Exponentially Rich

​Thirty years ago, I drove a neighbor home as she vented her outrage over the sheer number of billionaires and the obscenity of their wealth. Ironically, her own home housed roughly $80 million in inherited artwork—including Picasso sculptures and multi-million-dollar paintings—which she later donated to the National Gallery of Art.

​Even among those with substantial fortunes, the true scale of inequality is hard to grasp. Teachers, firefighters, construction workers, and nurses face an economy where the top 1% holds over $40 trillion in total wealth, far outpacing the bottom 99% combined.

​The middle and upper-middle classes feel the pressure, too. While households in the 80th to 95th percentiles hold significant wealth compared to those below them, many in this bracket still feel financially squeezed. Meanwhile, the broader middle class remains distinct from those living in poverty, yet what little wealth they possess is largely locked up in home equity, offset by mortgages and auto loans.

​At the same time, financial asset concentration has reached staggering levels: the top 1% owns roughly half of all stocks, bonds, and mutual funds, while half the country owns virtually none.

​Lumping all wealthy households into a single category obscures just how steep the curve actually is. The entry threshold for the top 1% sits around $13 million, yet the average wealth within that group is roughly $40 million. Because the distribution is so heavily skewed by the apex ultra-rich, most of the top 1% cluster near that lower threshold—meaning an average net worth of $40 million actually sits near the floor of the upper tier's true ceiling.

​To visualize this scale, imagine net worth as physical height:

​Median American ($192K): Ankle height.

​Top 1% Threshold ($13M): A 10-story building.

​Top 1% Average ($40M): A 30-story skyscraper.

​Top 0.1% Average ($71M): The Washington Monument.

​Billionaire Class ($5B Average): Higher than Mount Everest, leaving the city skyline far behind.

​The Ultra-Top (Elon Musk, etc.): Past commercial jetliner cruising altitudes and directly into orbit, over 100 miles in space.

​We have lived with extreme economic inequality for decades, and current data shows the gap is only widening.

​How can we allow a $40 trillion national debt while granting billionaires tax breaks, all while the average worker pays a disproportionate share of their income?