How Can America Be So Miserable When It’s So Rich?
by David French, The New York Times, March 26, 2026
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In February of last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that the top 10 percent of earners — households earning about $250,000 or more — now account for 49.7 percent of all spending. That’s a staggering percentage — a percentage that can tilt an entire economy toward the top.
Extend the analysis to the top 40 percent of earners and that percentage grows to more than 75 percent of all spending. That means that the poorest 60 percent of Americans account for less than a quarter of all spending. Put all this together, and it means that individually rational economic choices are driving the entire economy to cater to the wealthy.
If you’re a car manufacturer, do you want to build low-margin entry-level cars? Or do you reap much greater rewards by selling the high-margin S.U.V.? If you’re a developer, luxury housing is typically much more profitable…[end quote]
The 60 percent of the population that does 25 percent of the spending has much nicer stuff than earlier generations but comparison causes feelings of being shut out of the best. Of course, that’s no different than things have always been but Envy has always been with us sinners.
Corporations, builders, professionals all benefit by catering to the wealthy.
This is mostly due to the lack of antitrust enforcement over the last 40 plus years and, of course, the bipartisan culture of corruption in Washington.
On the latter there’s no better measure than the fact that Washington DC now leads the nation with more than a quarter of the workforce earning over $200,000/yr — a salary earned by only a handful of Gov’t workers. It’s all for-profit skim, scam and fraud.
I wouldn’t over-react and blame government. Anyone with business with the government is going to have people in DC and those people are going to be getting paid! Note MD is also 20+%. Alaska was a bit surprising. But then again, $200,000 is no longer a big number. That was about $50,000 in 1980.
Well Elon demonstrated that building a pricey vehicle can lead to a creation of an automobile corporation. But we also have the example of VW creating an automobile corporation from a “people’s” car based on an economical design. That model continuously redesigned sold for 55-60 years along with the VW bus.
In the 1960’s VW broaden their offering to include the Karmen Ghia & Type 3 models. Those models faded. In the mid 1970’s the Rabbit & Scirocco & Passat were introduced.
And of course we have Henry Ford model T that led to a major auto corporation.
I am watching with great interest to see how the new EV Slate pickup will do.
What is the better business model?
Low volume-high margin. Or high volume-low margin. If done right; methinks both led to a profitable business.
Easiest solution to the wealth divide is raise the federal minimum wage from $7.25/hr to something like $15/hr. It’s inflationary and strongly opposed.
Best long term solution is better job training. Free public education is an excellent social program. Getting more to stay in school and graduate should be a priority. Including more job training would be a plus. Apprenticeship w local businesses?
Getting wealthy to pay more taxes also helps. More resources for audits. Closing loopholes.
Something like 1% or less of all workers make the fed min wage - many of them teenagers or dependents of others. Many states already have a higher rate. Besides, 2 x nothing is still nothing.
The only way to combat the wealth divide is to attack the extreme wealth at the top. Start taxing all forms of compensation as income and that would be the easiest solution - but just as strongly (if not more so) opposed.
Elon Musk’s effective federal tax rate was 0% in 2018. Even when he paid $billions in 2021, it was something like just 10%. Giving a bunch of people $16k more a year isn’t going to reduce that disparity.
One other easy solution would be to make the appreciation of assets used to secure security-based lines of credit taxable above a certain amount. That is the real way many of the ultra-wealthy use their assets to generate tax free income off of appreciated assets that are never sold.
That way, it isn’t a wealth tax (not everyone pays it) but a tax on willful economic activity.
I agree better collection of taxes from the wealthy is a good idea.
Only 20 states have adopted state minimum wages. Why not raise the federal rate for the other 30. Used to be only companies doing interstate business had to comply. Now larger employers must comply. Easy to do. Why not? No it does not help everyone but it does help some.