Policies for the 90% Driven by Data from the 10%

AI Observations

*Consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 49.2% of total spending in the second quarter 2025, reaching the highest level in data going back to 1989 (Bloomberg, Moody’s Analytics, September 2025). Economic indicators measure the prosperity of the few while averaging out the struggles of the many. The math works perfectly. The reality doesn’t.*

The Distraction: Another Economic Victory Lap

“Consumer Spending Surges 4.5%!” – Bloomberg, September 2025
“Strong Demand Shows Economic Resilience” – Wall Street Journal

Turn on the financial news and America’s economy is thriving. Consumer confidence is up. Retail strength continues. The Federal Reserve points to “robust spending” when justifying policy decisions.

But here’s the math behind the mirage: The wealthiest 10% of households now drive 49.2% of all consumer spending—the highest share since records began in 1989 (Bloomberg, Moody’s Analytics, September 2025).

This means: The top 10% could increase their spending by 12% (luxury dinners and weekend getaways, etc.), while the bottom 90% cuts back 3% overall (groceries and healthcare, etc.)—and the headline would still read “Consumer Spending Surges 4.5%!”

When wealthy families increase their restaurant visits and luxury shopping while everyone else switches to store brands and delays medical care, the math creates fake prosperity signals that policymakers mistake for broad-based economic health.

The Reality: What the Surge Actually Measures

Your family’s decision to switch to generic cereal gets mathematically erased by someone else’s decision to upgrade from a $50,000 car to a $75,000 car.

In the last year, tech billionaire Gabe Newell took delivery of his $500 million superyacht *Leviathan*—complete with hospital-grade clinic, submarine garage, and luxury amenities. The same month, University of Maryland Medical Center closed its maternity ward due to funding shortfalls, and 5,000 annual patients and their spending on healthcare disappeared from an underserved community. One man’s floating hospital inflated “consumer spending” while actual healthcare demand vanished from the economic data.

Behind these fake prosperity signals lie the real costs: credit card debt hits $1.14 trillion as families borrow to afford basic necessities, medical bankruptcies reach 500,000-550,000 annually, 17% of Americans ration medications, and 47 million live in food-insecure households—yet all of this shows up in economic data as “healthy credit expansion” and gets averaged out of existence by luxury spending (New York Fed, Health Affairs, KFF, Feeding America, 2024-2025).

The Policy Disaster: Governing by Rich People’s Shopping Lists

Federal Reserve officials see “4.5% spending growth” and think the economy can handle higher interest rates. They’re measuring champagne purchases and setting mortgage rates for everyone else.

Congressional leaders read “strong consumer demand” and assume their economic policies are working. They’re looking at luxury shopping data while writing budgets that affect families choosing between rent and food.

Companies see “consumer confidence” and raise prices across the board. They’re tracking wealthy customers who can absorb any increase while pricing out everyone else.

This is how rich people’s restaurant receipts become your mortgage rate.

As Moody’s chief economist warned: “The economy never more dependent on that group”—meaning 330 million Americans’ economic fate now depends on whether a few hundred thousand wealthy households feel like spending (Fox Business, February 2025).

When the top 10% finally pull back—and they will—the entire economy falls through the stage where the middle class used to stand.

There are two Americas.

The rich live in one where spending surges, confidence soars, and the economy booms. The rest of us live in another where we cut back on groceries, ration medications, and work multiple jobs just to afford rent.

The problem is we’re all governed as if we live in their America.

Every policy decision that affects your life—interest rates, healthcare funding, social programs—is based on economic data that measures their reality, not yours. Your struggle to afford basic necessities disappears into statistical noise beneath their luxury purchases.

Two Americas. One set of data. Guess which America gets heard.