Opinion | The Rich Are Not Who We Think They Are. And Happiness Is Not What We Think It Is, Either.

A groundbreaking 2019 study by four economists, "Capitalists in the Twenty-First Century," analyzed de-identified data of the complete universe of American taxpayers to determine who dominated the top 0.1 percent of earners.

The study didn't tell us about the small number of well-known tech and shopping billionaires but instead about the more than 140,000 Americans who earn more than $1.58 million per year. The researchers found that the typical rich American is, in their words, the owner of a "regional business," such as an "auto dealer" or a "beverage distributor."

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Car dealers and electric vehicles: At a blowout party for unsung GOP heavyweights, the men were drunk—and anxious.

Data scientist and author Seth Stephens-Davidowitz found that over 20 percent of car dealerships in the U.S. have an owner banking more than $1.5 million per year.

And car dealers are not only one of the richest demographics in the United States. They're also one of the most organized political factions—a conservative imperium giving millions of dollars to politicians at local, state, and national levels. They lobby through NADA, the organization staging the weekend's festivities, and donate to Republicans at a rate of 6-to-1. Through those efforts, they've managed to write and rewrite laws to protect dealers and sponsor sympathetic politicians in all 50 states.

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In many ways, you can't understand U.S. conservatism without understanding the car dealer—that middlemensch of American capitalism, selling a product he doesn't make at a fat-enough markup to become fabulously rich and politically powerful. And dealers who have lodged themselves in the middle of Republican politics.