There is a lot of frustration over what stuff cost these days. Not just gasoline and groceries, but schools and roads and libraies. A lot of this is because as the country gets wealthier, stuff tends to get more expensive. But so much of the new wealth goes to the already wealthy, the rest of us see our standard of living falling in relation to what is going on with the wealthy.
Here are some numbers:
In 1989, the top 1% of households held 16.87% of household wealth. In 2025 the top 1% of households held 22.47% of household wealth.
Of course there are a larger number of households in the 1% in 2025 than in 1989. In 89, the average top 1% household had a net worth of $5,161,466.00. That’s in 1989 dollars. Inflation adjusted to 2025 dollars makes it $13,419,811.00. In 2025, the average top 1% household net worth was $41,419,262.00.
$41,419,262.00 — $13,419,811.00 = 27,999,451.00 extra dollars per household in 2025.
In 2025, there were 134,790,000 households in the US. So, the top 1% of households would be 1,347,900 households. Each of those, on average, holding that extra $27,999,451.00.
1,347,900 x $27,999,451.00 = $37,740,460,002,900.
That’s 37 3/4 trillion dollars. The current national debt is $39,344,600,000,000.
How has the top 1% accumulated all this? Minimum wage has not gone up. Taxes on the very wealthy are minimal. The wealthy have many easy loopholes to use to avoid paying taxes. Most of us pay a higher percentage of our income in taxes than the wealthy pay.
Every time you hear the call for deregulation, this is a call for more money for the wealthy and more of dirty air, dirty water, dirty earth, dangerous working conditions, or crappy products….all of which are things that end up costing the non-wealthy money.
Most of the above numbers come from one of two links: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/release/tables?rid=453&eid=813668&od=#
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WFRBLN40301
Number of households is from the census bureau and I used the inflation calculator at https://www.usinflationcalculator.com