We have a mythology about wealth creation in the United States: that it is something an individual does on his own. In fact, all of those on the Forbes 400 list owe their wealth partly to a taxpayer-financed inheritance of public services, such as research and education. Few would have the same experience in a society that lacks the property rights system and public investment structure that we have here. My great-grandfather, Oscar Mayer, came here from Bavaria and was able to apprentice to a butcher in Chicago. The fact that the government enforced health and safety regulations made it possible for people to trust the sausages he sold.
 I grew up in the affluent Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, but I assumed my family was merely upper middle class. I went to school with Kathy Iacocca, the daughter of Lee Iacocca, and Bill Taubman, the son of Sotheby’s Alfred Taubman. They came to school in chauffeur-driven cars, whereas my dad drove his own car.
I have a memory, though, of the Detroit riots happening when I was 7. I would look at the pictures in Life; that was my window onto the wider world. I would think, “There is something wrong here that has to do with the gap between those with money and everyone else.”
In my 20s, I worked with nonprofits focusing on affordable housing in Worcester, Mass. I once met with 15 working-class families who were trying to buy the apartment building where they lived. They were trying to figure out how to take on second jobs and sell their cars to raise $10,000 in 30 days to make the down payment. I realized I could just write a check and these people would not have to make these sacrifices.
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