While it may not be apparent, given the pandemic's economic strain, recent data shows that the net worth for U.S. households  at the end of 2020 was the highest on record, according to the Wall Street Journal. The total is $130.2 trillion, an increase of 5.6 percent from the third quarter, and 10 percent higher than it was at the end of 2019. The reason, apparently, is stock market gains and rising home values.

The Journal noted that the data, which came from the Federal Reserve, represents only an aggregate figure, and does not go into detail about distribution of that income; considering that the most recent jobs report showed 712,000 additional unemployment claims last week alone, and that this grim figure nonetheless represents an improvement over what was being reported before, one might reasonably presume that much of this growth has happened more toward the upper portion of the economy.