A Woman Who Works For The Wealthy Every Day Says Their Recent Behavior Is A Major Red Flag For The Economy

The economy has been in the news a lot recently. As essentials like gas and groceries have become more expensive, people are more worried than ever about how they’re going to keep making ends meet.

Consumers’ confidence in the economy has reached its lowest point since 2022, but it seems like it might not just be the working class who are feeling stretched thin right now. A woman who provides luxury services to the wealthy shared in a TikTok video that she’s noticing even they seem to be paying extra attention to how they’re spending their money these days.

The woman said that her clients’ concerns about their expenses are a ‘recession indicator’ to her.

Chey Eisenman runs a Minneapolis-based cab and car service called Chey Car and works for some of the wealthiest people in the area. She’s noticed some red flags from her “wealthiest tier clients” who exist at “the upper end of the K-economy.”

“The first thing that I’ve seen, several clients sent me messages questioning their bill,” she began. Eisenman clarified that her clients weren’t actually questioning her billing practices, but just had general questions.

“And what became very clear is that this is the first time they had ever looked at their bill,” she continued. “So suddenly this group is looking at what they’re paying for things when they may have previously not paid attention.”

The second thing she noticed that set off alarm bells came from one particular client, whom she described as being in the “upper, upper end of the tier economy.” He’s a successful businessman who is used to taking colleagues out for dinners at nice restaurants and maybe paying $2,000 to $2,500 for about 10 people. Recently, a dinner for 11 cost $5,000.

“$2,000 of the tab was wine and $3,000 was food,” Eisenman said. “What was noteworthy about it is he talked about it for quite a while, like, kind of just flabbergasted that … the cost to take a team out to dinner has basically doubled.”

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For a long time, the theory of the K-shaped economy that Eisenman mentioned has seemed to protect the wealthiest, but that might not be the case anymore.

NPR journalist Stephan Bisaha explained the K-shaped economy as, quite literally, looking like the letter “K.” The top arm, which points upward, symbolizes the wealthiest Americans who are doing well financially despite a volatile economy. The bottom arm is “everyone else,” that is, “not doing nearly as well.”

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Even though the bottom arm of the “K” points down, that doesn’t mean that the working class is necessarily losing ground. It’s more representative of the wide disparity in wealth between those who are doing the best and those who aren’t.

As Joanne Hsu, the director of the University of Michigan’s Survey of Consumers, told Bisaha, “The economy is not a monolith. The population is not a monolith. Some people might be thriving at the same time that other people are struggling.”

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There aren’t widespread indicators that even the wealthy are having a hard time staying afloat right now, but these could be the earliest warning signs.

According to a recent NBC News analysis, the economy is pretty great for the people at the top of the “K” these days. The rich are actually buying even more mansions, yachts, and jets than usual, showing that the divide between the haves and have-nots has reached a historic peak.

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The Elon Musks and Mark Zuckerbergs of the world are likely not too concerned about … well, much of anything, really. But it is possible that people who are wealthy but not quite that rich are starting to notice they don't feel as comfortable as they once did.

At this point, there’s only anecdotal evidence to support this, like Eisenman’s, so it’s hard to say for sure. But if even the rich are picking up on something, it’s probably past time to be worried.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.