What is an Upward Transfer of Wealth?

By Emily H. Pardee, PhD
Published: September 19, 2025
Last updated: September 18, 2025
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Wealth is commonly measured by net worth, or the value of our assets minus our liabilities. A recent survey found that Americans believe the definition of “wealthy” is having a net worth of $2.3 million (1). The Federal Reserve’s 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances benchmarked the top 10 percent of households’ minimum net worth at $1.9 million (2).

What is involved in the transfer of wealth between American households? Transfer of wealth refers to changes in the value of resources available to families resulting from changes in federal policy. If some households lose resources while others gain, we say that wealth has transferred in the direction of the gain.

For any bill proposed by the U. S. Congress, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) calculates the anticipated impact of the bill on the American people (3). In June 2025, the CBO spelled out specific impacts households would experience from the implementation of HR1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA).

The CBO’s analysis found that, for years 2026-2034, the poorest 10 percent of households would lose an average of $1,600 worth of resources per year. The decreases result primarily from the loss of access to the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program and Medicaid. These programs are known in California as CalFresh and Medi-Cal, respectively. Meanwhile, households in the top 10 percent would expect to see whopping annual gains of $13,600 primarily due to a reduction in federal income tax liability (4). So through the OBBBA, we see an upward transfer of wealth from the poorest to the wealthiest Americans.

How does this affect our local community? In 2023, the population of Tuolumne County was 54,873 residents (5) of whom 9,930 were enrolled in Medi-Cal (6) and 6,608 were receiving CalFresh (7). Thousands of these recipients could stand to lose these resources, placing an enormous burden on other resources and programs, many of which have experienced significantly reduced budgets or are already operating with community-based funding, i.e., Meals on Wheels, local nonprofit organizations.

Take Action

  1. If these aspects of the OBBBA concern you, it is important to tell your personal stories to our representatives in Washington, D.C.

NOTES

  1. Sydney Lake, “What it takes to be wealthy in America: $2.3 million, Charles Schwab says,” Fortune, July 10, 2025.
  2. Aditya Aladangady, Jesse Bricker, Andrew C. Chang, Sarena Goodman, Jacob Krimmel, Kevin B. Moore, Sarah Reber, Alice Henriques Volz, and Richard A. Windle, “Changes in U.S. Family Finances from 2019 to 2022: Evidence from the Survey of Consumer Finances. Washington,”  Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, October 2023.
  3. Phillip L. Swagel, “How CBO Supports the Congress in the Reconciliation Process,” cbo.gov, April 28, 2025.
  4. Phillip L. Swagel, “Distributional Effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” cbo.gov, June 12, 2025.
  5. “Profile of Tuolumne County,” US Census Bureau Profiles by County.
  6. “Medicaid Coverage in California Counties: 2023,” Center for Children and Families, Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, February 6, 2025.
  7. “Cal-Fresh Data Dashboard,” CA Department of Social Services, August 13, 2025.