Critics of the Opportunity Zones program frequently argue that the tax incentives disproportionately benefit wealthy investors, real estate developers, and luxury project builders rather than generating meaningful, long-term economic mobility for low-income residents. Economists and policy researchers have pointed out that a significant portion of capital has flowed into urban tracts or areas that were already experiencing gentrification and economic revival prior to receiving designation, raising concerns over whether the multi-billion-dollar tax subsidies genuinely create net-new economic activity or merely displace private capital that would have been deployed anyway.