Rich have it good, but there are ways you can succeed

Back in the 1950s, there was a television show called "The Millionaire" that ran for six seasons.

The premise was that a wealthy recluse named John Beresford Tipton would select a different person each week and give them a check for $1 million. They were not allowed to tell anyone where they got the money.

In a country where the average family income in 1955 was about $5,000 and the average home could be purchased for less than $12,000, a million was big bucks indeed.

Fortune magazine reports that in 1955, there were only about 30,000 American executives who made in excess of $50,000 a year, and they paid about 40 percent of that in taxes.

Numbers aren't easily available for every year, but in 1953 there were about 27,000 Americans worth at least $1 million.


Estimates vary, but by 1960 there were between four and 11 billionaires in America. Since there were 206 episodes of "The Millionaire," fictitious mogul Tipton must have been pretty close to one of them to give away that many millions.

In the '50s, the era of Ike, Buffalo Bob and Scrooge McDuck, the top tax rate was 91 percent. I thought that was terribly unfair. Why should someone who made $1 million only get to keep $90 thousand?

Of course, I was 6 years old. I didn't understand that the 91 percent was only on the last level of income, that they made plenty of money at lower rates before the 91 percent kicked in.

The idea was that rather than keep the money, people would invest it in their businesses and grow the economy. It all resulted in the most prosperous period in American history. And up into the mid '60s, we had the strongest middle class and the least disparity between the wealthy and the middle class in our history.

One man changed all that, at least if we ignore the people pulling his strings behind the scenes. Ronald Reagan essentially destroyed the system of progressive taxation, lowering the rate on the richest Americans from 70 percent to 28.

That was what changed everything for the megarich. When additional income was taxed at 70 percent, it made more sense to reinvest it instead of spending it. But at just 28 percent, keeping 72 cents on the dollar was hardly a difficult choice.

From Forbes magazine

So for more than 30 years, the richest people have been amassing even greater wealth while average folks just keep treading water. If there is one thing we should have learned, it's that a rising tide does not lift all boats.

As of February 2019 there are 540 billionaires, and to make the top 15, you have to be worth more than $35 billion.

There are reportedly 11 million families in the U.S. with total assets of at least $1 million.

Of course, a million dollars isn't what it once was. When my parents bought their home in 1962, they got four bedrooms and two and a half baths in suburban Washington, D.C., for $25,000.

That same house now is worth nearly $550,000.

Wealth creates wealth, and you're better off investing money than spending big bucks going out to dinner or taking a cruise.

After all, if one thing is certain, nobody is going around the country handing out checks for $1 million anymore.