when trying to understand how the economy functions.

Will AI Change This Path?

The prevailing narrative is pessimistic, Zwick said, though his findings suggest otherwise. He believes the American Dream is more alive than most people think. It is not necessarily where people are looking, he added, noting that the reading of the data tells a different story.

He lays out the key points behind his optimism in a ranked order:

1. The American Dream is more alive than most people think.
2. The reading of the data tells a different story from the prevailing pessimism.
3. The issues his clients address are real and can be touched, not abstract.

Zwick believes the U.S. will keep producing plenty of chances to build wealth despite worries over AI changing the workplace. He points out that the issues his clients address are real and can be touched, not abstract.

See the video the story is built around at Cbsnews.

book review · entrepreneurs · millionaires · tax policy · wealth gap