February 18, 2026
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
Owen Zidar
Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University
The Everywhere Millionaire: Who is Really Rich in America and How They Got There
Owen Zidar
Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University
Micky Weyeneth, introducer, and Owen Zidar
Minutes of the 19th Meeting of the 84th Year
Professor Zidar opened his talk with a slide of photos from a very opulent wedding in November 2023 which he said social media termed “the wedding of the century”. It took place in Paris and lasted 5 days. Guests were flown in by private jet; Versailles was rented as a venue, as was Little Versailles. The rehearsal dinner was held at the Paris Opera House and Adam Levine gave a private concert for the guests. The total cost was $60 million. Professor Zidar speculated that his audience was guessing that the host who spent so lavishly was a tech or Wall Street billionaire, and he drew gasps of surprise when he revealed that the lucky bride’s father owned a car dealership in Florida.
Zidar said that the conventional wisdom is that the wealthiest among us made their money in either tech or finance and live on the coasts. In fact, Zidar noted, it is very hard to know who is rich in this country because they don’t answer surveys and their businesses are private, so their tax returns are as well. The wealthy people you hear about, like Musk and Bezos, are ultra-wealthy and get in the news for other reasons.
When Dr. Zidar worked in the Obama administration he was asked by the Treasury Department to do some research for them, and he discovered that there are 3 million of what he has come to call “everywhere millionaires” or “Main Street millionaires” who are not as rich as Musk or Bezos, but are a lot like the car dealership owner in Florida. They earned this moniker because they are indeed everywhere. Other characteristics are that they have at least $5 million net worth (although the average is $25 million) and they work in rather ordinary industries such as beverage distribution, dental groups, car dealerships, and physicians’ groups.
Professor Zidar said his book, which is co-authored by Eric Zwick of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and will be published in September 2026, addresses 3 questions:1) who is rich in America? 2) how did they get rich? 3) how do they shape society? Zidar used a series of slides to illustrate the results of the extensive research he and Zwick did. The answer to the first question is that a 1985 Reagan tax law caused the rise in pass-through corporations that resulted in the great deal of income inequality that we see today. The number of everywhere millionaires outnumber the Forbes 400 by a factor of 10, mainly due to favorable interest rates, tax policies, de-regulation, and globalization. While those on the Forbes 400 list do live mainly on the coasts, the Main Street millionaires are geographically dispersed; this latter fact has political consequences which Zidar addresses in the last part of the book.
The typical firm owned by these everywhere millionaires has 30 employees with $25 million of annual revenue and a net worth of $25-50 million. The owner actively works in the firm and only owns one business, which is where most of their wealth is concentrated. The typical profile is that of a white male age 62 who is a college grad and, usually, married. Zidar says they are hiding in plain sight because they are coaching your kids’ soccer teams, sitting next to you at a town meeting, and chatting with you at a neighborhood gathering.
Next Zidar addressed the question how did these people get rich? There are 3 main ways: they either started their business, they inherited it, or they acquired it. He told the rags to riches story of Dick Portillo who scraped together money to buy a hot dog stand that had no running water and ended up selling his business in 2014 for $3 billion. Zidar and Zwick looked at various indicators of success such as test scores and successful patent applications which each correlated with higher incomes; interestingly there was a much flatter relationship between higher test scores and what Zidar called “star businesses”. He quipped “you don’t have to be a genius to start a company”.
The final section of the book attempted to answer the question how do these Main Street millionaires shape society? Zidar and Zwick’s research found clear effects. Business owners tend to be very prevalent in politics, e.g. one quarter of the members of the tax-writing committees in Congress are business owners. This representation of business owners in government is especially true at state and local levels. Small business owners dominate in donations to political causes and candidates. They also are prominent participants in lobbying. Their geographic dispersal creates a formidable political coalition, and policy capture works for them at multiple levels of government.
The Q and A that followed Professor Zidar’s talk covered a wide range of topics. I will include just a few here. The first contrasted the approach to taxing the wealthy in New York and in California. In the former, Professor Zidar said that an auto dealership owner, for example, would have a harder time leaving the state for a lower tax one than say a tech company owner. The larger geographic distribution of these Main Street millionaires means that they care about more than just taxes, for example about finding good workers and good schools for their children, so they aren’t really that mobile. In California, a ballot measure proposing a one-time 5% tax on wealth above $1 billion for residents as of January 2026 has already caused some tech leaders to leave the state.
Another question had to do with these small businesses being acquired by private equity. Zidar, as part of his answer, said that if you want to create more entrepreneurs there are policy changes that could be implemented, but the most important factors are early labor market experience and industry expertise rather than financial resources.
The last question asked about the political party affiliation of these everywhere millionaires. Using data they got from someone who researched who got PPP funds, Zidar and Zwick found that small business owners were 32% Republicans, 23% Democrats and 36% Independents, compared with the general population which sorted into 35% Republican, 38% Democrats, and 27% Independents. Quoting a slide which showed these statistics “When forced to lean, business owners are 10% points more Republican. Why? Main Street Millionaires argue causal effect due to opposition to government regulation.”
Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Ringer
Zidar said that the conventional wisdom is that the wealthiest among us made their money in either tech or finance and live on the coasts. In fact, Zidar noted, it is very hard to know who is rich in this country because they don’t answer surveys and their businesses are private, so their tax returns are as well. The wealthy people you hear about, like Musk and Bezos, are ultra-wealthy and get in the news for other reasons.
When Dr. Zidar worked in the Obama administration he was asked by the Treasury Department to do some research for them, and he discovered that there are 3 million of what he has come to call “everywhere millionaires” or “Main Street millionaires” who are not as rich as Musk or Bezos, but are a lot like the car dealership owner in Florida. They earned this moniker because they are indeed everywhere. Other characteristics are that they have at least $5 million net worth (although the average is $25 million) and they work in rather ordinary industries such as beverage distribution, dental groups, car dealerships, and physicians’ groups.
Professor Zidar said his book, which is co-authored by Eric Zwick of the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago and will be published in September 2026, addresses 3 questions:1) who is rich in America? 2) how did they get rich? 3) how do they shape society? Zidar used a series of slides to illustrate the results of the extensive research he and Zwick did. The answer to the first question is that a 1985 Reagan tax law caused the rise in pass-through corporations that resulted in the great deal of income inequality that we see today. The number of everywhere millionaires outnumber the Forbes 400 by a factor of 10, mainly due to favorable interest rates, tax policies, de-regulation, and globalization. While those on the Forbes 400 list do live mainly on the coasts, the Main Street millionaires are geographically dispersed; this latter fact has political consequences which Zidar addresses in the last part of the book.
The typical firm owned by these everywhere millionaires has 30 employees with $25 million of annual revenue and a net worth of $25-50 million. The owner actively works in the firm and only owns one business, which is where most of their wealth is concentrated. The typical profile is that of a white male age 62 who is a college grad and, usually, married. Zidar says they are hiding in plain sight because they are coaching your kids’ soccer teams, sitting next to you at a town meeting, and chatting with you at a neighborhood gathering.
Next Zidar addressed the question how did these people get rich? There are 3 main ways: they either started their business, they inherited it, or they acquired it. He told the rags to riches story of Dick Portillo who scraped together money to buy a hot dog stand that had no running water and ended up selling his business in 2014 for $3 billion. Zidar and Zwick looked at various indicators of success such as test scores and successful patent applications which each correlated with higher incomes; interestingly there was a much flatter relationship between higher test scores and what Zidar called “star businesses”. He quipped “you don’t have to be a genius to start a company”.
The final section of the book attempted to answer the question how do these Main Street millionaires shape society? Zidar and Zwick’s research found clear effects. Business owners tend to be very prevalent in politics, e.g. one quarter of the members of the tax-writing committees in Congress are business owners. This representation of business owners in government is especially true at state and local levels. Small business owners dominate in donations to political causes and candidates. They also are prominent participants in lobbying. Their geographic dispersal creates a formidable political coalition, and policy capture works for them at multiple levels of government.
The Q and A that followed Professor Zidar’s talk covered a wide range of topics. I will include just a few here. The first contrasted the approach to taxing the wealthy in New York and in California. In the former, Professor Zidar said that an auto dealership owner, for example, would have a harder time leaving the state for a lower tax one than say a tech company owner. The larger geographic distribution of these Main Street millionaires means that they care about more than just taxes, for example about finding good workers and good schools for their children, so they aren’t really that mobile. In California, a ballot measure proposing a one-time 5% tax on wealth above $1 billion for residents as of January 2026 has already caused some tech leaders to leave the state.
Another question had to do with these small businesses being acquired by private equity. Zidar, as part of his answer, said that if you want to create more entrepreneurs there are policy changes that could be implemented, but the most important factors are early labor market experience and industry expertise rather than financial resources.
The last question asked about the political party affiliation of these everywhere millionaires. Using data they got from someone who researched who got PPP funds, Zidar and Zwick found that small business owners were 32% Republicans, 23% Democrats and 36% Independents, compared with the general population which sorted into 35% Republican, 38% Democrats, and 27% Independents. Quoting a slide which showed these statistics “When forced to lean, business owners are 10% points more Republican. Why? Main Street Millionaires argue causal effect due to opposition to government regulation.”
Respectfully submitted,
Sarah Ringer