The Myth of the Populist Stock Market

[EVDebs]

"The Myth of the populist stock market"

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0108/p09s01-coop.html

tells us that "At the height of the boom, however, the bottom three-quarters of American households owned less than 15 percent of all stock. Barely a third of households hold more than $5,000 in stock. Most Americans have more debt on their credit cards than money in their mutual funds."

Yet these neocon swindlers are about to push the country into a Social Security experiment that is both unwise as it is unnecessary. The budget deficit and the current accounts (trade) deficit are both made WORSE by what the administration is doing with SS, yet they continue on with this populist rationale for private accounts...I've even heard some of this 'over 50% of the country owns stocks' b.s. all over again, and you'd swear to yourself these guys believe we're where we were in 1999 pre-recession.

Maybe I ought to add the preface to the quote from above...

"Can Americans possibly fall once more for this nonsense? Maybe. The scandals of recent years, most lately in the mutual-fund industry, have done little to debunk the notion that Wall Street is geared toward ordinary investors and that stocks offer a universal path to wealth creation."

The answer is YES, we can fall victim AGAIN.

[FormerDittoHead]

1. Related in most ways

from those "commies" at:
Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis
http://www.osjspm.org/101_wealth.htm
pick your favorite statistic!

[Thurston Howell IV]

5. Great link!

Thanks!

It seems that most people think they're higher up the ladder than they really are. The Bushies take advantage of that misunderstanding.

The "Change in Average Net Wealth, 1983-1998" chart is a killer. The bottom 76% lost 40% of their wealth (probably by accumulating credit card debt) while the top 1% gained 40% more wealth.

[teryang]

2. Bigger and better ways to rip off the public

...this is what the base that supports the fascist regime is all about. This attack on social security is about greed, cronyism and ideological extremism.

People should keep in mind that it will result in human suffering in a very real and widespread way for the elderly and disabled and their survivors, as well a loss in human dignity.

One is reminded of Enron executives laughing about ripping off little old ladies.

[TheFarseer]

3. And what happens when this new stock bubble bursts

and Ken Lay types run off with our retirement money? Oh yeah, that's the whole idea.

[EVDebs]

4. They aren't looking at that, these CATO institute supplysiders

simply want to rid the globalized corporations of one final social responsibility in the US, that is the PAYROLL TAX. To do that they need to create fear...and the mainstreammedia MSM or more accurately the corporate-captive-media CCM are perfectly willing to drop the ball on reporting the truth about this. Witness ABC snooze's recent piece on SS !

[hatrack]

6. Thomas Frank - "One Market Under God" - great book!

Be sure to get the second edition, which came out updated and revised post-9/11 and post-crash. Excellent, clear-eyed look at what the 1990s were really all about.