How this was measured
Everything on this site is arithmetic on published figures. This page exists so you can check our work, including the parts that make our case weaker.
The scale
One CSS pixel represents $1,000,000, and that never changes anywhere on the site. A CSS pixel is defined as 1/96 inch, so 1,152 pixels is one foot of real scrolling. The descent is 869,000 pixels, which comes to 754 feet, or 230 meters.
- Median household net worth $192,900 = 0.19 pixels. It is not drawn because it cannot be.
- $249,000,000,000 of gain over 242 days works out to about $11,909 per second. A year of median household income is about 7.0 seconds at that rate. A year of full-time federal minimum wage is about 1.3 seconds.
What "net worth" is, and is not
Net worth is assets minus debts. For the people at the very top it is overwhelmingly unrealized equity in companies they founded. It is not cash, and it is not sitting in an account. When this site says a fortune "could pay for" something, that is a statement about scale, not a liquidation plan: selling shares at that volume would move the price, and the proceeds would be smaller than the sticker figure.
That objection is correct, and it does not change the comparison. The distance between an ordinary household and the top is so large that the mechanics of turning shares into cash are a rounding error next to the gap itself.
Why the headline number moves
Wealth trackers disagree about this figure, because xAI and the other private holdings have no public share price, only funding-round valuations. This figure crossed $1 trillion when SpaceX listed on 2026-06-12 and fell back below it as the stock corrected.
The site currently uses $869,000,000,000 from Bloomberg Billionaires Index, as of August 30, 2026. It is an estimate, and we say so on every card.
The distribution figures
Total US household net worth is $183.0 trillion (FRED TNWBSHNO, Q1 2026). Shares come from the Federal Reserve's Distributional Financial Accounts:
- Bottom 50%: 2.5%, which is $4.6 trillion, or 0.8 miles (WFRBSB50215)
- Top 1%: 31.6%, which is $57.8 trillion, or 9.5 miles, or 67 times the descent (WFRBST01134)
- Bottom 90%: 32.1%, which is $58.7 trillion, or 9.7 miles. The DFA publishes this as two groups, so it is the bottom 50% above plus the 50th-to-90th group at 29.6% (WFRBSN40188)
- All US household wealth: 30 miles
The stopped page also splits two of those figures per household: 44 pixels each inside the top 1%, against 0.5 pixels each inside the bottom 90%. That needs a household count, which the DFA fixes without a separate source: the bottom 50% is half of all US households by definition, so the 66 million households in that bucket put the total at 132 million, and the two groups at 1.32 million and 119 million. Both splits are even shares within a group, which flatters the top: wealth inside the top 1% is itself concentrated, so a typical household there gets less than 44 pixels and the few at the top of it get far more.
Two caveats that cut against us. First, the DFA is survey-anchored and is generally understood to undercount wealth at the very top, so the top 1% figure here is conservative. The real concentration is probably greater, not smaller. Second, aggregate net worth includes home equity and retirement accounts, so "the bottom 50% holds 2.5%" is not the same claim as "the bottom 50% has nothing." Many of those households own a home and a pension. The claim is about share, not destitution.
Medical debt, and definitions that move
Estimates of total US medical debt range from about $220 billion in formal balances to roughly $500 billion once bills absorbed into credit cards, payment plans, and family loans are counted. The site uses the lower, narrower figure throughout.
Derived markers
Most of the descent is empty, because at this scale most of it genuinely is. Where a long stretch has no sourced marker, the site shows arithmetic on figures it already cites: how many typical households, how many years of a median income, or how many years of minimum wage the passed amount equals. These invent no new claims and carry no separate citation, which is why they are generated at build time instead of filed alongside the sourced markers below.
The strongest arguments against this site
- The money is not liquid. True. As above, this is a scale comparison, not a budget proposal.
- Wealth is not a fixed pie. Also true: value created by a company is not taken from someone else's pile. The site does not claim otherwise. It claims that the resulting distribution is worth being able to picture.
- Net worth ignores lifecycle. A 28-year-old with a mortgage and a 68-year-old with a paid-off house sit in different parts of the same distribution. That is a real limitation of any snapshot, and it does not begin to account for a factor of 67.
- Billionaire estimates are soft. Yes. That is why the anchor is a tutorial for the scale and the argument in Act 3 rests on Federal Reserve aggregates instead.
Source list
Every claim rendered anywhere on the site, generated from the same files the site reads. 30 markers, all with a live link, an archive snapshot, and a verification date. Figures file last verified August 30, 2026.
| Amount | Claim | Source | Tier | Verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $15,080 | $15,080: a year of full-time work at the federal minimum wage. | US Department of Labor, federal minimum wage, archived | primary | Aug 18, 2026 |
| $192,900 | Everything a typical American family owns. | Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $1.1 million | $1,063,700: the average household. The median is $192,900. | Federal Reserve, Survey of Consumer Finances 2022, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $2.8 million | Every paycheck of a whole working life. | US Census Bureau, Income in the United States: 2024, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $11.1 million | Here the bottom 99% ends and the top 1% begins. | Federal Reserve Distributional Financial Accounts, FRED WFRBL99T999309, archived | primary | Aug 15, 2026 |
| $2.0 billion | $2.04 billion: the largest lottery jackpot ever won. | Multi-State Lottery Association, Powerball results, archived | secondary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $2.2 billion | $2.2 billion: one launch of NASA's Space Launch System. | NASA Office of Inspector General, IG-22-003, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $7.2 billion | A year of the National Cancer Institute. | National Cancer Institute, Budget and Appropriations, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $9.1 billion | $9.1 billion: a year of the Environmental Protection Agency. | US EPA, Budget and Performance, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $9.2 billion | $9.2 billion: a year of the Centers for Disease Control. | CDC, Budget Request Overview, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $12.3 billion | $12.3 billion: Head Start, for 750,000 children. | US Dept of Health and Human Services, Office of Head Start, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $20 billion | The estimated cost of housing every homeless person in America. | HUD, Annual Homeless Assessment Report 2025, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $25.4 billion | $25.4 billion: a year of NASA. All of it. | NASA, Budget Requests, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $28 billion | $28 billion: school breakfast and lunch for 30 million kids. | USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Child Nutrition Programs, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $31 billion | $31 billion: Pell Grants for 7 million students. | US Dept of Education, Federal Student Aid Data Center, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $47 billion | $47 billion: the National Institutes of Health, for a year. | National Institutes of Health, Budget, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $60 billion | $60 billion: a year of federal highway funding, all 50 states. | US Dept of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $73 billion | Every housing program the federal government runs, for a year. | Office of Management and Budget, Budget of the US Government (HUD chapter), archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $105 billion | The year America cut child poverty nearly in half, and then stopped. | US Census Bureau, Supplemental Poverty Measure, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $112 billion | A year of food assistance for 41 million people. | USDA Food and Nutrition Service, SNAP data tables, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $130 billion | $130 billion: medical care for every US veteran, for a year. | US Dept of Veterans Affairs, Budget Submission, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $220 billion | You just passed all the medical debt in America. | Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $249 billion | How much Elon Musk's net worth grew this year. | Bloomberg Billionaires Index, archived | secondary | Aug 30, 2026 |
| $297 billion | Larry Page, the second richest person in America. | Bloomberg Billionaires Index, archived | secondary | Aug 30, 2026 |
| $369 billion | $369 billion: the whole Department of Veterans Affairs. | US Dept of Veterans Affairs, Budget Submission, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $434.5 billion | Halfway. $434.5 billion behind you, the same again below. | Bloomberg Billionaires Index, archived | secondary | Aug 30, 2026 |
| $505 billion | Everything Americans paid out of their own pockets for health care. | CMS, National Health Expenditure Data, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $616 billion | The federal half of Medicaid, which covers 72 million people. | MACPAC, MACStats: Medicaid and CHIP Data Book, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $800 billion | Half of America's student debt, and you are nearly at the bottom. | Federal Reserve, G.19 Consumer Credit, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
| $841.4 billion | The entire US defense budget. One year, one fortune, same height. | US Dept of Defense, Budget Materials, archived | primary | Aug 12, 2026 |
Caveats on individual markers
- $15,080: a year of full-time work at the federal minimum wage.The yearly figure is 52 weeks of 40 hours at $7.25, the same minimumWageYearUsd figure in figures.json that the derived markers divide by. The rate and its July 2009 effective date could not be re-checked from the build environment, which cannot reach dol.gov. Confirm against the linked page, ideally the history table at /minimum-wage/history, before launch.
- $1,063,700: the average household. The median is $192,900.Mean and median are paired deliberately: the gap between them is what concentration looks like inside a single statistic.
- Every paycheck of a whole working life.Derived: median household income multiplied by a 45-year career, not adjusted for wage growth or career arc. An order-of-magnitude figure, not a projection.
- Here the bottom 99% ends and the top 1% begins.The DFA's latest published cutoff is 2022 Q3, while the wealth shares used in Act 3 are 2026 Q1. Asset prices have risen since, so the real entry price to the top 1% is higher than the figure shown. This marker sits slightly too high on the scroll, not too low, which understates the gap rather than inflating it.
- $2.04 billion: the largest lottery jackpot ever won.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- A year of the National Cancer Institute.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $9.1 billion: a year of the Environmental Protection Agency.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $9.2 billion: a year of the Centers for Disease Control.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $12.3 billion: Head Start, for 750,000 children.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- The estimated cost of housing every homeless person in America.The point-in-time count is HUD's own; the $20B annual cost estimate is a widely cited order-of-magnitude figure and the weakest link in this marker. Re-verify or cut before launch.
- $25.4 billion: a year of NASA. All of it.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $28 billion: school breakfast and lunch for 30 million kids.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $31 billion: Pell Grants for 7 million students.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $47 billion: the National Institutes of Health, for a year.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $60 billion: a year of federal highway funding, all 50 states.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- Every housing program the federal government runs, for a year.Cited to the OMB budget landing page because HUD's own budget URLs have moved twice in a year. Pin the exact congressional justification PDF before launch. The cost-burdened renter share is the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies figure the site also uses at the close of Act 3.
- The year America cut child poverty nearly in half, and then stopped.The cost figure is a CBO/JCT-scale estimate for the 2021 expansion; the poverty movement is the Census SPM's own. Re-verify both before launch.
- A year of food assistance for 41 million people.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- $130 billion: medical care for every US veteran, for a year.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- You just passed all the medical debt in America.Estimates range from about $220 billion in formal balances to roughly $500 billion once bills absorbed into credit cards and family loans are counted. The site uses the lower, narrower figure deliberately.
- How much Elon Musk's net worth grew this year.Wealth trackers are estimates, not accounts. Bloomberg and Forbes differ on Elon Musk because xAI and the other private holdings are valued from funding rounds rather than a share price.
- Larry Page, the second richest person in America.Confirmed against the Bloomberg Billionaires Index on 2026-08-30, ranked second at $297 billion. Re-verify in the same pass as the anchor, because the two figures are compared directly. Other trackers range as high as $334 billion. The comparison holds across that whole range for a person with negligible net worth, because it needs only that this fortune sit below half the anchor, which is the halfway marker on this scroll.
- $369 billion: the whole Department of Veterans Affairs.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- Halfway. $434.5 billion behind you, the same again below.Purely derived: half the anchor net worth, recomputed whenever the anchor figure changes.
- Everything Americans paid out of their own pockets for health care.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- The federal half of Medicaid, which covers 72 million people.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
- The entire US defense budget. One year, one fortune, same height.Seed value from the project's 2026-08-12 research pass. Re-verify against the linked source and update verifiedOn before launch.
Corrections
If a figure here is wrong, tell us. Every number lives in one data file or one collection entry, and the whole site recomputes from it. Send the correction with a primary source and it takes one line to fix.