"Roughly 58% of American adults own stock"

This includes my teenager, who socks away $30/week in a VOO fund account. But yeah, no one can afford to "own (shares in?) the robot factories."

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drusepth 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Some other interesting stats for context:

* About 87% of adults with a household income of $100,000 or more own stock; compared to just 28% of those earning under $50,000.

* Only about 37% of adults hold stocks, bonds, or funds outside of a retirement account.

* Between 55% and 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are one large expense or missed paycheck away from homelessness.

* While some paycheck-to-paycheck workers technically own small amounts of stock, the actual value they hold is minimal.

* The wealthiest 10% of Americans own roughly 90% to 95% of all U.S. stock value.

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phainopepla2 2 hours ago | parent [-]

I am very concerned about wealth inequality in the US, but this:

> Between 55% and 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are one large expense or missed paycheck away from homelessness.

Is simply untrue

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drusepth an hour ago | parent [-]

It's a pretty well-known stat that I think originally came from one of Schwab's detailed Modern Wealth Index reports -- which are survey-based so there is likely some inaccuracy; they report 3% margin of error -- but other similar studies generally put the number somewhere between 53% and 63%.

From their methodology:

> The Modern Wealth Index, developed in partnership with Koski Research and the Schwab Center for Financial Research [...] was conducted by Koski Research from January 12 to January 19, 2018, among 1,000 Americans aged 21 to 75. Quotas were set so that the sample is as demographically representative as possible. The margin of error for the total survey sample is three percentage points.

Anecdotally, this percentage makes sense to me based on roughly half of the people in my circles/family/life living paycheck to paycheck, but there's obviously some exposure bias at work there too. It's possible you have some exposure bias as well if that number seems too high for you.

	▲	phainopepla2 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Without an explicit definition of what "paycheck to paycheck" actually means, the survey data can't be taken as accurate. I have no problem believing that for a large portion of the population (perhaps over half) a missed paycheck would be a big problem, but I absolutely do not believe that 60% are a missed paycheck away from homelessness, which is what you originally claimed. According to some recent data[0], 22% of households earning above $250k report themselves as living paycheck to paycheck. That alone tells me that the term can have very different meanings for different people. Perhaps those high earners mean that after all the taxes, retirement and ESPP deductions are taken out of their paycheck, what's left over is just enough to pay for their lifestyle. That's not what I would call paycheck-to-paycheck. And whatever the definition, I can assure you that 22% of the households in that income bracket are not a paycheck away from homelessness. [0] https://www.lambdafin.com/articles/percent-of-americans-livi...

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a2ff6eeb0 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The median American has a 401k, yes. The median amount of stock owned is, I believe, $40,000 -- so, at the recommended annual withdrawal rate, that puts you at $1,600/year of spending money.

Let's assume that the stock market 10xes in the next decade, then the median American stock owner can get out $16,000/year.

	▲	lp0_on_fire 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I say this in jest, but at the rate inflation has been going $16k per year might buy you a hamburger in 10 years.