The ‘Stealthy Wealthy’: How Main Street Millionaires Reshape America’s Economy

A new book titled The Everywhere Millionaire by economists Eric Zwick and Owen Zidar challenges the popular perception that America is dominated by a small clique of spectacularly rich billionaires. Instead, the authors argue that a far larger class of “Main Street millionaires” hides in plain sight, collectively controlling more wealth than the famous tech and finance tycoons who dominate headlines.

These wealthy individuals often acquired their fortunes through mundane businesses such as car dealerships, hot dog stands, waxing salons, and metal fabrication firms. While many are dentists or franchise owners, their collective financial footprint rivals that of the billionaire “oligarchs.” Many possess significant assets, including superyachts and expansive estates, and wield political influence comparable to that of the ultra-wealthy elite.

The book highlights a quiet revolution in the American economy: the rise of private pass-through businesses. Decades ago, these entities generated less income than traditional corporations. However, by 2011, pass-through businesses produced more income than all U.S. corporations combined, accounting for the majority of the income growth experienced by the top one percent.

Zwick and Zidar estimate there are approximately three million such private business owners in the United States, each worth an average of $25 million. The authors describe this group as the “stealthy wealthy,” noting that they have been largely absent from national conversations on inequality despite their central role in shaping public policy and tax outcomes.

The research stems from work undertaken in 2014 by three young economists known as the “Tax Ninjas”: Danny Yagan, Owen Zidar, and Eric Zwick. While serving at the U.S. Treasury Department, they sought to overcome outdated IRS data systems that kept private business ownership opaque. By linking millions of private business records to individual tax returns, they created a dataset connecting over 11 million businesses to more than 22 million owners.

Prior to this work, understanding American wealth relied on sparse sources like the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances, which struggles to capture responses from the richest individuals, or the Forbes 400 list, which focuses only on the very top. Previous influential research by Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez highlighted the rise in top-tier income shares but lacked detailed links to the specific businesses generating that wealth.

The Tax Ninjas’ data revealed that pass-through structures—where profits flow directly to owners’ personal tax returns—have become dominant. In 1980, these businesses accounted for about 20% of U.S. business income; by 2011, that figure exceeded 50%. Zwick notes that since the 1980s, pass-through businesses have been responsible for more than half of the income growth for both the top one percent and the top 0.1 percent.

The authors present a nuanced portrait of these entrepreneurs. While some embody the American Dream through self-made success, others have used their economic clout to lower their tax burdens and lobby for regulations that protect profits and raise costs for consumers. As Zwick puts it, these individuals are protagonists, but “some of them are protagonists in the same way Tony Soprano is a protagonist.”