55% of Americans have shares in the stock market...

you probably never will.

 

More American should be investing in the stock market. For most, nothing is stopping them.

Obviously some percentage of the population needs every dollar then earn to sustain the bare necessities of life but what percentage of Americans is that?

A lot of Americans are absolute dipshits with money. Some dudes working as bureaucrats, teachers or janitors making uninspiring money retire with millions and some people making 6 figures don’t have a pot to piss in.

It’s not all sad sack cases. There’s plenty of financial irresponsibility going on in this country.

 

Some? As in like, two?

 

I don't know that they keep a list of such individuals anywhere.... I know they exist and that anyone else can do it too.

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/29/janitor-secretly-amassed-an-8-million-fortune.html

and I know Andrew Hallam author of "Millionaire Teacher" was a millionaire by 40 working as a school teacher.

These dudes aren't aliens. Anyone can do what they did.

 

The fact that these guys wrote bestselling books and get featured in articles kind of completely defeats the idea that they aren't the exception to the rule.

 

You have its completely backwards.

In fact, the entire point of the book and illustrating the janitors story is that anyone can do what they did.

These guys didn’t just hit a winning stock or something.

They did exactly what anyone else is capable of doing.

They lived frugally, didn’t make any financial mistakes and reaped the rewards on mediocre (at best) incomes.

What did they do that anyone else isn’t capable of?

 

People who do something easy and common don't get articles written about them or tell stories that garner a lot of attention.

"Can" is irrelevant here.

 

Who said it was easy?

Most anyone can do it. People make the choice not to. That’s on them.

How is “can” irrelevant? I came in this thread to point out people of middling incomes can become millionaires if they are financially prudent and gave examples of people doing so.

Nothing is stopping the vast majority besides their own financial imprudence.

 

@London'sBurning I have a lot of experience with cpf. It's a forced retirement savings program for employed ppl, but the savings can be used earlier for buying a home, medical expenses, and a limited portion on alternative investments like etfs. Interest rates on savings are better than bank rates, but not what you'd get by investing in shares. What it doesn't address is people who do not work, like housewives.

In the end, a forced savings program can reduce the number of stupid decisions people make, but to solve the economic issues you want to solve will require something else. Imo, it goes back to improving productivity and the value of each worker to keep competitive in the global economy. How? Invest in education, infrastructure (esp internet access), etc.

 

Dude the GOP has zero interest in helping the average Joe or Joanna. And what are you referencing as net negatives? Unlike tax cuts for the rich, money dispersed to poor or middle class goes right back into the economy. Programs like SNAP generate over a dollar for each dollar spent.

 

87% of Americans have loose change in their couches

 

I'm down with the sentiment for sure. Just so we're clear. I'd be down with your idea if I thought it had a chance of passing. It's worse than social security, mainly because, and I just saw this happen, if you're going to retire and it hits right on a downturn, your principal gets eaten up and then you're ****ed. It's why pensions are preferrable for workers and why business has gone all out to destroy pensions.

But hey, start a petition. Hayesstreet will sign it.

 

It's a common conservative principle to think that anything can be accomplished, by anyone, if but for their own gumption and force of will.

This is simply not true.

Further, something being technically possible to achieve does not by any stretch mean that the possibility of achieving it is optimal for society.

For example, we put a lot of arbitrary restrictions on certain professions. Healthcare is a good example. Many, many needless walls and obstacles are erected by that profession to keep scarcity artificially high.

Do I have the opportunity to become a doctor? Sure. Is it likely at all I will become one? No. Especially not if I am born into disadvantageous circumstances.

Most people cannot do most things. Especially things which are difficult, such as retiring with multiple millions as a person working a job that puts you in the bottom half of wage earners in America.

You holding up a few shining examples of people achieving this and propagating it as normal or easy (make no mistake, your "anyone can do this" attitude is conveying exactly that, whether you mean it or not) is the opposite of helpful in furthering the goal of making sure more working class people can retire comfortably.

If this were easy, it would be commonplace. A janitor or teacher retiring with multiple millions of dollars gets an article written about them or a big book publishing deal for the sheer reason it is difficult and uncommon.

If your argument is "hey, the door is open, not my fault you're not walking through it" then maybe you should stop for a moment and think about why the vast majority of people aren't taking your seemingly simple and easy-to-follow advice. Who is more likely to be wrong? You, or those tens of millions of people? Perhaps the barrier to entry is a lot more complicated than you think.

 

Yes they are stereotypes for a reason. People in power who want to maintain the status quo want citizens to hold these beliefs that corporatocracy is more efficient while government is a waste. Reagan, the og charismatic dumbass before Donald, really hammered this home for the conservative movement to the point where it's deeply ingrained in more than half of American heads.

 

1% own close to 90% of the stock.
That is fine as 55% own at least a few shares or have money in etf's or mutual funds..
90% of Americans have a bank account.

All is fine. Be content.

 

London'sBurning is the actual Billionaire Bill Ackman


https://www.businessinsider.com/bil...h-birth-universal-basic-income-equity-2020-12