Oct 23, 2026 · 1h 1m
Main Street owners shape wealth, taxes, and local power
Meet The Millionaire Class That Really Runs America
The episode widens the inequality debate beyond billionaires to the private-business owners whose fortunes and influence are embedded in everyday communities.
- 1Everywhere millionaires build substantial wealth through ordinary private businesses, not only technology ventures or financial markets.
- 2Pass-through taxation, protected local markets, and inheritance can help successful owners preserve wealth and limit competition.
- 3The American dream remains possible through patient ownership, but policy must distinguish productive entrepreneurship from entrenched privilege.
Don't miss
Zidar and Zwick recast the American dream around patient ownership of ordinary businesses rather than rapid-growth technology ventures.
The brief
Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick introduce the everywhere millionaire: a private-business owner whose local fortune may matter more to economic and political life than public attention suggests.
Their examples range from restaurants to auto dealerships and beverage distributors, showing how ordinary enterprises can create extraordinary wealth when local rules limit competition.
The central tension is tax treatment: pass-through owners can receive income as profits rather than wages, while protected markets and inheritance help fortunes persist.
The guests argue that taxing billionaires alone misses a much larger pool of private-business wealth, but reforms should preserve incentives for investment and productive ownership.
Their practical conclusion is less glamorous than the usual startup story: hands-on experience, patient ownership, and steadily building an unremarkable business can still offer a path upward.
Private-equity roll-ups and AI may reshape the model, yet tactile, local services could remain fertile ground for entrepreneurs willing to build patiently.
What was said on this episode
27 statements · 12 positive · 6 negative · 2 mixed · 7 neutral
Over three million everywhere millionaires have at least $5 million in net worth, averaging $25 million.
“There are over 3 million of them who have at least $5 million in net worth. Their average wealth is $25 million.”
Listen at 4:43
Private business owners account for about half of the top one percent’s income-share rise.
“If you look at the rise of the top 1%, it's about half of the rise in the top 1% of the past few decades accounted for by these private business owners.”
Listen at 4:51
The American dream remains more alive than commonly believed.
“the American dream is more alive than you think, but it's not necessarily where you're looking.”
Listen at 6:55
Businesses built from trade skills and local problem-solving can become highly profitable.
“Those businesses can become quite profitable and quite lucrative.”
Listen at 7:43
Dick Portillo sold his hot-dog business for one billion dollars.
“many decades later he sold it for a billion dollars”
Listen at 9:23
The 1980s tax reform triggered rapid growth in pass-through businesses.
“This triggered a rapid growth in the number of pass-through businesses.”
Listen at 11:30
Pass-through businesses contain over half of business income and nearly half of workers.
“You have more than half of the business income in the economy is in pass-through businesses. You have almost half the workers working in pass-through businesses.”
Listen at 11:57
The large pass-through deduction has little employment or investment impact and is costly.
“that really has very little impact on employment and investment, and it was hugely expensive.”
Listen at 15:10
Local protections restrict consumer choice, raise prices, reduce competition, and enrich incumbents.
“All these things serve to restrict consumers' options. to make more opaque the costs, to sort of raise prices and sort of reduce competition that makes these people richer than maybe they otherwise would be.”
Listen at 18:47
Private business owners comprise about one-quarter of Congress’s tax-writing committee.
“we think a quarter of the tax writing committee of Congress was business owners, private business owners.”
Listen at 29:25
Business owners make up roughly 30–40% of mayors outside major cities.
“if you go to the mayors of the country outside of the major cities, it's like more like 30 to 40 percent.”
Listen at 29:31
Pass-through business income accounts for over half of the top one percent’s income-share increase.
“more than half of the rise in the top 1% income share comes from pass-through business income.”
Listen at 33:15
Billionaires paying lower effective tax rates than many employees is fundamentally unfair.
“it's fundamentally unfair that billionaires pay a lower effective tax rate than many of their employees.”
Listen at 35:38
Rolling tax policy back to 1997 could raise trillions over ten years.
“Even if you just do basic things like roll back the tax code to 1997, you can raise trillions of dollars over a 10-year period”
Listen at 36:13
Private business owners generally receive business income as profits rather than wages.
“most of the income that you receive from that business is going to come out not in the form of wages, but in the form of profits.”
Listen at 40:31
Private business owners can pay lower effective tax rates than equivalent salaried workers.
“they pay lower effective tax rates than a salaried person who is doing the exact same thing in a slightly different corporate form or corporate structure”
Listen at 41:09
Some tax loopholes provide little investment benefit but could raise substantial revenue if closed.
“I think there's a lot of low hanging fruit for loopholes that don't really help that much in that direction, but also can raise material amounts of money.”
Listen at 43:44
The healthcare system needs a larger supply of doctors and medical professionals.
“I think we need more supply of doctors and medical professionals.”
Listen at 44:40
Labor-market regulation benefits everywhere millionaires at low-skilled workers’ expense.
“regulation labor market seems to be sort of benefiting the everywhere millionaires at the expense of low skilled work.”
Listen at 45:54
The tax system needs another broad reform similar to the 1986 overhaul.
“1986 was the last time we did this, and we cleaned up a lot of stuff. You need to do it again.”
Listen at 49:28
Ownership is a more reliable path to substantial wealth than W-2 employment.
“it's better to own rather than earn you know it's pretty hard to get really rich getting a w-2”
Listen at 50:57
Becoming an everywhere millionaire usually takes decades and occurs around one’s sixties.
“it takes decades. And it takes a lot of, it's a slow process where most of these people are in their 60s by the time we see them as everywhere millionaires.”
Listen at 51:34
AI will take time to fully disrupt tactile, local service work, if it ever replaces it.
“ai is going to take a while to fully disrupt and replace that work if it ever does”
Listen at 52:22
AI is likely to disrupt skilled-service industries more than tactile businesses.
“There are certain industries like these skilled services where I see more disruption because a lot of the day to day job is the kind of thing that AI is really good.”
Listen at 53:06
Private equity provides a good exit option for private-business owners.
“I think it's a good exit option.”
Listen at 54:34
Retiring business owners create current opportunities to acquire cash-flowing businesses.
“I think that is a real opportunity right now because there's a lot of people retiring or wanting to retire who have really good cash flowing businesses.”
Listen at 55:53
Mundane economic sectors will offer many entrepreneurial opportunities in the future.
“That makes me optimistic that there will be a lot of opportunities for folks going forward in these mundane corners of the economy.”
Listen at 57:52
Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.
Books & mentions
Some links are affiliate links — PodLume may earn a commission if you buy.
Weekly email
State of the Pod, every Monday
The week's most-discussed names and stories from podcasts, with the moments behind them. Free, five minutes, unsubscribe in one click.