Five conclusions about the billionaire boom in the United States

Turbocharged by Trump-era tax cuts and other policies who favor it, America’s wealthy minority has more power over the country than at any time in the last century.

At the dawn of this new plutocracy, the US faces a key dilemma: Are you going to allow several hundred families to continue accumulating economic control and political influence? And what will the country look like as it becomes increasingly determined by the needs and beliefs of its richest 1%?

Nowhere is that dilemma more pronounced than in California County. Teton, Wyoming, the area surrounding the Jackson Hole Valley. Long the wealthiest county per capita in the nation, Teton now is home to the most drastic wealth gap in the US. With the help of the Freedom Caucus (a group of political supporters supported by ultra-wealthy donors), the wealthiest 1% have influenced many decisions on land use, education and tax policy. Life for those who are not rich has become unsustainable there.

Below are exposed five conclusions from a New York Times analysis about the emerging plutocracy of the United States and its impact in places like Jackson, Wyoming.

The analysis shows the astonishing speed with which the fortunes of the 1% have increased in recent years. The wealthiest Americans saw increase your net worth by 120% between 2017 and 2025, a colossal escalation from the 45% growth they had enjoyed during the previous equivalent period.

As a result, the number of American billionaires jumped 50% between 2017 and 2025, until reaching more than 900 people, according to some estimates.

Furthermore, the wealthiest 0.1% of households—the richest of the rich—saw their fortunes grow at a faster rate than the rest, in part because Wealthy people benefit the most when stock markets rise.

He 1% top of American households, which has a minimum private net worth of 11.1 million dollars, collectively owns around $25.6 trillion in stocks and investment funds, the same amount as the remaining 99% of the country, according to the Federal Reserve.

More than half of those $25.6 billion in stocks that owns 1% is in the hands of the 0.1% richer.

Although the wealth gap has been widening steadily for 40 years, President Trump’s 2017 tax cuts boosted the trend, according to a Times analysis and a series of new studies.

The tax law allowed private jet buyers to deduct the cost of the planes — apparently purchased for business purposes — and between 2017 and 2025 Global jet transactions grew by 42% based on data from the Global Jet Capital corporation. The law also doubled the amount of money each family unit You can transfer it to your heirs tax free.

The provision that reduced the corporate tax rate from 35% to 21% had its greatest impact on the ultra-rich. As they became more profitable, companies used the additional profits to repurchase own shares. The stock market soared, favoring the executive class, who receive a large part of their compensation in shares of their respective companies. Judging by an analysis by the Brookings Institution, few firms significantly reinvested in businesses and employees, and the wage increases that workers received were rarely high enough to offset the rise in food and housing prices.

The coronavirus pandemic increased the effects of the tax cuts. Technology prices soared as employees moved to work from home and technological advances helped create about half of all billionaires’ wealth. Around two-thirds of the new tycoons that have emerged since the beginning of 2020 also made their fortune in the technology sector.

Elon Musk led the group with wealth that far exceeded half a trillion dollars, starting from 25 billion at the beginning of 2020, an increase of 2100%. The net worth of Jeff Bezos climbed a 165 %, the one of Mark Zuckerberg was multiplied by more than four y Larry Ellisonthe billionaire co-founder of Oracle, saw his fortune rise by 275 %.

The pandemic made evident the socioeconomic imbalances that emerged during Trump’s first term. Most of the country hunkered down at home, weathering a sharp recession in early 2020 and then facing exorbitant inflation that swallowed most of the salary increases that the companies had provided to their workers.

But rich Americans They took advantage of the situation to buy stocks, real estate and other assets basically on offer. Investment bank UBS found that the roughly 2,000 billionaires in the world at the time increased their wealth by more than $2 trillion, a 28% increase between April and July 2020. And their spending, especially in real estate and construction, contributed to rising housing and construction costs for everyone.

This confluence of events was deeply felt in County Tetonwhere the rich saw their fortunes grow during the first Trump administration. During the pandemic, even more elite families joined the area, sending real estate (and everything else) prices skyrocketing. The average price of a single-family home exceeded $7 million.

By 2024 the per capita income of Teton County reached the US$532.903the highest number in the nation at the county level; In second place, by far, with around US$280,000 was Summit County in the state of Utah. The steep incomes were mainly due to the wealthiest 1% of residents, who have an annual income estimated by a Times analysis of tax data to be about US$35 million. This equals 221 times the average annual income of the county’s poorest 99%.

Today some people no longer recognize their populations. Andrew Munz, who grew up in Jackson Hole, says it’s as if the region went into a deep sleep during the pandemic and woke up to find that the new rich had taken control of it.

The conservative Freedom Caucus swept to power in the State Legislature in late 2024, thanks in part to wealthy donors like former Wyoming-based commodities trader Dan Brophy. Shortly after the general elections of that year, legislators approved a substantial reduction in property taxes, one of the state’s few sources of revenue from wealthy residents and a measure that many economists described as regressive. In November they discussed a bill that would completely repeal property taxes, another big benefit for the wealthy.

They also approved a universal school voucher program that would give Wyoming families $7,000 per year of tax funds to spend outside the public school system. The new law could divert funds from public schools to the type of private schools and charter schools that typically favor wealthy families. The Wyoming Supreme Court is considering whether the law takes effect.

Local residents say there were many nice things about living among the 1%, even as inequality grew. Teton had better medical care than the rest of the state. Public schools gave better academic results. But the latest multi-billion dollar boom, added to a tax regime that favors the wealthiest, It has eroded the quality of life.

Property tax reduction immediately affected funding for schools, police forces, road maintenance, parking lots and hospitals, according to Mike Yin, a Democratic state legislator who represents Teton. The county hospital has limited its consultations. The Health Department has reduced its staff. Last year, two sheriff’s deputies assigned to patrol did not have adequate vehicles.

And the shortage of affordable housing, a problem for decades, is now so serious that teachers, health care workers and even doctors They are driven out of the county by high prices.