Indirectly it affects a lot more people. All the big corporations make major decisions (like layoffs) with the aim of “keeping our shareholders happy.”
When their stock price tanks, layoffs are usually what follows in short order
Stock is a claim on future profits. Stock prices are dropping because investors expect these companies to be less profitable. A lot of "keeping shareholders happy" is displacing blame from people actually doing the layoffs. Layoffs and stock price drops usually have the same cause: bad fundamentals
Not so. The Felon-in-chief is putting in high tariffs. That is why the market is plummeting. High tariffs, means high prices on everything we need. From washers to door handles.
If you believe fundamentals has been the primary driver of stock prices over the last ten years, you’re thinking in a theoretical world divorced from reality.
True but the genius of ‘we should transform pensions into investing their own hard earned incomes into 401k type investments’ means a great deal of Americans are watching those retirement funds drop.
Also, this clown Doug Borgum wants freshly made cookies, multicourse meals for friends, and flights on a rescue helicopter. Now this is waste and abuse!! Each time a pilot turns Air Force 1 engine, and those paraded golf carts, are paid for by our tax dollars?? And here we need to work longer !
This last weekend too it was helicopter (rather then the armored car parade as usual) to Air Force one & then off Air Force one on to helicopter to the 9th hole at his golf course. I can’t even imagine the cost.
Not to mention, about 20 people shipped illegally, on a cargo plane, to a cruel prison camp. My belief is that, the clown's friend owns the El Salvador prison, who is collecting millions of dollars from our government! Tax payers' dollars!! Waste & abuse??
Exactly. We, the citizens put in years of tax and money for Social Security, and now the Felon-in-chief, and Muskrat are stealing our tax funds from programs which are provided for us, the people. The rich does not want to spend one dime of tax.
I always laugh when I’m asked about my IRA account….
I became a stay at home mom and after my divorce I had to liquidate my IRA to support my kids and sure couldn’t start a new one
But also when wealthy people are doing badly, poor people can only do worse, as spending disappears, jobs disappear, aid and charity disappears, and most of all, opportunity disappears
When wealthy people do badly, there is opportunity for others to become wealthy.This is what is broken from the system. The opportunities for people to rise up from poverty are slim. When people start realizing this, systems collapse. This is what largely has happened in Latam.
The stock market is the canary in the coal mine. In the coming weeks a lot of small business will have to decide if they can still operate and make a profit in our new economic reality. Many will have to close.
Nobody is saying, the stock market doesn’t matter.
What we are saying is that when it comes to Tyhe majority of Americans’ political opinions and how they choose to vote, the stock market doesn’t influence them. And it’s because it doesn’t affect them directly on a day-to-day basis.
Lol what? Do you think only rich people invest? Do you not care unless your definition of "poor" people gets affected? Like what's the point of your post other than to be quippy.
Yes the rich hord the bulk of the money. And what do you think everybody else just sits on their hands? What is the point you're trying to make exactly?
Yeah, like what do people think their pension plans are invested in?
I'm not rich, but I have RRSP's, at the moment they're mostly cash to avoid the crash, but gotta invest in something.
What do people think mutual funds are?
That's what it's mostly in now, but normally a savings account just is barely enough to keep up with inflation. Gotta invest at some point if you want decent returns.
This isn’t entirely true. Plenty of us regular, working people have 401ks. Yes, many Americans don’t, but many of us do and are watching our meager retirement savings get more meager.
Depends, if it's a company pension, you can't pull it out unless you don't work there any longer. When you do, it can go into a personal retirement fund called a LIRA without penalty.
If it's a RRSP, the equivalent of your IRA, you have to pay income tax on it.
^all simplified
But, the Felon in chief had a golf cart parade on the trail. Guess who paid for it?? We did baby! For him, every driver, pilot, city rescheduled for his visit, and gaseline, bills needed to be paid. Voters paid for all of this nonsense and more!
Yeah, it would still be prudent to convert to cash, but obviously better to have already done it.
I'm wondering if we don't have a huge crash on Monday, another Black Monday basically.
I understand your anxiety about the future, but that is nothing like the reality of living paycheck to paycheck with no savings at all.
Most people don’t care about the stock market. They care about ballooning rent and not going bankrupt from medical debt.
A lack of knowledge is never the problem. People don’t change their views when presented with new information study after study has shown us.
We can’t just inform and educate our way out of this. We need to meet people where they are.
Working class people have 401Ks invested in stocks, as well as the fact that companies will behave based on how stocks do, they just don't react as knee-jerk as the stock market does.
Poor people are going to be taxed by the tariffs while rich people will profit on the price hikes. This is bad.
During the period when the stocks were low, there has been some chattering in the chamber of Congress, which some members have taken advantage of buying stocks. And, they must disclose if they have done so, (Ortiz, 2025).
Stock price at some point reflects the success of the business. People work at businesses, the market thinks the business will perform worse. People might be fired and struggle instead of going to Disney land.
Anyone with an employer pension is almost certainly involved in the stock market irrespective of income
I know the pension model varies across countries but not being directly involved today shouldn’t mean people aren’t terrified (and I use that word advisedly)
This needs to find a bottom
That's why retirement funds and 401K's are a scam. They force the middle class to care about the stock market because the comfortable retirement that people work their entire lifetime for is tied to the rich getting richer.
Fair enough.
I just threw it out there as another means used to potentially have the working class invested in or defending the stock market system. But I guess not necessarily?
Do you think the equity position has totally disappeared and gone to zero? Look at historical returns on the stock market across any period of time. The point is that these policies have unnecessarily destroyed value for the near term but that doesn’t mean they won’t recover.
Other countries don't trust us anymore. We don't have any more invitations. China has other plans which will work for them just fine. Support from other countries. Basically all our household items came from China. The Felon-in-chief muck that up.
There's a relevent and timeless text post that comes to mind.
"I love that when the stock market goes up, it means absolutely nothing to those of us that aren't rich, and when the stock market goes down, it means we lose our jobs."
I agree with this sentiment. Policies that needlessly increase costs and drive down the market will have asymmetrical impacts on poor people. That doesn’t mean we should ignore the stock market as a key indicator of the economy. I think it’s the opposite.
My point is not that people shouldn't have retirement funds. That's the system as it stands.
I guess it's that people shouldn't need retirement funds dependent on the stock market which otherwise means absolutely nothing to the poor. I'm not offering a solution. I don't have one.
In comparison to a Utopia where everyone can retire comfortably with everything they want / need without any specific mechanism to achieve that, I agree that the current system is inferior
To call something that can and should be actively worked towards a "utopia" is incredibly defeatist. "Why try for better when we are currently just barely surviving."
We can change the system. We created it and put it in place. It's not even that old, it's just what we know right now.
We can protest by not buying certain products in some areas. They need us more than we need them. Consumers can make or break businesses. The people have the POWER!!
The parts of the economy they cared about were the parts that directly affect their everyday lives, like the price of necessities.
You may consider that shortsighted or irrational, but it is how their thoughts work.
The stock market is not the economy. At least not from the perspective of most Americans.
The stock market was doing tremendously well on election day. If most Americans cared about the stock market, Harris would be president.
Pensions used to be paid by the company. Politicians, bought by wealthy donors, forced 401ks over pensions to manipulate their workers and voters into believing the stock market matters. It's literally the ball and chain around people's lively hood. If the wealthy own 80% of the stock market....
You realize that most pensions disappeared years ago and large companies offer 401k but the vast majority of workers in the United States work for small companies and don’t have any of these options
Low-income workers:
A staggering 74.8 percent of full-time workers in the lowest-earning decile (earning less than $26,400 a year) lack access to a retirement plan, compared to 17.3 percent in the highest-earning decile (earning more than $174,300 a year).
Having access to a 401 k is not a retirement or pension plan.over60 percent of businesses in USA are 12 employees or less and 401k options through local chamber of commerce etc are not retirement plans . The majority of folks in this country have no company funded retirement/partially funded at all
True, however your retirement fund/pension isn’t going to make you a wealthy retiree. Unless you are already wealthy, and play the stock market, on top of what you will get for your retirement. I believe that’s what he meant by wealthy. The individuals who invest, not the retirement pensions.
Comments
When their stock price tanks, layoffs are usually what follows in short order
It's not looking good.
I became a stay at home mom and after my divorce I had to liquidate my IRA to support my kids and sure couldn’t start a new one
The economy is very dependent on everything going smoothly.
Just because the top 10% owns a disproportionate amount doesn’t mean stocks aren’t relevant to the rest of us
What we are saying is that when it comes to Tyhe majority of Americans’ political opinions and how they choose to vote, the stock market doesn’t influence them. And it’s because it doesn’t affect them directly on a day-to-day basis.
Predictability is good for business.
Chaos is not.
I'm not rich, but I have RRSP's, at the moment they're mostly cash to avoid the crash, but gotta invest in something.
What do people think mutual funds are?
I'll put money back in after we hit bottom, just don't know when that might be.
Glad I'm also collecting from a defined benefits pension plan
Do you have to pull it out to control it?
We have a different system in Canada.
If it's a RRSP, the equivalent of your IRA, you have to pay income tax on it.
^all simplified
This isn’t even the opening chapter.
And never forget, when a stock has already declined by 90%, it can still decline by another 90%.
I'm wondering if we don't have a huge crash on Monday, another Black Monday basically.
Most people don’t care about the stock market. They care about ballooning rent and not going bankrupt from medical debt.
We can’t just inform and educate our way out of this. We need to meet people where they are.
Poor people are going to be taxed by the tariffs while rich people will profit on the price hikes. This is bad.
I know the pension model varies across countries but not being directly involved today shouldn’t mean people aren’t terrified (and I use that word advisedly)
This needs to find a bottom
I just threw it out there as another means used to potentially have the working class invested in or defending the stock market system. But I guess not necessarily?
Would you rather people just stuff the money in a sock under their mattress as savings?
What point are you trying to make here?
"I love that when the stock market goes up, it means absolutely nothing to those of us that aren't rich, and when the stock market goes down, it means we lose our jobs."
I guess it's that people shouldn't need retirement funds dependent on the stock market which otherwise means absolutely nothing to the poor. I'm not offering a solution. I don't have one.
We can change the system. We created it and put it in place. It's not even that old, it's just what we know right now.
A stock market provides people the easiest, most transparent, and most liquid way to invest their retirement funds.
Pension plans can only provide defined benefits by investing in the mkt behind the scenes.
You may consider that shortsighted or irrational, but it is how their thoughts work.
The stock market was doing tremendously well on election day. If most Americans cared about the stock market, Harris would be president.
A staggering 74.8 percent of full-time workers in the lowest-earning decile (earning less than $26,400 a year) lack access to a retirement plan, compared to 17.3 percent in the highest-earning decile (earning more than $174,300 a year).