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Originally posted by onetime2
Now, let's throw the stock market into this. It used to be a wealthy man's game but today you see people from Wall Street tycoons to janitors riding the bus with investments in the market. Access to the market in the form of direct stock purchases, 401ks and other investment accounts make it possible for millions to benefit over the long term without anything more being put into their paychecks.
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See
this page for some interesting numbers about stock ownership...
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About half of American households own stock either directly or through a mutual fund. However, over 86 percent of the value of all stocks and mutual funds, including pensions, was held by the top 10 percent of households. In 1998, the top 1 percent of Americans owned 47.7 percent of all stock, while the bottom 80 percent owned 4.1 percent.
Between 1989 and 1998, nearly 35 percent of all stock market gains went to the top 1 percent of shareholders. 64 percent of American households have stock holdings worth $5,000 or less, or own no stock at all.
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The idea that janitors are equal partners in the "stock game" is a recent American conservative illusion.
Here are some other economic tidbits from the same site:
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# The top 10% own 71% of all private wealth.
# The top 1% now own more than the bottom 90%.
# Among the industrialized nations, the U.S. has the highest concentration of individual wealth -- roughly 3 times that of the No. 2 nation, Germany. (UN Human Development Report, 1998)
In the 22 years between 1976 and 1998, the share of the nation's private wealth held by the top 1% nearly doubled, going from 22% to 38%. During those two decades, the size of the overall "wealth pie" grew, but the ownership of that wealth is now more concentrated than at any time since the 1920s.
In 1982 the wealthiest 400 individuals in the "Forbes 400" owned $92 billion. By 2000 their wealth increased to over $1.2 trillion.
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So there is obviously lots 'o money out there. Why hasn't it trickled down?
If you argue that gains have been made by the bottom 40% of society, I'd like to see some numbers that back this up.