OPINION:
I am proud to say that my wife and I now have more than $1 million in assets.
Almost every reader who is a baby boomer or from Generation X would have an extra $1 million of savings in the bank if, 30 years ago, the 12.4% of every paycheck he or she earned was put into a 401(k) plan rather than the black hole of Social Security.
Still, being a millionaire is not what it once was.
That is because we are rapidly becoming a nation of millionaires. UBS estimates that roughly 1 in 5 American households (about 23.8 million) are millionaires today. If current trends continue and the massive rise in stock values continues, more than 1 in 4 households will have $1 million or more in savings and assets.
By the way, America would have closer to 50 million millionaire households if it were not for the Social Security tax. If every baby boomer and Generation X worker reading this column had been permitted to put that 12.4% of their paychecks into a 401(k) plan invested in the S&P 500 for 30 years, each would likely have $1 million in savings.
It is true that $1 million is not what it once was, thanks to inflation, but 25 million millionaires are still an astounding level of affluence, historically speaking.
Today, America has roughly as many millionaires as the rest of the world combined, even though we are only about 5% of the world’s population.
Some of my liberal friends see the enormous growth of millionaires and billionaires and yelp, “Wealth inequality!” and “Tax the rich!” Yet other studies show that even if we exclude people at the top of the income scale, the average family today has a living standard that is roughly 40% higher than that of Europeans.
So much for socialism lifting the middle class.
Every society has an underclass. As the Bible teaches us, the poor will always be with us. In America, however, we have a rising tide that lifts almost all boats. The rich create more rich people with their businesses, spending and hiring.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX alone has created more than 4,400 millionaires.
The median household income in the United States today is roughly $84,000. That is not $1 million, but in nearly every other nation in the world, $84,000 is considered rich.
When immigrants come to the U.S., the No. 1 answer to the question “Why did you come here?” is “Opportunity.”
After 45 years of working, I am now a millionaire. I do not even feel rich, and like most other millionaires, I do not live a lavish lifestyle. I am not luxuriating on a beach in Bermuda, tossing down margaritas — though that sounds nice.
I am the millionaire next door.
You would be surprised how many of us there are. That is thanks to free market capitalism, not socialism.
Duh!
• Stephen Moore is a co-founder of Unleash Prosperity and a senior fellow at the America First Policy Institute.
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