Today's Poll Question: Is the Democratic Party's future democratic socialism?

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Get ready to vote on today's daily poll question at smerconish.com.

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But first, Michael explains it for you right here.

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Welcome to The Smerconish Podcast from SiriusXM.

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For Independent Minds.

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Hello, hello.

Michael Smerconish (0:14)

Hi, gang. Today is Tuesday. It's the 15th of September. I am really psyched that you're here. Really happy to be able to share with you something special for the very first time. I will do that in just a moment. Yesterday's poll result, 27,907.

Who really runs the American economy? Your choice is Big Tech, Big Banks and Big Oil altogether or the millionaires on Main Street. 67.65% said Big Tech, Banks and Big Oil. Why would you think otherwise? I would think otherwise because yesterday I had Eric Zwick on the program. Eric Zwick having just released a book co-written with Owen Zidar titled The Everywhere Millionaire. And as I said yesterday to Eric Zwick, I remember 30 years ago, 30 years ago being excited about a book called The Millionaire Next Door. And the premise of The Millionaire Next Door was that the people you might think have money in your neighborhood, the doctor, the lawyer, the owner of the accounting firm, well, maybe they do, but don't overlook the drywall contractor and the roofer and the trash hauler. These more unassuming types who work hard, have established family, closely held businesses, and over time make a lot of money. This new book, The Everywhere Millionaire, which I highly recommend, is the old book on steroids. And the reason is that authors Zidar and Zwick got access to IRS data. Actually, the Treasury Department came to them in 2014 and said, go tell us who's paying taxes. And that was the start of a ten-year odyssey, the result of which is this book. And it is an analysis and tribute to the people who have significant wealth. They say we're living in the age of millionaires in this country. They define rich households as those with at least five million in wealth, which means they're in the top 4% in household wealth. Nearly five million households clear the threshold, including over two million who have at least ten million, and around 65,000 who have at least a hundred million.

So in their book, they define Main Street millionaires as the rich owners of private businesses that as of the writing of the book had an average wealth around 25 million.

Now, here's this statistic. Don't let your eyes blur over. Don't let your eyes blur over. Yeah, I said it right. Collectively, these Main Street millionaires have more than 13 times the wealth of the Forbes 400 Really extraordinary. We tend to focus all of our attention on the coasts when in the heartland and on Main Streets, every community across the country, there's somebody doing well, dare I say the old-fashioned way, meaning not through putting deals together in private equity and not through big tech, but just by providing goods and services. I really, really like the book. I'll tell you one final thing, a little amuse-bouche. Boy, you're getting a lot of bonuses here today, but here's another one. After Eric Zwick left me yesterday, I said on air, you know, I forgot to ask him something.

He was listening. So he sent me an email last night and he said, Hey, what did you forget to ask me? Well, they make a big deal in the book about pass-through businesses and how the tax code was changed in 1986 on Ronald Reagan's watch to allow pass-throughs, these sole proprietorships, these partnerships, these LLCs, these S corporations.

Largely, the tax code allows pass-throughs not to pay corporate or dividend taxes. Instead, their profits and losses pass-through to their owners' individual income taxes. And they say that has driven business owners to adopt that structure. So here's the note that I sent him last night. I said, I never got into pass-throughs. And my next question would have been whether in this age of millionaires, it would have come about without the 86 tax code changes. But if you say no, are you saying that these millionaires took note of the changes and acted as a result or that they organically recognized they were making more money and took chances they otherwise would not have? His reply, great question. My read is there were a lot of market and regulatory forces driving the growth of their businesses. These forces coincided with the tax change but weren't caused by it. The people we talked to in the book were so obsessed with starting and growing these businesses that they would have done the same thing even with higher taxes lurking in the future. There's more to it but that's the gist of it. All right, my exciting announcement surrounds today's poll question. Today's poll question at smerconish.com is the Democratic Party's future democratic socialism. Michael, why are you asking and haven't you asked similar questions in the past? I have and I shall explain.