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What triggered this post was a Facebook meme claiming the wealthiest 0.1% have gained $4.4 trillion in the past two years, that they have grown their wealth at the expense of average Americans and that “without them your wealth would have doubled”
When I read that, my reaction is “that’s just wrong and so what, they earned it.” I wish I was that smart. But that is not the typical reaction. Many people readily believe such a meme and are willing to bash the wealthy. I think it is simply envy. I maintain that without the super wealthy many Americans would have less wealth than they do now, and some without a job.
Given the largest asset class of the super wealthy is equities, virtually everyone can build wealth as HD readers well know. We not may be capable of starting a company or new industry and changing the way people live in the process, but we can buy mutual funds and be a 80 percenter (about $3 million at age 65). No budget or spreadsheet required 🤑
As of Q4 2024, the top 0.1% of U.S. households held approximately $22.14 trillion in net worth. This figure is from the Federal Reserve and represents the net worth held by the 99.9th to 100th wealth percentiles. The average net worth for a household in the top 0.1% was $162 million as of Q4 2024.
The top 0.1% (around 134,000 households) owned roughly 15% of America’s total wealth as of Q3 2024. Their largest asset class was equities, valued at approximately $11 trillion.
The solution is easy, create a new company in your garage, issue an IPO and give yourself 20 million shares, wait a few years and bam! you’re an equity one percenter.
I’m not sure what the answer is but we have too many Americans living paycheck to paycheck, unable to afford a comfortable lifestyle without the worry of major medical and housing expenses. Whether that is the fault of the extremely wealthy, I don’t know.
Let’s not forget the spending portion of that equation. That is more than half the problem in many cases. It sure isn’t the fault of the wealthy. We have become a nation looking for others to blame.
I’m thinking if people are strapped, it is not because of overspending. Is it possible that our form of capitalism doesn’t work for the average American?
I think it’s a little of the economic conditions, like overpriced assets and low wage growth and tricky inflation, but it’s also definitely the spending habits of Americans on the whole that make things difficult. People think the government is inefficient at spending, but the American people on the whole are probably orders of magnitude less efficient with their money. We’ve lost the plot about needs and wants, and it doesn’t help that most companies are more than happy to foster this delusion. I mean, just look at all the car commercials out there advertising trucks that are the equivalent of a years salary or more… Yikes 😬