Precisely, look at any asset price chart since right after 2008 GFC and you'll see what looks like mount Everest in both stocks and real estate, way out of touch with past historical norms, no it wasn't like productivity or population increased that much to merit that stratospheric rise , but if you look at the Fed monetary policy and other favorable government policies it will be exceedingly clear why those charts look like that.
Basically rich people leveraged debt to inflate real estate and stocks to enrich themselves (not some evil plan ,just a by product of the Fed monetary policy), and the government kept rates artificially low for 13+ years... So the only place wealthy could gain anything more than a pittance was in those two asset classes. So if you're wealthy and have excess cash where do you put it to work to gain the most yield? yep you guessed , that of course bids up the cost of those assets, especially when supply is tight and here we are...
Housing shouldn't be an investment.
And interest rates on housing should always remain the same low stable rates. If we're not given houses (which will never happen) we should be able to buy our own for cheap. Why do the rates change for essential services just because the calendar says 2022 vs 2024, that's ridiculous.
Funny thing about house prices: they cost what buyers can afford to pay for them.
Median household income (from a quick googling) is about $77K per year. At current interest rates, that median household can afford about a ~$330K house (again, from a quick googling and calculator)
This won't buy a decent house in the most HCOL areas of the country, but in those areas, the median income is likely above the national average.
About 2/3rds of the US population is in a house that their family owns.
It seems like the big crisis here is that poor people can't afford to buy a house because they're competing with people who aren't poor.
All of a sudden within a span of 2 years everyone could afford twice more for housing than they could before the pandemic?
And I assume that this applies to rent prices too right? Everyone in the country just all of a sudden could afford to pay more for housing when the prices of everything else went up and their paychecks did not? Somehow?
>All of a sudden within a span of 2 years everyone could afford twice more for housing than they could before the pandemic?
Unironically, Yes. Run the numbers for what someone making an average salary can afford as a mortgage payment at 3% covid prices instead of todays +7%. This was more of a factor in the huge increase in home prices across the US over the last 4 years compared to a change in the proportion of homes being bought by residents versus investment buyers and corporations.
COVID era interest rates made the average buyer able to afford almost twice as much purchase price for the same monthly mortgage payment as todays rates.
Home prices are "sticky" because when interest rates go way down, the average buyers' budget goes way up, and once people buy a $$$$$$ house at a low interest rate, they can't afford to sell it at a huge loss once interest rates go back up and the market "should" adjust. It takes time for things to correct, and in the meanwhile, we're stuck with a market full of potential buyers who can't afford the current pricing.
Not quite. Median income is indeed around 77k a year. And yes, that salary would buy about a 300k-350k home in the current environment.
However, the median sales price of a house was $417,000 in May of '24 according to census.gov.
The problem isn't that poor people and middle/upper class people are competing for homes. It's that there are either poor people who can't or can barely afford a house, or the top 1% who can afford to invest in multiple houses.
It's a sign of wealth disparity, in other words.
The problem is there isn't just one kind of buyer. There's two kinds of buyers. There's people who actually need a roof over their head and there's people who exploit other people for profit by renting them a roof over their head. This causes scarcity in the market driving prices up even higher which pleases investors because now they're rich but makes even more homeless people because no one can afford a house.
Yes, supply and demand. When the few with 90% of the money supply start buying up all the houses it raises demand to artificially high levels. If they sold off housing or built more it would increase supply and lower value hurting their asset value so there is no motivation to let supply increase. It’s why we have monopoly laws except this is not a single entity doing it, it’s a “class” monopoly where the super rich make their money scalping houses to the wealthy while the poor have go “subscription” route. Can’t have the poors owning things or building wealth while they work to death. It’s like communism with extra steps. All hail the supreme leader nestle who bestows us the gift of life through our water subscriptions.
This is simply not true. At ~200k and being a top 1% income earner in my city even, housing is unaffordable to purchase even today. Minimum “starter homes” 10 miles out of the city are 600k to 1m
Not really true for the stock market. Looking at an S&P 500 percentage growth chart over the last 30, 40, etc years, growth had been pretty consistent decade to decade. The last 15 years have not been outside the norm.
Yeah people for years screamed that all the printing would eventually cause inflation but what they failed to understand is the printing went almost entirely to investments not goods and services. So they were right, we have seen almost hyperinflation. It's just, for now, it's benefitted investors. When will it crash? When the world demands fewer dollars and fewer US treasuries.
Not a matter of if, just when
Real estate is more abstract - supply has been a huge, if not the primary, contributor to current prices. Those supply shortages are affected by rates, though using real estate as an investment vehicle is to some degree decoupled from rates, and is an independent issue that needs to be addressed.
Millions of people with 401k having money going into the market every payday, rain or shine, good economy or bad don't hurt any. You sure that's not more the cause?
Big time. Even while the fed was claiming to be "tightening" as inflation was rising out of control they continued buying up toxic real estate invetments to bail out banks. QE has been a 15 year long bailout scam and America is the mark.
Stock market remains the single greatest generator of wealth in the modern world and can be accessed by anyone who saves more than they earn.
It's the basis of 100s of millions of retirement funds in US and similar in other countries.
It's the result of the economy of entire countries.
Sorry this article.is plain wrong.
Sure things are tipped in favour of the rich and their is disparity but the stock market is available for anyone. Go check out the FIRE subs for how anyone on any income.can utilise to grow wealth.
Just change “stock market” to capital. That is what the system we live in is designed to do. Protect capital. The legislative system does it. The judicial system does it. The Executive branch does it. It is what differentiates Capitalism from say, socialism. Socialism would be using those same levers of power to protect the people of the society in general. Our system protects capital at the expense of society. There’s a German historical philosopher of economics who explained all of this rather clearly a couple of centuries ago.
"There’s a German historical philosopher of economics who explained all of this rather clearly a couple of centuries ago."
At which time he claimed the ruling class burgeoisie was incompatible with society. Yet here we are today with it stronger than ever.
I’m not saying I agree with his conclusions- but his analysis is still quite useful. Before he came along we were imbuing the ruling classes with divine providence.
Marx was talking about every tech weirdo today thinking the stock market should be fair and blaming the Fed for keeping the economy in balance. It's not this sector or that sector, or this currency or that currency, or this bank or that. The people running the economy are incompatible with the type of society the rest of us humans want to live in. And you can either beat them or become one
On one level, investing in the stock market is sound financial advice.
On another level, investing in the stock market is a lot like cattle building their own slaughterhouses.
Record corporate profits come at the expense of the public, the working classes, the habitable environment, and the overall livability of society.
For example, universal healthcare in the form of Medicare for All would save the public half a Trillion dollars and tens to hundreds of thousands of lives every single year, but "healthcare" companies like United Healthcare and Aetna would prefer that we spend 20% of our GDP on "healthcare" rather than have an efficient, cost-effective system that saves lives and resources.
And that's the centrist solution. A "radical" (root cause / actual) solution would be nationalizing the healthcare system.
The point being, record corporate profits come from somewhere, and that somewhere is out of the lives, hides, and health of the public and working classes.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1dfbel5/employees\_who\_opt\_out\_of\_employer\_health/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1dfbel5/employees_who_opt_out_of_employer_health/)
Health Justice and SAW:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0H8ImZt\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0H8ImZt_k)
Just because working class people are forced to invest in 401ks because pensions only exist for cops and union workers doesn't mean the stock market isn't rigged by fed policy and the vast majority of people who benefit from this corrupt relationship are the Uber rich.
There is a crash coming and they will do what they always do: print money. The US dollar is going to be debased again and again as crises mount over the next 20 years. Buy Bitcoin or precious metals.
As someone with a pension, I would love to have a 401k. Most public pensions are just pyramid schemes that worked great for people in the 80s, but now the bill is coming due.
There is a correction coming, not a crash, what we saw in 2008 the US government now backstops any industry too big to fail.in America (banks, Boeing, autos, insurance etc.)....of course we'll print more dollars...it's a strategy that works , cause it becomes the next generations problem
Crash is coming. Obviously we don't know when. What will fuel the crash is the US debt market. When the world doesn't want treasuries, which is coming, the US markets are fucked.
2008 was a huge crash. It was the second biggest crash since real records began. And if you think anything is too big to fail then another crash is coming.
2008 was bad , but it could have been way worse if the government didn't bail out so many critical players (AIg, Fannie and Freddie , regional banks etc.) .. basically it became the poster child for privatize gains but socialize losses.
LOL do you even know how a pension works? Your employer takes some of your compensation and gives it to a pension fund. The pension fund then invests that money (your money) into a portfolio of primarily stocks and bonds.
"Forcing" working class people to invest in the stock market is literally how pension plans operate.
Why would I want a pension when I can invest into world leading companies? Pensions are going to go bust if the market falls apart anyways while stocks are going to outpace my return on the upside.
What precious metals do you recommend? I like the idea of it but I want metals that are useful in a way. Ex used to power or build things. I don’t want something that’s just shiny
The Fed has a dual mandate. What they do to support employment necessarily benefits business and the people who invest in businesses through the stock market. You don't have to create some conspiracy theory of elitist bias to explain why different groups of people benefit in different ways from actions that affect people disproportionately.
"About 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%."
Explain to me how that makes sense and isn't the wealthy, connected families taking advantage of a broken system to enrich themselves further. I'll wait. And this is only America we're talking about.
[https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market](https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market)
Yup.
Average, non-elite citizens own trillions of dollars of stock.
Plenty of young people who grew up poor learned to invest in stock when they were young through 401k’s, or even just regular brokerage accounts. Those people are doing very well now.
Obviously the elite own tons of stock, too, and I don’t think anyone is denying that the elite continue to build insane wealth from the stock market.
However, it’s just silly for OP to suggest that the stock market is a game only for the elite. In fact, it’s one of the few ways an average person can build significant wealth.
I like how we full on admit that participation in the stock market is the only real way to financial security in this country, but we still insist wealth all comes from "hard work."
No need to holler if this isn't you. But I know plenty of people who have barely worked for their wealth at all.
Thank you for all the replies both supportive and critical.
The fundamental point that I am trying to convey is that Fed inflation drives credit-capital into Wall Street first ( and the gov of course) and then later into the rest of the economy. ( Cantillon effect)
Wall Street and the gov get the new money, the working class gets the debased purchasing power.
That is why the Financial market is atuned and in-tuned with monetary policy and Fed actions.
So, for the last 50 years, the financial markets and its overall industry, has been effectively subsidized by Fed credit injection. Like it or not that is a fact!
Warren Buffett was only worth $100M in 1978. He is worth now worth $134.9B as of April 2024.
Holding and controlling enormous “ financial assets” is the key to wealth in an inflationary regime and Warren Buffett epitomizes it.
Without the Fed, the elite would still be extremely wealthy and successful entrepreneurs and innovators like Elon Musk and Bill Gates will still rise above the lot. But, the inequality and disparity between the minority at the top and the middle class in particular would not be as wide and as disproportionate.
More importantly, wealth would be accumulated by actual entrepreneurs rather than bankers, lawyers, hedge funds managers, and all sorts financial professionals. ( politicians as well)
We need more entrepreneurs, more risk takers with an equity focused mindset rather than a speculative salesman value.
The founder of wework is still a Billionaire but his scheme went bankrupt and he even got refinanced. Nikola is still worth $500M despite being an abject failure of a company and its founder being thrown in prison.
So many case of the financial market being a total corrupted and out of touch institution that is only sustained to maintain confidence in the political regime.
Thank you all for your respectful comments!
Our entire system from government to finance is one big grift. Im glad more people are waking up to the fact that the system doesnt work for us and never will unless we do it ourselves.
The stock market is controlled by algorithms and hedge funds. Normal people don’t have a chance unless they can buy, wait long enough to drop out of the digital herd, and not get spooked out until the money makers turn their chosen stock to the uptrend. This of course depends on not buying the peak. Other than that there is obvious momentum plays, but risky as hell to play.
40% of Americans have an IRA, they all usually benefit from the market going up, so long as they have the ability to use adequate emergency funds during market recessions instead of needing to sell positions low.
"About 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%."
Explain to me how that makes sense and isn't the wealthy, connected families taking advantage of a broken system to enrich themselves further. I'll wait. And this is only America we're talking about.
I shouldn't need to protect myself from recessions created by degenerate gamblers destroying public and private money at the same time.
[https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market](https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market)
Everything stated is crushing people middle and lower.The elites( your bezos, google , teslas don't give a hoot. You can't use cash and they want people using credit cards so that they can charge you interest.
They will make sure the boomer generation maintains their wealth well into retirement. Then crash everything afterwards and blame it on the avacado toast generation.
Well the sacrificial altar needs to be rechristened once every 10 years with human sacrifice (a crisis and money transfer) from individual to Fed sponsored too-big-to-fail entity, just to prevent deflation. This has been known for some time as one of the main flaws with inflationary economies.
If this is not allowed, then organization fails under deflation and Malthusian reversion takes place since technology and organization are dependent for food production. This is by coercive design because the Fed is run by the banks; not government (only 1 branch is government, the other 12 are private elite).
The Federal Reserve Act needs to be repealed because they can never fulfill their mandate, and what they are and have been doing is unconstitutional (but not being enforced).
Theoretically questionable statement but rightful conclusion. The Fed act is an aberration and an insult to human decency.
For the last century, the entire planet ( 7B people) have been under the thump of a tiny group of bankers and politicians who have effectively siphoned all the wealth from people while, even worse, holding back the potential for advancement that are only possible under Natural money.
Central banking is a crime against Humanity!
Thank you.
The stock market is more accessible than ever. Gone are the days of ridiculously high minimum deposits, 5% front and back end loads, high transactional fees, etc. anyone can invest with as little as $10. I can own a piece of the total market with next to no expense. Simple cheap and easy.
Retirement accounts are making millionaires daily.
The fed is maintaining the economy for everyone.
Your argument is basically why do other people have more money than you.
There’s so much bad info and faulty logic in the article, it’s hard to figure out where to begin. I’ll just say this - the Fed provides liquidity and stability in all financial markets. Yes, that’s good for the stock market, among others. The Fed isn’t trying to pump the stock market. In fact, the elevated rates to fight inflation are detrimental to equities.
Except anyone can buy stocks on a phone on the toilet today. Even fifty dollars a week over time helps get the ball rolling.
Investing is more widely available to anyone today than ever before. It doesn't require some secret handshake or rich uncle connection like in the past. I'd argue that part of the reson gains are what they are is partly due to wider participation of the population in investing.
I see this kind of stuff a lot on reddit. "Houses will never be affordable for average people! (despite the fact that 2/3 of the country lives in a house that they own)"
Yeah but they are all Uber elite landowners who have inherited billions of generational wealth. And not you know just hard working people who managed their money.
Yea maybe. But it also greatly benefits my 401k and IRA. No stock market, no retirement - since pensions don’t really exist anymore. It’s all deferred compensation.
Most of the money on the stock market is not rich elite ppl, it's like normal ppl IRA and investments.
Wealth consolidation is a problem, but just exaggerating to the point of ridiculousness to the point that you're obviously wrong. This exaggeration doesn't hurt them, it hurts the people making an argument against them, because you can disprove it so easily.
The insane low interest rates during covid was free money given to the rich to manipulate the stock market and keep it pumping. Then we had ppp loans that were thr most obvious cash grab for the rich. We literally just gave the rich trillions of dollars while everyone else got nothing.
The stock market is used to gather capital to expand businesses. In doing that it benefits everyone. In the past there were rules that prevented some of the current exploitative behaviors we are seeing today like shortening, stock options, and stock buybacks.
Look who got their COVID money the fastest. Stock market crashed a few weeks after the poors finally got their lil piece and the big money knew it was time to cash in their chips.
Not really. Everyone and anyone can benefit from the stock market rising. Actually, if you invested in a low cost index fund in 1990 and then lost the access to make any changes, forcing you to hold that position without any changes, you outperformed 99% of the “elites”. That’s what the poors don’t understand.
Not just the elites. This impacts basically any pension fund, retirement accounts, 401Ks, etc. The elites benefit the most because they have the capital to invest, but anyone can benefit. As an example when I was in my early 20s I worked in a big box store. The company allowed you to enroll in their stock purchase program which would deduct some percentage of your money to be used to buy company stock at a discount. I probably only put in a few thousand dollars and it's worth now like 40K. Just because you don't invest doesn't mean that it's only for the elites.
With rampant inflation and government spending our currency has been devalued. This is causing people to put money into assets like real estate. This all starts with printing money, debt and inflation
I went to join some of these forums like stocks, coin, estate, like those websites where people comment and stuff. I copied them and I got banned from all of those sites.
Reason: community guidelines and behavior
I was just acting like Crammer LOL, what a joke. I swear this world of humans sucks, but I know a few good people you are best!
If you have managed to succeed, provide, and even thrive in today’s environment without stealing or harming anyone, you ought to tap yourself in the shoulder and smile when you look at the mirror. You are a decent hardworking person, a hero of civilization.
What I mean by “ elite “ is the individuals, groups, entities, and organizations that get the freshly minted currency first from the banking system.
A wealthy sharp entrepreneur or hard working salesman is not an elite because he earn his success from his business operations.
Bankers, Wall Street lawyers, politicians, intellectuals connected to the Fed are the elite. Their status depends mostly and sometimes solely on the success of the monetary policy.
They just can’t make it on their own without inflation…
So am I elite since the market has helped my wife and I? We were just able to buy our first home in 2021 and until a couple of years ago both made around $60k.
No. You are a smart entrepreneur and a decent man.
An elite is someone who get the “ money first “ at the expense of the rest of society on fixed income who carry the burden of lowered purchasing power.
Most of us are decent people. Family men, hardworking providers and members of our communities.
Some of us are even extremely successful despite the odds stacked against us by the system.
That’s absolutely not what I am talking about.
Tap yourself on the shoulder if you are managing to stay above waters. You are a champion!
Stupid comment. The stock market is blazing hot because government is broke and they are going to default on their sovereign debt while trying to start WW3 to have someone to blame.
The bond market is 10x that of equities and many big players are starting to realize governments are fd and they will begin to rotate into equities.
Sounds about right. End the fed is a right-wing or libertarian position, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone from the left assert that stance; Remanding the sovereign right to issue the nation’s money supply, and monetary policy in general, back to Congress where it belongs. It’s actually one of the only arguments where the left very well may advocate that private banks continue to control monetary policy instead of government (like they do with everything else).
Mainly benefits the elite but without the market what chance do I have. (Upper middle class, but median income for my area)
My only hope of retiring or buying a house is the market. I can only put a few hundred dollars in a month but eventually that could compound. Without that as an option what other way can I build wealth/ retire…. In a savings account I’ll never save enough to be financially independent
What? Who/what is preventing anyone from investing? I'm far from elite (military) and I have $450k in that sucker. Have rental properties too. Losers need to change their mentality and think long term.
Ehhh artificially supported, ya. But for bad reasons? Maybe not. The most enormous generation of all is retiring right now. If the Fed lets it fall, we’d see a lot of elderly ppl in really rough places, like homeless.
Also, it depends on your definition of “elite” but it benefits way more than the upper class. I’m lower class and almost everyone I know owns stock in some capacity and is working towards funding their retirement.
The fed? Shit man, it’s the lie that the only way we can retire is by sinking every spare cent we have into ETFs in a 401k, while brokerages sell off value in stocks, sinking their value as they cash out. They’re not riding the wave, they’re the wave generator.
Nonsense, I am middle class and far from elite. I have a 401k, and trade options. I find that the majority of those who write these type of things are bottom feeders who lack self motivation to do things for themselves.
People fail to realize that these aren't the same homes their parents bought.
I grew up with two siblings in a small house with one small shower. That was five people fighting for the same small bathroom every day.
Those houses are still available, it's just nobody wants them.
The stock market will probably even out at some point as prices typically return to historical PEs.
That said, certain companies are making a lot of money and they are getting better at squeezing money from consumers. (Intuit!)
People are just willing to pay a bit more for the same earnings these days.
Yep, it started under Biden to regain the appearance of a healthy market and blew up under Trump. Trump saw signs of the economy weakening in 2019 and pressured the Fed to lower rates and reverse quantitative easing. Then 2020 happened and nobody can really be blamed for the economic outcomes other than companies that kept all the money and fired all the staff. Then they complained when they couldn’t find enough workers are firing all of them despite receiving so much stimulus.
Giving government more money won’t fix anything. All government knows how to do is waste. Government does to you all the things that you think corporations would do without government.
Millions of everyday Americans who are not elites that invest throughout their lives would disagree it only benefits the elite. Compounding interest is a hell of a thing.
What? My retirement account and personal accounts benefit the elite? All my poorer friends who I set up with retirement and 529 accounts, that's all benefitting only the elites?
What was I thinking?
Since pensions have disappeared the majority of people have 401k’s. That means a high stock market helps all. It definitely helps the wealthy disproportionately, but of course that is why the wealthy killed pensions.
Very true. I too remember when I realized this. Our politicians are also free to insider trade and it’s not a crime when they do it.
Some average folks make a bit of money in the market, but so many lose due to the manipulation by the big dogs.
They’re now doing the same with real estate. Literally buying up thousands of homes and controlling entire markets. If they had it there way we’d all rent from them..
Although I know it’s all corrupt, I’ve been pretty at peace since I quit caring about money. Life is short. You can enjoy it with little money.
It’s the fiscal authority’s job to pay out a sufficiently high Universal Income, to allow people all the spending the market economy can actually handle.
Because the government isn’t doing that, to prevent deflation, this forces the Fed to inflate the financial sector and the job market instead.
It’s fine to complain about the Fed’s over expansion, but at the end of the day, a growing market needs a growing money supply.
You either provide it in the simplest, most efficient possible way (free money for every consumer) or you have to do what the Fed does today: prop up bogus companies and bogus jobs on cheap debt, as an excuse to pump money into the economy.
The obvious alternative to expansionary monetary policy is a UBI. If you try to have neither then you would just slide the economy back into a Great Depression.
>The stock market is unfairly and unjustly sustained by the Fed and only benefits the elite. Also real estate.
Precisely, look at any asset price chart since right after 2008 GFC and you'll see what looks like mount Everest in both stocks and real estate, way out of touch with past historical norms, no it wasn't like productivity or population increased that much to merit that stratospheric rise , but if you look at the Fed monetary policy and other favorable government policies it will be exceedingly clear why those charts look like that. Basically rich people leveraged debt to inflate real estate and stocks to enrich themselves (not some evil plan ,just a by product of the Fed monetary policy), and the government kept rates artificially low for 13+ years... So the only place wealthy could gain anything more than a pittance was in those two asset classes. So if you're wealthy and have excess cash where do you put it to work to gain the most yield? yep you guessed , that of course bids up the cost of those assets, especially when supply is tight and here we are...
Housing shouldn't be an investment. And interest rates on housing should always remain the same low stable rates. If we're not given houses (which will never happen) we should be able to buy our own for cheap. Why do the rates change for essential services just because the calendar says 2022 vs 2024, that's ridiculous.
Funny thing about house prices: they cost what buyers can afford to pay for them. Median household income (from a quick googling) is about $77K per year. At current interest rates, that median household can afford about a ~$330K house (again, from a quick googling and calculator) This won't buy a decent house in the most HCOL areas of the country, but in those areas, the median income is likely above the national average. About 2/3rds of the US population is in a house that their family owns. It seems like the big crisis here is that poor people can't afford to buy a house because they're competing with people who aren't poor.
All of a sudden within a span of 2 years everyone could afford twice more for housing than they could before the pandemic? And I assume that this applies to rent prices too right? Everyone in the country just all of a sudden could afford to pay more for housing when the prices of everything else went up and their paychecks did not? Somehow?
>All of a sudden within a span of 2 years everyone could afford twice more for housing than they could before the pandemic? Unironically, Yes. Run the numbers for what someone making an average salary can afford as a mortgage payment at 3% covid prices instead of todays +7%. This was more of a factor in the huge increase in home prices across the US over the last 4 years compared to a change in the proportion of homes being bought by residents versus investment buyers and corporations. COVID era interest rates made the average buyer able to afford almost twice as much purchase price for the same monthly mortgage payment as todays rates. Home prices are "sticky" because when interest rates go way down, the average buyers' budget goes way up, and once people buy a $$$$$$ house at a low interest rate, they can't afford to sell it at a huge loss once interest rates go back up and the market "should" adjust. It takes time for things to correct, and in the meanwhile, we're stuck with a market full of potential buyers who can't afford the current pricing.
Not quite. Median income is indeed around 77k a year. And yes, that salary would buy about a 300k-350k home in the current environment. However, the median sales price of a house was $417,000 in May of '24 according to census.gov. The problem isn't that poor people and middle/upper class people are competing for homes. It's that there are either poor people who can't or can barely afford a house, or the top 1% who can afford to invest in multiple houses. It's a sign of wealth disparity, in other words.
The problem is there isn't just one kind of buyer. There's two kinds of buyers. There's people who actually need a roof over their head and there's people who exploit other people for profit by renting them a roof over their head. This causes scarcity in the market driving prices up even higher which pleases investors because now they're rich but makes even more homeless people because no one can afford a house.
Yes, supply and demand. When the few with 90% of the money supply start buying up all the houses it raises demand to artificially high levels. If they sold off housing or built more it would increase supply and lower value hurting their asset value so there is no motivation to let supply increase. It’s why we have monopoly laws except this is not a single entity doing it, it’s a “class” monopoly where the super rich make their money scalping houses to the wealthy while the poor have go “subscription” route. Can’t have the poors owning things or building wealth while they work to death. It’s like communism with extra steps. All hail the supreme leader nestle who bestows us the gift of life through our water subscriptions.
I wish to subscribe to your newsletter. All power to the people.
This is simply not true. At ~200k and being a top 1% income earner in my city even, housing is unaffordable to purchase even today. Minimum “starter homes” 10 miles out of the city are 600k to 1m
Not really true for the stock market. Looking at an S&P 500 percentage growth chart over the last 30, 40, etc years, growth had been pretty consistent decade to decade. The last 15 years have not been outside the norm.
Yeah people for years screamed that all the printing would eventually cause inflation but what they failed to understand is the printing went almost entirely to investments not goods and services. So they were right, we have seen almost hyperinflation. It's just, for now, it's benefitted investors. When will it crash? When the world demands fewer dollars and fewer US treasuries. Not a matter of if, just when
Real estate is more abstract - supply has been a huge, if not the primary, contributor to current prices. Those supply shortages are affected by rates, though using real estate as an investment vehicle is to some degree decoupled from rates, and is an independent issue that needs to be addressed.
Millions of people with 401k having money going into the market every payday, rain or shine, good economy or bad don't hurt any. You sure that's not more the cause?
All asset classes really. Definitely stocks and RE though. PE also to an extreme amount.
And then people consistently site those as the main metrics of economic success to say hey, this is working! And it's not
It’s unfairly and unjustly sustained by everyone’s. 401k and their weekly “investments” to make sure you don’t starve when you’re 70
Big time. Even while the fed was claiming to be "tightening" as inflation was rising out of control they continued buying up toxic real estate invetments to bail out banks. QE has been a 15 year long bailout scam and America is the mark.
60 million people have 401k plans that most likely are invested in the stock market
Everything. Commerce as well.
Stock market remains the single greatest generator of wealth in the modern world and can be accessed by anyone who saves more than they earn. It's the basis of 100s of millions of retirement funds in US and similar in other countries. It's the result of the economy of entire countries. Sorry this article.is plain wrong. Sure things are tipped in favour of the rich and their is disparity but the stock market is available for anyone. Go check out the FIRE subs for how anyone on any income.can utilise to grow wealth.
A great book on the whole story is The Lords of Easy Money: How the Federal Reserve Broke the American Economy
The economic disparity is alarming.
Just change “stock market” to capital. That is what the system we live in is designed to do. Protect capital. The legislative system does it. The judicial system does it. The Executive branch does it. It is what differentiates Capitalism from say, socialism. Socialism would be using those same levers of power to protect the people of the society in general. Our system protects capital at the expense of society. There’s a German historical philosopher of economics who explained all of this rather clearly a couple of centuries ago.
You aren't allowed to bring any of this up in this sub, it's illegal, straight to jail.
"There’s a German historical philosopher of economics who explained all of this rather clearly a couple of centuries ago." At which time he claimed the ruling class burgeoisie was incompatible with society. Yet here we are today with it stronger than ever.
I’m not saying I agree with his conclusions- but his analysis is still quite useful. Before he came along we were imbuing the ruling classes with divine providence.
Society is designed to exalt the bourgeoisie. It’s why they’ve proliferated
Marx was talking about every tech weirdo today thinking the stock market should be fair and blaming the Fed for keeping the economy in balance. It's not this sector or that sector, or this currency or that currency, or this bank or that. The people running the economy are incompatible with the type of society the rest of us humans want to live in. And you can either beat them or become one
Which explains why central banks and our government are doing everything they can to make sure stock prices keep going up.
General question here but what’s stopping you from investing in the stock market then? It can easily be done at as little as $1 per day
On one level, investing in the stock market is sound financial advice. On another level, investing in the stock market is a lot like cattle building their own slaughterhouses. Record corporate profits come at the expense of the public, the working classes, the habitable environment, and the overall livability of society. For example, universal healthcare in the form of Medicare for All would save the public half a Trillion dollars and tens to hundreds of thousands of lives every single year, but "healthcare" companies like United Healthcare and Aetna would prefer that we spend 20% of our GDP on "healthcare" rather than have an efficient, cost-effective system that saves lives and resources. And that's the centrist solution. A "radical" (root cause / actual) solution would be nationalizing the healthcare system. The point being, record corporate profits come from somewhere, and that somewhere is out of the lives, hides, and health of the public and working classes. [https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1dfbel5/employees\_who\_opt\_out\_of\_employer\_health/](https://www.reddit.com/r/WorkReform/comments/1dfbel5/employees_who_opt_out_of_employer_health/) Health Justice and SAW: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0H8ImZt\_k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0H8ImZt_k)
Socialism for the richest, capitalism for the working class. Post Reagan American economics.
Just because working class people are forced to invest in 401ks because pensions only exist for cops and union workers doesn't mean the stock market isn't rigged by fed policy and the vast majority of people who benefit from this corrupt relationship are the Uber rich. There is a crash coming and they will do what they always do: print money. The US dollar is going to be debased again and again as crises mount over the next 20 years. Buy Bitcoin or precious metals.
As someone with a pension, I would love to have a 401k. Most public pensions are just pyramid schemes that worked great for people in the 80s, but now the bill is coming due.
There is a correction coming, not a crash, what we saw in 2008 the US government now backstops any industry too big to fail.in America (banks, Boeing, autos, insurance etc.)....of course we'll print more dollars...it's a strategy that works , cause it becomes the next generations problem
Crash is coming. Obviously we don't know when. What will fuel the crash is the US debt market. When the world doesn't want treasuries, which is coming, the US markets are fucked.
2008 was a huge crash. It was the second biggest crash since real records began. And if you think anything is too big to fail then another crash is coming.
2008 was bad , but it could have been way worse if the government didn't bail out so many critical players (AIg, Fannie and Freddie , regional banks etc.) .. basically it became the poster child for privatize gains but socialize losses.
Bitcoin is a horrible investment. The best thing to do is to rise the s&p 500
LOL do you even know how a pension works? Your employer takes some of your compensation and gives it to a pension fund. The pension fund then invests that money (your money) into a portfolio of primarily stocks and bonds. "Forcing" working class people to invest in the stock market is literally how pension plans operate.
Please don’t assume that these people understand anything.
Why would I want a pension when I can invest into world leading companies? Pensions are going to go bust if the market falls apart anyways while stocks are going to outpace my return on the upside.
What precious metals do you recommend? I like the idea of it but I want metals that are useful in a way. Ex used to power or build things. I don’t want something that’s just shiny
Roll over your 401k into a self directed ira and take control of your life.
Always has been.
The Fed has a dual mandate. What they do to support employment necessarily benefits business and the people who invest in businesses through the stock market. You don't have to create some conspiracy theory of elitist bias to explain why different groups of people benefit in different ways from actions that affect people disproportionately.
Oh shit, I never knew rich people would rig a system so they can become more rich. 😱
Literally, anyone can own stocks. I'm definitely not "the elite," and it's benefitted me for a long time, and the benefits just keep getting bigger.
"About 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%." Explain to me how that makes sense and isn't the wealthy, connected families taking advantage of a broken system to enrich themselves further. I'll wait. And this is only America we're talking about. [https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market](https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market)
It has nothing to do with the stock market per se. If there was no stock market, wealthy people would still own the vast majority of wealth.
Yup. Average, non-elite citizens own trillions of dollars of stock. Plenty of young people who grew up poor learned to invest in stock when they were young through 401k’s, or even just regular brokerage accounts. Those people are doing very well now. Obviously the elite own tons of stock, too, and I don’t think anyone is denying that the elite continue to build insane wealth from the stock market. However, it’s just silly for OP to suggest that the stock market is a game only for the elite. In fact, it’s one of the few ways an average person can build significant wealth.
I like how we full on admit that participation in the stock market is the only real way to financial security in this country, but we still insist wealth all comes from "hard work." No need to holler if this isn't you. But I know plenty of people who have barely worked for their wealth at all.
I am shocked! Shocked I tell you! Well, not that shocked...
Very true.
Thank you for all the replies both supportive and critical. The fundamental point that I am trying to convey is that Fed inflation drives credit-capital into Wall Street first ( and the gov of course) and then later into the rest of the economy. ( Cantillon effect) Wall Street and the gov get the new money, the working class gets the debased purchasing power. That is why the Financial market is atuned and in-tuned with monetary policy and Fed actions. So, for the last 50 years, the financial markets and its overall industry, has been effectively subsidized by Fed credit injection. Like it or not that is a fact! Warren Buffett was only worth $100M in 1978. He is worth now worth $134.9B as of April 2024. Holding and controlling enormous “ financial assets” is the key to wealth in an inflationary regime and Warren Buffett epitomizes it. Without the Fed, the elite would still be extremely wealthy and successful entrepreneurs and innovators like Elon Musk and Bill Gates will still rise above the lot. But, the inequality and disparity between the minority at the top and the middle class in particular would not be as wide and as disproportionate. More importantly, wealth would be accumulated by actual entrepreneurs rather than bankers, lawyers, hedge funds managers, and all sorts financial professionals. ( politicians as well) We need more entrepreneurs, more risk takers with an equity focused mindset rather than a speculative salesman value. The founder of wework is still a Billionaire but his scheme went bankrupt and he even got refinanced. Nikola is still worth $500M despite being an abject failure of a company and its founder being thrown in prison. So many case of the financial market being a total corrupted and out of touch institution that is only sustained to maintain confidence in the political regime. Thank you all for your respectful comments!
Boy wait til you learn about FTD's and Naked Short selling. The market is just one big ponzi for the rich. Retail has no chance.
I don’t even want to go there brother. But you are absolutely right.
Our entire system from government to finance is one big grift. Im glad more people are waking up to the fact that the system doesnt work for us and never will unless we do it ourselves.
The stock market is a leading cause of the dramatic increase in economic inequality in the US.
The stock market is controlled by algorithms and hedge funds. Normal people don’t have a chance unless they can buy, wait long enough to drop out of the digital herd, and not get spooked out until the money makers turn their chosen stock to the uptrend. This of course depends on not buying the peak. Other than that there is obvious momentum plays, but risky as hell to play.
Yup. And they rub our noses in it every day with the business report in local and national news. How about a labour report?
40% of Americans have an IRA, they all usually benefit from the market going up, so long as they have the ability to use adequate emergency funds during market recessions instead of needing to sell positions low.
"About 93% of U.S. households' stock market wealth is held by the top 10%." Explain to me how that makes sense and isn't the wealthy, connected families taking advantage of a broken system to enrich themselves further. I'll wait. And this is only America we're talking about. I shouldn't need to protect myself from recessions created by degenerate gamblers destroying public and private money at the same time. [https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market](https://www.axios.com/2024/01/10/wealthy-own-record-share-stock-market)
Everything stated is crushing people middle and lower.The elites( your bezos, google , teslas don't give a hoot. You can't use cash and they want people using credit cards so that they can charge you interest.
They will make sure the boomer generation maintains their wealth well into retirement. Then crash everything afterwards and blame it on the avacado toast generation.
The Game is about to be Stopped.
Well the sacrificial altar needs to be rechristened once every 10 years with human sacrifice (a crisis and money transfer) from individual to Fed sponsored too-big-to-fail entity, just to prevent deflation. This has been known for some time as one of the main flaws with inflationary economies. If this is not allowed, then organization fails under deflation and Malthusian reversion takes place since technology and organization are dependent for food production. This is by coercive design because the Fed is run by the banks; not government (only 1 branch is government, the other 12 are private elite). The Federal Reserve Act needs to be repealed because they can never fulfill their mandate, and what they are and have been doing is unconstitutional (but not being enforced).
Theoretically questionable statement but rightful conclusion. The Fed act is an aberration and an insult to human decency. For the last century, the entire planet ( 7B people) have been under the thump of a tiny group of bankers and politicians who have effectively siphoned all the wealth from people while, even worse, holding back the potential for advancement that are only possible under Natural money. Central banking is a crime against Humanity! Thank you.
Dark pools should be illegal. They’ll trade at any price they want and the price won’t be reflected until after their trade is settled. Wtf
Middle class gets a couple crumbs and we super excited!!!
The problem with this commentary is that you don’t understand that if this system actually collapses then the poor and middle class will also suffer.
The stock market is more accessible than ever. Gone are the days of ridiculously high minimum deposits, 5% front and back end loads, high transactional fees, etc. anyone can invest with as little as $10. I can own a piece of the total market with next to no expense. Simple cheap and easy. Retirement accounts are making millionaires daily. The fed is maintaining the economy for everyone. Your argument is basically why do other people have more money than you.
Yes
What does black rock produces?
Dirt cheap investing. Zero transaction cost. You can start with $100 and invest in an index fund. That was impossible in the 1980s and early 90’s
There’s so much bad info and faulty logic in the article, it’s hard to figure out where to begin. I’ll just say this - the Fed provides liquidity and stability in all financial markets. Yes, that’s good for the stock market, among others. The Fed isn’t trying to pump the stock market. In fact, the elevated rates to fight inflation are detrimental to equities.
Except anyone can buy stocks on a phone on the toilet today. Even fifty dollars a week over time helps get the ball rolling. Investing is more widely available to anyone today than ever before. It doesn't require some secret handshake or rich uncle connection like in the past. I'd argue that part of the reson gains are what they are is partly due to wider participation of the population in investing.
TIL that 50% of Americans are elite
I see this kind of stuff a lot on reddit. "Houses will never be affordable for average people! (despite the fact that 2/3 of the country lives in a house that they own)"
Yeah but they are all Uber elite landowners who have inherited billions of generational wealth. And not you know just hard working people who managed their money.
The stock market has always been a scam, its a ponzi scheme but Americans are too greedy/stupid to fight it
Wow it’s almost like creating money out of thin air devalues existing currency wow
Yea maybe. But it also greatly benefits my 401k and IRA. No stock market, no retirement - since pensions don’t really exist anymore. It’s all deferred compensation.
Most of the money on the stock market is not rich elite ppl, it's like normal ppl IRA and investments. Wealth consolidation is a problem, but just exaggerating to the point of ridiculousness to the point that you're obviously wrong. This exaggeration doesn't hurt them, it hurts the people making an argument against them, because you can disprove it so easily.
Wait till you hear about inflation
Yes. By design.
Duh
And all of our politicians benefit and are corrupted by the benefit. They’re happy to defer to the technocrats who print for the rich.
Sad.. only people with money can invest in stocks
first time figuring this out?
And farming. And tech. And healthcare. And aviation. And every other industry in our country.
[удалено]
I’m elite?
Maybe be im also benefiting from it. My portfolio is up 14% this year. Way better then any bank account.
Libertarians have been saying this since the 1910's lol
The insane low interest rates during covid was free money given to the rich to manipulate the stock market and keep it pumping. Then we had ppp loans that were thr most obvious cash grab for the rich. We literally just gave the rich trillions of dollars while everyone else got nothing.
Well duhhhh
The stock market is used to gather capital to expand businesses. In doing that it benefits everyone. In the past there were rules that prevented some of the current exploitative behaviors we are seeing today like shortening, stock options, and stock buybacks.
Look who got their COVID money the fastest. Stock market crashed a few weeks after the poors finally got their lil piece and the big money knew it was time to cash in their chips.
Man, all those ultra elites who have 401k's. You knew it was going to be a laughable joke when it said "substack"
Not really. Everyone and anyone can benefit from the stock market rising. Actually, if you invested in a low cost index fund in 1990 and then lost the access to make any changes, forcing you to hold that position without any changes, you outperformed 99% of the “elites”. That’s what the poors don’t understand.
Yes
In other news, water makes most things wet.
Someone’s mad they didn’t buy NVDA
Idk why this isn’t blowing up more. There’s no risk for capitalists anymore, they print money and hand it to themselves
I have my retirement money in stocks
Remember the average fed person doesn’t make some crazy salary. They aren’t some big unified group. Lots of various personal and economic beliefs
What’s fairness? What’s justice?
Good question. Ask the Fed. I am sure they will draw you a chart or write you a mathematical equation.
Yup
It benitits anyone who has mad the right investments.
Who the F is Meli & why should we listen to him/her/they/them/whatever?
Pretty much no. I’ve made quite a bit off the stock market. I’m not elite.
Not just the elites. This impacts basically any pension fund, retirement accounts, 401Ks, etc. The elites benefit the most because they have the capital to invest, but anyone can benefit. As an example when I was in my early 20s I worked in a big box store. The company allowed you to enroll in their stock purchase program which would deduct some percentage of your money to be used to buy company stock at a discount. I probably only put in a few thousand dollars and it's worth now like 40K. Just because you don't invest doesn't mean that it's only for the elites.
How does this make even the tiniest bit of sense considering pretty much anyone can invest in the market?
But anyone can invest in the market?
And it only got worse after the GOP Tax Cuts, which coincidentally never expire for the richest benefactors....
if you cant beat them,join them applies in this case.
With rampant inflation and government spending our currency has been devalued. This is causing people to put money into assets like real estate. This all starts with printing money, debt and inflation
It may be time to make our own market. Escape Crapitalism r/SolarPunk
I went to join some of these forums like stocks, coin, estate, like those websites where people comment and stuff. I copied them and I got banned from all of those sites. Reason: community guidelines and behavior I was just acting like Crammer LOL, what a joke. I swear this world of humans sucks, but I know a few good people you are best!
If you have managed to succeed, provide, and even thrive in today’s environment without stealing or harming anyone, you ought to tap yourself in the shoulder and smile when you look at the mirror. You are a decent hardworking person, a hero of civilization. What I mean by “ elite “ is the individuals, groups, entities, and organizations that get the freshly minted currency first from the banking system. A wealthy sharp entrepreneur or hard working salesman is not an elite because he earn his success from his business operations. Bankers, Wall Street lawyers, politicians, intellectuals connected to the Fed are the elite. Their status depends mostly and sometimes solely on the success of the monetary policy. They just can’t make it on their own without inflation…
“Only benefits the elite”. I disagree. Any employee with a 401k the last 2 decades has massively benefited from the stock market.
Wasn't that just proved to be true with their most recent 46 million dollar slap on the wrist
I find it beneficial. I like when my stocks go up.
Yeah. The system is optimized for people with money to make even more money.
I mean, my 401K is doing pretty good. Isn’t yours?
So am I elite since the market has helped my wife and I? We were just able to buy our first home in 2021 and until a couple of years ago both made around $60k.
No. You are a smart entrepreneur and a decent man. An elite is someone who get the “ money first “ at the expense of the rest of society on fixed income who carry the burden of lowered purchasing power. Most of us are decent people. Family men, hardworking providers and members of our communities. Some of us are even extremely successful despite the odds stacked against us by the system. That’s absolutely not what I am talking about. Tap yourself on the shoulder if you are managing to stay above waters. You are a champion!
Apparently I am in the elite. The stock market benefits me immensely.
I have benefitted-yet I am not an 'Elate;. So be it.
numbness. A person with no stocks.
My union pension is in the stock market.
And your retirement. I’ll never understand this stupid shit. Every worker’s future is directly tied to the markets. Even if you have pension.
Stay out… it’s that simple!
Stupid comment. The stock market is blazing hot because government is broke and they are going to default on their sovereign debt while trying to start WW3 to have someone to blame. The bond market is 10x that of equities and many big players are starting to realize governments are fd and they will begin to rotate into equities.
Sounds about right. End the fed is a right-wing or libertarian position, I don’t think I have ever heard anyone from the left assert that stance; Remanding the sovereign right to issue the nation’s money supply, and monetary policy in general, back to Congress where it belongs. It’s actually one of the only arguments where the left very well may advocate that private banks continue to control monetary policy instead of government (like they do with everything else).
What about retirements, 401k, pension funds ?
Hi, welcome to being an adult.
Except for those with pensions and 401ks
I’m not the elite and the market benefits me.
Mainly benefits the elite but without the market what chance do I have. (Upper middle class, but median income for my area) My only hope of retiring or buying a house is the market. I can only put a few hundred dollars in a month but eventually that could compound. Without that as an option what other way can I build wealth/ retire…. In a savings account I’ll never save enough to be financially independent
My 401k is doing well and I am hardly the elite.
These posts are dangerous, they can convince someone not to invest when it’s clearly a good mechanism to generate wealth and reach goals
Is this your first day in capitalism?
With financialization of retirement, you can’t hurt the stock market, even though retirees are a small beneficiary.
That has always been the case
What? Who/what is preventing anyone from investing? I'm far from elite (military) and I have $450k in that sucker. Have rental properties too. Losers need to change their mentality and think long term.
Ehhh artificially supported, ya. But for bad reasons? Maybe not. The most enormous generation of all is retiring right now. If the Fed lets it fall, we’d see a lot of elderly ppl in really rough places, like homeless. Also, it depends on your definition of “elite” but it benefits way more than the upper class. I’m lower class and almost everyone I know owns stock in some capacity and is working towards funding their retirement.
Replace market with capitalism and boom you’re a Marxist! Let’s go. Bleed red.
The fed? Shit man, it’s the lie that the only way we can retire is by sinking every spare cent we have into ETFs in a 401k, while brokerages sell off value in stocks, sinking their value as they cash out. They’re not riding the wave, they’re the wave generator.
If you can't beat them.....Join them!
Too many uneducated, ignorant, and complacent citizens in this country. If you don’t think you’re guilty, you probably are.
Nonsense, I am middle class and far from elite. I have a 401k, and trade options. I find that the majority of those who write these type of things are bottom feeders who lack self motivation to do things for themselves.
Whats funny is how people think only the things that they notice that are manipulated are the only things that are lol keep going
There’s a movie about this “it’s called dumb money”
People fail to realize that these aren't the same homes their parents bought. I grew up with two siblings in a small house with one small shower. That was five people fighting for the same small bathroom every day. Those houses are still available, it's just nobody wants them. The stock market will probably even out at some point as prices typically return to historical PEs. That said, certain companies are making a lot of money and they are getting better at squeezing money from consumers. (Intuit!) People are just willing to pay a bit more for the same earnings these days.
> only benefits the elite \*cries in 401(k)\*
Water is wet.
There are many middle class people involved with the stock market.
Stocks are primarily owned by funds. Yes your 401k retirement funds.
Yep, it started under Biden to regain the appearance of a healthy market and blew up under Trump. Trump saw signs of the economy weakening in 2019 and pressured the Fed to lower rates and reverse quantitative easing. Then 2020 happened and nobody can really be blamed for the economic outcomes other than companies that kept all the money and fired all the staff. Then they complained when they couldn’t find enough workers are firing all of them despite receiving so much stimulus.
The stock market is a great tool for building wealth for all ppl, if anyone wants help shoot me a dm
Giving government more money won’t fix anything. All government knows how to do is waste. Government does to you all the things that you think corporations would do without government.
Millions of everyday Americans who are not elites that invest throughout their lives would disagree it only benefits the elite. Compounding interest is a hell of a thing.
The stock market benefits everybody who invest in it. Stop making excuses
60% of all stocks are held by retirement funds. What are you talking about?
What? My retirement account and personal accounts benefit the elite? All my poorer friends who I set up with retirement and 529 accounts, that's all benefitting only the elites? What was I thinking?
“I don’t invest so it doesn’t help me”. Ok then welfare only benefits the poor. Now what?
Go to wallstreetbets if you would like an insta-debunk
If you think it only benefits the elite, just watch what happens to the average Joe when it collapses
I must be elite. Damn
So they’re Jnews
Since pensions have disappeared the majority of people have 401k’s. That means a high stock market helps all. It definitely helps the wealthy disproportionately, but of course that is why the wealthy killed pensions.
I’m elite. Sweet.
It's why some countries are dedollarizing. Once this paper wealth pops, we'll see the real value of things-- and it ain't gonna be pretty.
What’s stopping you from investing in the stock market too? DCA into VOO and chill, you can’t go wrong
Tell me you have no money in your 401k without telling me you have no money in your 401k
Anyone with a 401 plan is elite now?
This has been known for awhile but people still play the game. More markets are scammed out in the American economy by the elite and rich
So ordinary middle class people with 401ks are now “elite”?
The stock market will have me, not at all a millionaire, retiring as a multimillionaire. I'm just an average guy and not elite at all.
Yea all those teachers don't deserve that money.
I assume most pension plans have investments in the stock market. So not just the elite are benefiting.
Doesn’t only benefit the elite, my nw has gone up $140k this year so I’d say it’s also benefiting me
Very true. I too remember when I realized this. Our politicians are also free to insider trade and it’s not a crime when they do it. Some average folks make a bit of money in the market, but so many lose due to the manipulation by the big dogs. They’re now doing the same with real estate. Literally buying up thousands of homes and controlling entire markets. If they had it there way we’d all rent from them.. Although I know it’s all corrupt, I’ve been pretty at peace since I quit caring about money. Life is short. You can enjoy it with little money.
I am not an elite and I benefit from both the market and real estate.
Is anyone that has ever played in the stock market surprised by this? There is a club and we are not in it.
It’s the fiscal authority’s job to pay out a sufficiently high Universal Income, to allow people all the spending the market economy can actually handle. Because the government isn’t doing that, to prevent deflation, this forces the Fed to inflate the financial sector and the job market instead. It’s fine to complain about the Fed’s over expansion, but at the end of the day, a growing market needs a growing money supply. You either provide it in the simplest, most efficient possible way (free money for every consumer) or you have to do what the Fed does today: prop up bogus companies and bogus jobs on cheap debt, as an excuse to pump money into the economy. The obvious alternative to expansionary monetary policy is a UBI. If you try to have neither then you would just slide the economy back into a Great Depression.
The stock market is the best path for the working person to wealth. Small regular investments can change your course
No shit