Why Skiers Should Care About Wyoming's Wealth Inequality Gap

Last week, the New York Times published an article titled Welcome to Wyoming, the Frontier of America's New Gilded Age.

The article chronicles the subtext beneath Wyoming's great ski town, which has only become more prevalent over the last five years. Once a small town that attracted only the most die-hard mountain lovers, Jackson Hole has become a billionaire's tax haven disguised as a ski town.

TheTimes does a fantastic job breaking down the conundrum that so many mountain towns now face, exacerbated by the "...stunning velocity at which the fortunes of the 1 percent have increased since President Trump took office in 2017" (en quote, because there's truly no better way to say it).

As the Times reports, although it's hardly news at this point, Teton County has had the highest wealth inequality in the country for some time now. The Times' analysis of the county's tax data found that the top 1% of households have an estimated average annual income of $35M, which is 221 times that of the bottom 99%.

As of 2026, the median home price in Jackson is $7M.

Trump's 2017 tax reform law acted as a catalyst for widening this inequality gap, as tax breaks for the wealthiest combined with the economic roller coaster created by the COVID pandemic helped them profit from stocks and other assets acquired during recession periods. In Teton County, Wyoming specifically, the average per capita investment income almost doubled between 2017 and 2022, according to the Times.

When Trump returned to office in 2025, several billionaires who benefitted from his tax policies were notably in attendance at the inauguration events, or donated significant funding to his campaign.

Amongst them were Ameritrade founder and Teton County resident Joe Rickett's wife, Marlene Ricketts, and the Wyoming news website Cowboy State Daily owner, B. Wayne Hughes Jr. Both Ricketts and Hughes, and others who have been tied to the election, benefited from Wyoming's lack of income or real estate transfer taxes.

As the Times reports, the wealth inequality of the cluster of towns that make up Wyoming's Teton County is a complex, systemic, and historic matrix that isn't necessarily attributable to the current administration. However, the stickers you can find slapped on signs around the ski area that read "Jackson Hole Runs on Marjorie Taylor Green Energy," amongst other things, would indicate that Teton County has become a particularly convenient place for those who support and benefit from the current administration to claim residency.

In fact, the state of Wyoming only requires residency for six months out of the year to qualify for the state's tax breaks. The other six months of the year, the ultra-wealthy's homes in Wilson, butted up against the banks of the Snake River, often sit empty.

As skiers, we revere the Tetons as the ultimate playground. The 400+ inches of snow that fall annually on the range are highlighted by steep terrain, easy backcountry access, and a culture that puts the sport on a pedestal. Often, skiing is our escape to the mountains, to the quiet of a world where news headlines don't reach us, or don't matter for a few hours.

Young skiers with dreams will always flock to places like this, willing to work for little money and shack up with a host of roommates for wild costs in the promise of skiing powder every day.

In some ways, ski culture has created the perfect storm for towns like Jackson.

The Times references Yale professor Justin Farrell's book Billionaire Wilderness, which draws on firsthand experience and interviews to show that the ultra-wealthy class has created a sense of belonging for itself in rural towns by "blending in" with Wrangler jeans, work boots, and pickup trucks.

It's merely a convenience that this "blending" is all the easier in skiing, when wearing an $800 ski jacket doesn't necessarily distinguish a retail employee from the tech billionaire who bought their entire kit new at retail pricing.

Skiing at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, where a full season pass now costs upwards of $2,000, doesn't distinguish the wealthy from the local, full-time residents earning passes by working at the resort, while being pushed into neighboring towns of Alpine, Wyoming and Victor, Idaho, due to the housing shortages contributed to by the former.

The result, as this inequality grows and local housing is more expensive and harder to come by, is not just that the local workforce suffers. As the Times points out, the lack of taxes paid by the ultra-wealthy also means a lack of funding for the county's most basic services.

Teton County Coroner Dr. Brent Blue conducts autopsies in a garage using a jerry-rigged hospital lift. Jackson Hole High School lacks the funding for basic student amenities like a larger cafeteria, wheelchair accessible bathrooms, and locker rooms. Much of the funding for initiatives that have community benefits comes from private wealth.

As Farrell's book also points out, this means that often the more glamorous causes like the Jackson Hole Land Trust and the Center for the Arts are favored, as they benefit the wealthy who donate to them.

Less glamorous non-profits, like Shelter JH and Jackson Hole Community Housing, are supported by the local workforce, which is directly affected by the County's rising cost of living. However, the less feasible it becomes for your average skier to live in Jackson, the less these organizations will see support without a community to stand behind them. The question becomes less "How will we find employees to run the lifts on powder days?" and more "Is Jackson a place I can securely call home, raise a family in public education, and do so with the resources to pursue a life fully lived in the mountains?"

Even as a former Teton County resident, to see the Times headline felt like another distant and hopeless blot in the current news cycle. In 2023, I lost my housing overnight in Teton County and lived in the back of my truck for two months before signing a six-month lease on the other side of Teton Pass, in Victor, Idaho. Two months after my lease ended and I moved to Oregon, a portion of Teton Pass collapsed, leaving the Idaho-side residents, who make up a significant portion of the county's workforce, stranded or forced to drive two-plus hours through Swan Valley and up the Snake River Canyon to reach Jackson.

Each time I read a social media comment saying that skiing isn't political, or that politics should be kept out of skiing, I can't help but think of my old home first. Wealth inequality is, of course, not the only thing that politics has dipped its toes in when it comes to a skier's livelihood, but I've never experienced ski traffic due to an RFK Jr. fundraiser in any other ski town I've lived in.

It may be that this small town in Wyoming was once known for its deep powder and steep skiing, but now Teton County is a microcosm reflective of many of the larger issues in mountain towns and in our country.

Perhaps it's less personal for many, at least in location, but if the Times piece doesn't remind you that everything, even skiing, is political, then perhaps, as a skier, a POWDER article will.