Millionaires are everywhere in the U.S., new book says
Getting rich in the U.S. is still possible, but the most common path to wealth doesn't involve working for other people, according to a new book.
September 17, 2026 / 5:00 AM EDT / CBS News
The richest person in your town probably isn't a technology entrepreneur or a hedge fund manager. More likely, it's the dentist who runs six offices or the HVAC contractor whose trucks you see everywhere, according to economists Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick.
These "stealthy wealthy," as the duo describes them in their new book, "The Everywhere Millionaire," typically get rich the old-fashioned way — through hard work over many years. And there are plenty of them in the U.S., with roughly 5 million households worth at least $5 million and holding combined wealth exceeding 13 times that of the Forbes 400, their research shows.
The findings, based on the economists' deep dive into Treasury and IRS data that matched tax records to individual businesses and their owners, show that the path to great wealth in the U.S. typically isn't through a regular paycheck. Instead, it's through ordinary enterprises that often benefit from the same tax breaks and structures — "pass-through" businesses such as sole proprietorships and partnerships.
"This is not just a story about wealth being on the coast, Silicon Valley and finance," Zwick, an economics professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, told CBS News. "This is a much broader phenomenon, and also much closer to home for a lot of Americans."
To be sure, the stock market boom has also minted a growing number of 401(k) millionaires , but Zwick and Zidar are focused on people who have amassed wealth far beyond what even dedicated savers have been able to sock away. These "everywhere millionaires" include 3 million owners of private businesses, with an average wealth of about $25 million, they found.