A study confirms what you probably suspected: billionaires pay less in taxes than you
Trump’s bill slashes taxes for the rich, cuts aid for millions, and deepens inequality—while polling shows weak public support, even among his base.
President Trump has recently argued that Republicans need to better market the One Big Beautiful Bill, passed along party lines earlier this summer, as both internal and external polling suggest the public does not support the sweeping legislative package.
While the bill eliminates taxes on Social Security for some beneficiaries and temporarily removes taxes on tips, the Congressional Budget Office projects that it could result in at least 34 million people losing access to Medicaid by 2034, with millions more expected to lose access to SNAP benefits. At the same time, the bill makes permanent tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans—prompting six Nobel Prize-winning economists to call it the largest wealth transfer in American history.
Recent polling from Pew Research found that only 11 percent of voters strongly approved of the legislation, suggesting that even among Trump’s base, the law is not popular. The White House’s offensive posture in trying to boost public support indicates that its internal numbers may reflect similar sentiments to the publicly available polling data, such as that published by Pew.
The superrich were already paying a lower effective tax rate than the average worker
A new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research reveals that even before the law took effect, the 400 richest Americans were paying a lower effective tax rate than the average worker. Between 2018 and 2020, the effective tax rate for this group—representing the top 0.0002%—was 23.8%. When isolating the top 100 wealthiest earners, the rate dropped further to 22%.
Meanwhile, the average tax rate paid by the general population during the same period was 30%, and 45% for workers whose primary income comes from labor.
The paper’s findings suggest that while the U.S. tax system includes progressive elements—where higher incomes are taxed at higher rates—it fails to adequately tax income derived from wealth, such as capital gains. As a result, those who earn their income through labor end up paying a significantly larger share of their earnings in taxes than those whose wealth generates passive income. This imbalance underscores how the current system places a heavier burden on working Americans than on the ultra-wealthy.
The state of income inequality in the United States in 2025
In the first quarter of 2025, the top 0.1 percent of households—about 132,000 families—owned 13.8 percent of the nation’s total wealth. In dollar terms, that amounts to roughly $22.1 trillion. If divided evenly, each household in this group would hold approximately $166 million.
Meanwhile, during the same period, the bottom 50 percent of households—around 66 million families—owned just 2.5 percent of the wealth, or about $4 trillion. Split evenly, that comes out to roughly $60,606 per family.
This is the current state of income inequality in the United States. While the bottom half of the population struggles for a foothold in the economy, the wealthiest families possess more money than they could spend in a lifetime.
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