Tuesday, February 09, 2021

An investors' economy?

 Much has been claimed about "citizens" capitalism of how mobile telephone apps operated by the likes of Robinhood  makes buying shares easier and along with using social media the small investor can challenge the Wall St giant hedge funds. 

But reality begs to differ. 

Nearly half of Americans own no stock at all.

 Another quarter of the population have 401(k) retirement funds under $23,000

With bank account interest hovering around zero percent and at least a third of American families with nothing to invest, there's little chance that the poorest among us could participate in the passive get-rich savings plan of stock ownership.

The richest 10% of Americans own 84 percent of all stocks.

People who have money can buy stocks, wait for awhile, and ultimately get richer by doing nothing. But low-income Americans have to depend on wages for their fair share of national economic growth—and wages have barely budged in over 50 years

Opinion | The Year of Cheating the Poor (commondreams.org)

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