{
  "id": 7499669,
  "title": "The American Dream isn’t what you think it is",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/15/the-american-dream-isnt-what-you-think-it-is",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-09-15T07:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/09/15/american-dream-wealth-everywhere-millionaire-book-wealth-inequality-tax-policy/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In 2014, economists Eric Zwick, Owen Zidar, and Danny Yagan embarked on a mission to uncover who truly is wealthy in the United States. Initially unsure of their path, they were eventually dubbed \"tax ninjas\" by Planet Money, as they worked clandestinely in the Treasury Department's basement, examining individual tax records that seldom see academic scrutiny. The IRS kept its individual tax returns and business filings in separate systems, making it impossible to connect business profits to their respective owners. Zwick and Zidar spent months linking the two databases, and when they finally did, they were astounded by their findings.\n\nThe research revealed that the American Dream is not reserved for Wall Street billionaires or tech overlords. Instead, the majority of wealth in the U.S. lies with the \"everywhere millionaires\" - individuals with at least $5 million in net worth, who own a single closely held operating business that generates most of their income. These millionaires were found to be concentrated in mid-sized metropolitan areas, away from the eyes of the media and political scrutiny.\n\nThree million of these millionaires collectively hold 13 times the wealth of the entire Forbes 400. Among them are local auto dealers, dentists, and tanning-bed distributors, whose wealth is often not recognized in traditional billionaire indices or political campaigns. One of the book's most unsettling arguments is that these everywhere millionaires essentially run American politics. They make up a significant portion of federal elected officials and state legislators, with an estimated 25% of federal elected officials and 40% of state legislators being pass-through business owners. This concentration of wealth and political influence raises questions about the underlying causes of inequality in the U.S.",
  "summary": "Eric Zwick told Fortune that the \"Everywhere Millionaire\" book grew out of a major surprise on wealth: “I’m like, this is not Jeff Bezos.”",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}