The Wealth Gap Summer

A wedding, an election and a tax bill that tell a story

From the canals of Venice, Italy to the voting booths of New York City to the halls of Congress, the dichotomy of haves and have nots this past week have been on full display. Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sánchez’s $50 million wedding. Zohran Mamdani’s populist-fueled New York City Mayoral upset. Members of Congress slowly, glumly, pushing through a massive tax bill (that includes so much more so much more) that seems to please few. 

All of it is driving a conversation around money in this country and, if we’re being honest, a deeper conversation around America’s values. And, it turns out, nobody’s happy. 

These aren’t just parallel stories — they’re deeply intertwined, the same story, even, told with different characters. It’s a story about dissatisfaction.  About chasing a dream that never fully comes true.  One that will continue to lead to a frustrating result.  

We’ve built a system that rewards excess and punishes need. We tell hungry families we can’t afford lunch for their kids, while our policies help billionaires try and fail to buy happiness. And the result leaves everyone upset. 

A big, lonely wedding

Leonardo DiCaprio hid his face to avoid photographers. 

Guests who seemed to barely know the couple showed up for the cameras. Internet rumors swirled about retired NFL legend Tom Brady chatting up actress Sidney Sweeny. But the bride’s own mother didn’t attend. 

The Bezos-Sánchez wedding seemed to have  a surreal vibe.

In Vogue, Sánchez claimed her dress was “the most demure” she had ever worn. One hundred eighty hand-stitched buttons, armies of staff, entire hotels rented to stage the perfect fairytale.

For all the money spent — enough to run a small city — the whole affair seemed pretty hollow.  Like watching someone try to purchase an inner peace that can only be found through genuine connection and reflection.

I was reflecting on this, the Bezos’ second wedding, after I hosted my parents last month to celebrate their anniversary. Forty-five years ago, my parents got married in a simple Catholic ceremony; after which, my grandparents served a meal that included canned potatoes to friends and family. They’ve been married longer than Jeff Bezos’s first marriage lasted, and it wasn’t celebrity friends that bound them together. 

Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, and Sánchez spent around $50 million on the fete, according to reports. It was star studded, to be sure, but also deeply strange. Lacking value while costing what to almost every American would be a fortune.

This is what America looks like now. We throw fortunes at a spectacle while starving substance. We’ll fund 180 buttons for a dress but freeze education funding. We’ll celebrate foam parties but cut food stamps. We mistake performance for purpose, then wonder why everyone’s miserable.

Eat the Rich in New York

Meanwhile, New Yorkers voted — and in doing so anointed a 33-year-old with almost no professional experience but a tight message built around haves and have nots to run as the Democratic nominee for Mayor.

Zohran Mamdani’s win in the Democratic Primary isn’t the largest political earthquake of my lifetime. He beat out a crowded field that included the has-been and very flawed candidate Andrew Cuomo.   

I still don’t understand why the establishment endorsed such a flawed candidate as Cuomo. One would think they would learn their lesson. But Mamdani’s victory is significant, fueled by his promise to working Americans to tax the rich, find savings for the poor and provide for free services for ordinary Americans.  It shows that when the pendulum swings, it will likely swing hard in the other direction. 

I was in New York for part of primary day and saw the energy of young voters.  Those looking for new ideas were excited by a brand new voice.  

In contrast to Bezos’ wedding, Mamdani’s victory was a breakthrough for those who have had enough with ostentatious wealth. Whether he delivers was almost besides the point to his voters. It was about making a statement against what’s happening right now. 

Robbing happiness from every side

While Bezos celebrated his nuptials, Senate Republicans were advancing a “big, beautiful” legislative mess that doesn’t seem to make anyone happier. 

The tax legislation that passed the Senate by just the tie-breaking vote of Vice President JD Vance cuts approximately $30 billion from SNAP (food stamps) over the next decade, while delivering tax breaks that predominantly benefit households earning over $400,000 annually. Republicans have already begun speaking against the very bill they voted for.

And there’s a clear reason why: For families currently receiving an average of $150 monthly in food assistance, these cuts will be meals missed.

Meanwhile, Bezos's wedding burned through the equivalent of a family’s monthly SNAP benefit every single second.  At the cost of $50 million, he spent about 0.02% of his estimated $240 billion net worth on that wedding. For a median American household worth $193,000, that's equivalent to spending $40 on their wedding.  

While the big beautiful bill will land Bezos hundreds of millions in tax breaks, potentially even billions of savings, the average American working overtime will see a marginal benefit temporarily on their tax rate, and likely cuts to their social safety net longterm. 

This isn't just about inequality. It's about values. A system that’s being further designed to funnel money upward that ends up robbing joy from everyone: isolating the rich in their hollow performances, perpetuating cycles of poverty and exhausting everyone else who watches this moral inversion unfold.

I wonder when we’ll learn.

For now, the wealth gap summer certainly gives a stark portrait of where we are, an inequality that seems to leave everyone disappointed.