The wealth gap in the United States isn’t just wide—it’s a chasm. The top 1 percent, about 1.3 million households, hold $52 trillion in net worth. The bottom 50 percent, 66 million households, scrape together just $4 trillion.
The latest data from the FED shows this canyon, not a gap, within the society. Put differently, the richest sliver of society owns thirteen times more than half the country combined. And this isn’t just a quirky statistic for economists to debate on panels. It’s a live grenade in the middle of American society.
The Rent Trap
So how does inequality actually play out? Look no further than rent. Median rents rose 5.8 percent last year, while renter incomes crept up just 5.3 percent, CBPP data shows. That might sound close enough, but if you stretch it over a few decades, it can grow to outstanding proportions.
Since 2001, rents have increased by 26.7 percent (inflation-adjusted), while renter incomes have risen by a paltry 7.7 percent.
Who wins? The asset owners. If you own property or a REIT, you’re cashing those rent checks. If you don’t, you’re writing them—and watching a bigger share of your paycheck disappear every year. Nearly a quarter of renter households now spend over half their income on rent. That’s 12.1 million households chained to their landlords. Unsurprisingly, homelessness has spiked to 770,000, a grim record.
Rental assistance helps—it lifted 2.1 million people out of poverty in 2024. But here’s the kicker: fewer than one in four who need help get it. And Congress? Some lawmakers want to cut vouchers, which would dump hundreds of thousands more into eviction territory. The system is biased in favor of individuals who already own assets.
The Global Picture
This isn’t just an American disease. The Global Database of Wealth Accumulation research covered a period from 1800 to 2025, revealing how lopsided things have become since 1980. Back then, global wealth equaled 390% of the world’s output. Now it’s 625%.
Translation: wealth has ballooned far faster than incomes, thanks to housing booms, stock markets, and higher savings by, you guessed it, the wealthy.
Private wealth in the U.S. and Europe is at record highs, while public wealth is in decline. North America’s public wealth is actually negative. Europe’s is near zero. East Asia? Still hanging onto 25–30 percent of national wealth in public hands. Different choices, different outcomes.
Wealth accumulation isn’t about economics alone. Politics, ideology, and power shape who ends up with what – bringing us right back to America, where politics has been a reliable ally of the wealthy for decades.
The American Inequality Machine
Over the past 15 years in the US, after-tax income grew just 18 percent for the 10th percentile of earners but 34 percent for the 95th percentile, according to Census Bureau data. The rich doubled the growth of the poor. And remember, income is just the faucet. Wealth is the water sitting in the tub. When the rich make more, they save more. Their tubs fill up. The poor’s tubs drain as fast as the water comes in.
Wealth is the real ticket. It’s what pays for elite universities, startup capital, political campaigns, or that country club membership where deals get made. Without it, opportunity shrinks. The economy pretends to be meritocratic, but really it’s aristocratic. The pie gets smaller because talent is wasted.
Walter Scheidel’s Harsh History Lesson
So how does this end? Stanford University’s professor of ancient history, Walter Scheidel, offers a bleak answer.
In his book “The Great Leveler,” which examines the history of inequality, he analyzes historical examples, showing that inequality only falls through four brutal “solutions.” Mass warfare, revolutions, pandemics, or total state collapse. That’s it; no benevolent billionaire fund, no clever tax tweak, no TED Talk fix.
And none of those options are remotely appealing. Nobody wants war or collapse just to close the wealth gap. Pandemics? We’ve had a taste of that, and inequality still got worse. Revolutions? History shows they devour their children.
Which leaves us in a bind. America is locked in a system where the rich keep stacking chips, the poor keep paying rent, and policymakers tinker around the edges.
The wealth divide isn’t narrowing—it’s widening, and the “solutions” history offers are all disasters.
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