Fun fact. The S&P 500 is now up more than 200% from its March '09 low: pic.twitter.com/Z2KwjmOR0F
— Jamie McGeever (@ReutersJamie) November 11, 2014
This caught my attention today. Since the Republicans kicked ass in the midterm elections last week I’ve seen a lot of “here’s what you gave up” type media from the Left. Some of it is completely valid and the professional Right, I’m sure, knows that Obama’s done pretty well for the country in some ways.
However, using the stock market as an example of how great a presidency Barack Obama has had is just silly. Why? Because less than half of Americans even own stocks and even in the group that owns them they’re mainly concentrated among the wealthy. Additionally, after the crash of 2008, middle America largely sold a lot of their stocks while the wealthy gobbled them up for bargain basement prices. How many Americans own stock? The answer will make clear what DOW success isn’t really worth mentioning in terms of what a candidate has done “for the average person.”
According to economist Edward N. Wolff at New York University, the wealthiest 1% of all Americans owned 35% of all the stock owned by U.S. households in 2010, a percentage that, due to recent market developments, is likely to have increased to as much as 38% today.
As of 2010, the richest 5% of U.S. households owned about two-thirds of all outstanding stock, a number that is likely as high as 70% today.
https://twitter.com/WYVeteran/status/530526940743340033
Right, so a thriving stock basically helps rich people. It’s beyond me why the Democrats think this is something worth touting. It’s antithetical to what they’re even supposed to care about which is the middle class and working class. If these two groups of people are doing well then it shows the nation as a whole is doing well.
But they’re not doing well and they haven’t been for a long time. Here’s a St. Louis Federal Reserve graph that shows that over the last 30 years wages as a percentage of GDP (all money made) have dropped meaning that wages and salaries have gone down.
What’s more, literally everyone knows this. The Left has been screaming about income inequality for years now and it’s a real problem.
So why talk about the stock market when it’s not an indicator of the average voter’s situation? Well, because people don’t seem to know that. People seem to think that a high stock market means a great economy. If that was true then this booming market we’ve got (record highs!) would equal a booming job market with lots of competition for workers and higher wages.
Nope. Don’t believe the hype. Wages are the only thing that matter to American working people, specifically those with families. In pushing stock market numbers as a primary accomplishment, the Democratic media machines that push these messages show just how out of touch they really are and explains why people “stick to God and guns.” Those are two things that, in theory at least, can’t be taken from you. 
