Below, Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick share five key insights from their new book, The Everywhere Millionaire: Who Is Really Rich in America and How They Got There .

Owen is a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Eric is a professor of finance and economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Together, they spent more than a decade analyzing anonymized tax data to map the true shape of American wealth.

What’s the Big Idea?

The richest Americans aren’t all tech founders, celebrities, or Wall Street titans. Millions have quietly built enormous fortunes by owning ordinary private businesses, from car dealerships to garage-door companies. These “Everywhere Millionaires” reveal a hidden engine of American wealth and upward mobility.

Listen to the audio version of this Book Bite—read by Owen—in the Next Big Idea App , or buy the book .

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