The Myth-Busting Economist by Larry Malone

The Miracles of Distribution

Last time we tossed around some myths about wealth and money and got reacquainted with local legend George Hamway. We discovered that having a ton of cash does not necessarily mean that you are wealthy. If you have lots of money, but spend none of it, you are essentially poor. And if you are poor, due to a lack money, the reason you aren’t as wealthy as others is because you don’t own what they own.

We also began to consider if Americans are still the wealthiest residents of the planet. That proved to be a challenging question because our information about the incomes people earn is rather limited.

We could answer that question if we had the hard drives that are now in the possession of Elon Musk after he hacked the U.S. Treasury Department computer system. Musk also has the past tax returns that you and I submitted to the IRS. That should shake you to the core, regardless of how you voted in the last presidential election.