Both the DJ30 Industrial Average and the S&P500 Index set new closing highs for 2023...

Yay, wall street wins while main street is going under.

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Tell us more about this

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50% of the country doesn't own stocks. So these stock market rallies do nothing for half of the people, and inflation of prices has brutalized average and poor families. Wealthier people offset the pain of inflation by having their stock portfolio grow, main street only has pain.

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50% of the country doesn't own stocks. So these stock market rallies do nothing for half of the people,

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61% of Americans Own Stocks

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WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Gallup finds 61% of Americans reporting that they own stock, based on its April Economy and Personal Finance survey. This is up from the 56% measured in 2021 and 55% measured in 2020, and is the highest it has been since 2008.

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You really got me on that 11%, and consider that 61% factors in every single person who's contributed a single dollar to a 401k plan.

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Impressive saltiness.

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You seem disappointed that the stock market is doing well. Why is that? Is it because you’re being left out?

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No, I was simply explaining the answer to the question but it seems a lot of people are too up their own arse to even acknowledge a factual explanation.

Inflation has been a bitch, everything costs more. Luckily, the stock markets have been resilient and grown so that top 33% of the country has reaped great benefit which minimizes inflation pain. The bottom 39% is still scraping by, and gets no stock market gain but all the inflation pain. The middle 29% probably has an average of under 5k in the stock market and is getting almost no benefit but all inflation pain.

So when someone says "explain how Wall Street wins while Main Street goes under" that's the exact explanation. It's not something you can just dismiss because it's not your personal reality.

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Except your “facts” were wrong.

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The bottom 50% of U.S. adults holds only 0.6% of stocks, worth $21 billion.

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LINK

Sorry that I was off by that .6% and you refused to see past that to acknowledge the acutal point.

I'm really not sure why you're digging in so deep on such a stupid stance.

I say "half the country doesn't own stocks". You say "ha you fricking idiot, only 39% of the country doesn't own stocks". I say okay, I was a. little bit off, so 39% of the country doesn't own stocks and the next 11% owns .6%, so 50% of the country owns essentially no stocks (unless you're considering .6% a meaningful amount?). That is a statistically insignificant number in a conversation regarding several trillion dollars.

To your points:

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Frankly, I'm not sure why you even made your original statement in the first place.

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For the second time, someone asked for an explanation of why Main Street is purportedly suffering vs Wall Street getting a boon. This is the answer.

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Maybe you're just one of those people who can't be happy unless you're miserable, i.e., a perpetual victim.

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I have no clue where you're getting this from. I'm in great shape. I bought in a long time ago. I'm pleased with the results. They call this an ad hominem by the way.

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"Main Street" is NOT suffering

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This is an absolutely foolish statement that can only be made by someone disconnected from reality. I take it you just don't get around and talk with people in different situations than you. Not a single person on the lower end of the economic spectrum would agree with you.

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wage growth increasing by more than the inflation rate this year.

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Those inflation numbers are being goosed to make the administration and Fed look better. They leave out energy and food which is where the two largest increases have been. Families are struggling to keep food on the table and talk about it all the time, but tell me again how they're not suffering.

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the average family's net worth has increased more in the past 3 years (+37%) than in any three-year period since records have been kept.

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This is because of two main factors:

1 House values have shot through the roof at unheard of levels. People who already owned a house or multiple saw a massive uptick in net worth. The Wall Street crowd if you will. Most people in their primary residence without an easy capacity to up and move can't easily extract that value; you know, the Main Street crowd.

2 The stock market has risen sharply, greatly benefiting 50% of the country who owns 99.4% of the stocks but not doing much for the other half of the country that owns .6% of the stocks. Just FYI sensible people would equate .6% to being practically zero and not hyper fixate.

Again, all of this ties back to explaining the exceedingly simple point that apparently set your world on fire that a stock market rally as inflation persists benefits Wall Street and does nothing for Main Street.

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Sure, some people may not be benefiting from the current economy as much as other people, but that is ALWAYS true in every economic cycle. If you're waiting for that situation to change, you're going to be waiting for the rest of your life.

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Okay? I don't care? Who does? I didn't say there was anything wrong or unfair in the system. I was truly just explaining THAT IT IS HAPPENING.

Anyway, best of luck in your next attempt at learning.

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Not a single person on the lower end of the economic spectrum would agree with you.

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When in the history of the world would someone "on the lower end of the economic spectrum" NOT be experiencing economic suffering? Res ipsa locquitur...

Honestly all I was trying to state was that when inflation and stocks both go up, people without stocks don’t benefit while people with them do.

A small disagreement about stock ownership stats expanded, but everything else is probably subjective.