The wealthiest place in America today is
a long way from New York or San
Francisco.
It's much more famous for its mountains,
its bison,
and its cowboys than it is for its
billionaires. The residents would prefer
to keep it that way, but they would also
tell you that things are changing here
fast.
Me personally, my home has doubled in
value in the last 3 years. So, my
balance sheet is looking good, but my
income certainly hasn't doubled in the
last 3 years.
Jonathan Shear runs a think tank and
sits on the town council in Jackson,
Wyoming, not far from the hotel that
hosts Fed Chair Jay Powell and central
bankers from around the world every
summer.
If you go back and look at Jackson Hole,
historically, we are a high isolated
mountain valley in the northwest corner
of Wyoming, it's been very hard to get
here and very hard to get out of once
you're here.
The result, an economic transformation
over two centuries from trapping to
ranching to tourism as the community's
isolation and rugged landscape
eventually became a selling point for
visitors.
All right. All right. That's what I like
to hear.
people would come to visit the national
parks. All of Grand Teton National Park
and the southern half of Yellowstone are
within our county. And then in the early
1960s, the Jackson Hole Ski Area got
started. And that got started actually
with a federal government loan that was
intended for the most impoverished areas
in America because we didn't have
anything but a summer economy.
The geographic isolation still really
affects who we are, our ecosystem, our
community, our sense of who we are, but
it has much less effect on our economy.
So now we have people from around the
world who come and live here part-time,
full-time. Uh they work from anywhere.
So we've really become a hub of remote
work.
For decades, it was New York County,
which is primarily the island of
Manhattan, that led the country in
wealth accumulation. But in the early
2000s, Teton County jumped into the
lead. That trend has rapidly accelerated
in recent years, and New York has
tumbled into fourth place since the
pandemic. Today, the average per capita
income in Teton County is about a half
million dollars a year. We're the
wealthiest county in the wealthiest
country in the history of the world. We
also sit at the heart of the greatest
intact ecosystem in the lower 48.
And if you think about things through
the eyes of sustainability where you
have ecological capital, financial
capital, and human capital, I don't
think there's any place in the world
that can compare to here. Jonathan and
others say it is no coincidence that a
singular ecosystem and a singular
economy go hand in hand. About 97% of
the land in Teton County is publicly
owned, dedicated to parks and forests.
And among those who can afford to live
anywhere on the planet, there seems to
be a belief that something is special
about this territory. But then again,
there are plenty of other spectacular
places in America. So natural beauty is
just one piece of the puzzle here.
Another is the tax system.
Phrase is we are an onshore offshore tax
haven. And so we are hands down the most
wealth friendly and income friendly and
wealth preservation friendly state in
the union. No, no other state comes
close.
Low property tax, low sales tax, and
zero income tax in Wyoming are strong
incentives. But then again, every other
county in the state benefits from the
same friendly tax regime, and their
annual incomes are much closer to the
national average. Teton County leaves
the others in the dust.
So, what's the secret ingredient? If
it's not just the land or the taxes,
maybe it's something else altogether.
When in doubt, ask the locals.
It was a small town. Everybody knew
everybody here in this town at one time.
It was extremely western. Philip Wilson
is the great grandson of Sylvester
Wilson, who was the first settler to
bring his family to the valley in the
late 1800s. The town 5 miles west of
Jackson still bears his surname. Today,
Philip and his family run the Jackson
Hole Rodeo, and he says a lot has
changed here, even within his lifetime.
When I was younger, basically everybody
had cattle ranches, few dude ranches
around, but not a lot of them. And then
the hotels started coming and then uh
tourists started coming in. Everybody
that comes to Jackson Hole immediately
falls in love with it, wants a piece of
it. We want to have them feel part of
Jackson Hole when they're here. We want
them to feel that the the atmosphere.
That's why at here at the rodeo, I even
go out in the parking and welcome people
that come in. I turn around and shake
their hand when they leave. For Philip
Wilson, his family, and so many of the
other residents, the cowboy culture is
not just for show. They were born into
it. But he also says it's no wonder that
culture appeals to outsiders and
newcomers. That's what draws people to
Jackson Hole. The people that are here
are friendly type people. They're uh
they're outgoing. They're friendly.
That's the only way they know how to be
cuz that's the way they they run their
lives.
It's a very very popular. I think it's
made it into a lot of the must visit
when you come to Jackson Hole type of
places.
Among those drawn here by the land and
the culture is Kate Moore.
Low taxes aren't a motivation for her.
She still files in New York where her
work is based. As chief investment
officer for City Private Bank, she's
joined a growing group of people making
the move from Wall Street to the west.
I bought my house a little over seven
years ago. So, precoid, which was
excellent timing given the real estate
prices, but I've been coming out here
for 30 years. My first trip was when I
was in high school, actually.
Now, your job is essentially on Park
Avenue, but you're splitting your time
here.
Yeah, I split my time and I split my
time in my previous role as well, but I
think, you know, I'm someone who manages
a global team. We're not all in the same
location at all times anyway. And you
know, if I'm working the appropriate
hours, in this case, East Coast market
hours, I'm up at 4:00, which is can be a
little bit tough. I think a lot of the
finance people in town do the same
thing. Moore says there's also a deep
appreciation for the region's history
here. She herself lives in a renovated
cabin that was built in 1929. But
whether the homes are new or old, one
look at real estate prices will give you
an idea of just how high the peaks of
wealth in Teton County can go. Our
supply is limited here, but demand seems
to go up every year.
Brandon Spackman is a local real estate
agent and he currently has the listing
for the most expensive property in the
area. That's where we met up with him
for a tour.
It seems like you have almost an
unlimited supply of buyers.
We do. It's a big investment and a lot
of it's just p timing in their lives and
what they want to do. When he says big
investment, he means it. The Riverhouse
sits on a 36 acre property in Wilson,
Wyoming, the town founded by Philip
Wilson's great-grandfather. It's about
10 miles from downtown Jackson, and is
currently listed at $60 million.
Obviously, you have a room like this,
you walk into the room and it helps sell
the house. You want to live in a place
like this. Now, how many houses are in
this price range? over 20 million. A lot
of properties are in the 20 to 30 range.
Properties like Riverhouse form the
higher end of the range in a place where
private land is hard to come by. But as
the ultra premium market goes up, so
does the rest of it. Some people here
say the billionaires are pushing out the
millionaires, not to mention those in
lower income brackets who sometimes
commute from across the border in Idaho.
And Jonathan Shear thinks the wealth
divide could become a bigger problem
under the latest federal legislation.
You're number one in per capita income,
but also number one in income disparity.
Yes. Yes. We have roughly 90% of our
income, a little north of that is earned
by the highest earners. So maybe 15% of
our community earns roughly 90% of our
income, leaving about 10% of our income
for the other 85%. The big beautiful
bill disproportionately benefits the
wealthy. A lot of these cuts that are
going to occur, a lot of cuts in social
services programs and other programs are
going to disproportionately harm those
of lower income. And when you have the
greatest income inequality, the greatest
income disparity of any county in
America, then I'm concerned about my
constituents, my friends, my colleagues,
my neighbors.
Philip Wilson's rodeo employs locals,
and the lack of affordable housing means
he has to run a leaner business.
We'd like to have 80 employees here. We
We're not up to where we need to be, but
we make do.
There's not enough people here in the
valley that live here to work here cuz
most of them live outside of here. So
when you come to the rodeo, we're in the
evening. You know, they're either 100
miles away or 60 mi away down in Star
Valley.
Despite the challenges facing Jackson
Hole, its workers and its residents say
the sense of community remains strong
here. And that's what Philip Wilson
hopes to preserve, bringing the ultra
wealthy along for the ride. If you're
going to come to the rodeo, we want you
to have a good time cuz we're going to
have a good time. So when you come here,
we try to show them the friendly type of
atmosphere. That's why we do so much
handshaking here at this rodeo.
And it's there's a cowboy western
culture in
Oh, there is. There is here. You know,
the cowboy culture is I'll tell you one
thing that a cowboy does is every time
he sees you, he shakes your hand. If he
sees you tomorrow, he shakes your hand.
If he sees you tomorrow afternoon, he
shakes your hands.
I mean, it is the most amazing community
ever. I can tell you, I have incredibly
close friends that are fishing guides
and that are self-made billionaires. And
frankly, some of those people, I didn't
even know they were really wealthy
because everyone drives the same like
F-150 and wears the same kind of jeans
around town. It is a place where there
is an enormous amount of wealth, but
showing that wealth is not part of
normal behavior.
Jonathan Shear says he hopes the
community spirit and a respect for the
land will be constant even in the face
of economic change. But he also says
they need to be protected and are no
longer as certain as they once were. You
just needed to have that potluck kind of
church social mentality because there
were too few of us and we had to rely on
each other in a very harsh and extreme
place. And so we can't take a lot of
these things for granted. We can't take
for granted transmitting our cultural
values from one generation to another.
We can't take for granted transmitting a
healthy ecosystem from one generation to
another. If we lose that, then we've
lost something really special.
Bradley, we got a good start to good
camp.
These worries seem far away on a Friday
night at the rodeo. A view from the
stands shows that although much has
changed here, much abides.
The story of Jackson Hole is one of
American ideals. The wealthy and the
ultra wealthy of today may see what the
Wilsons saw when they arrived in Teton
County over a hundred years ago. An
American frontier that can share the
bounty of the land with its people. But
more than ever before, those who live
here will have to reconcile the values
of capitalism with a culture born of
cowboys and unforgiving landscapes. A
culture which may be their greatest
asset of all.