That 10% number has certainly been making the rounds, almost like a talking point. However, that’s literal nonsense. > People are finally starting to notice an

That 10% number has certainly been making the rounds, almost like a talking point. However, that’s literal nonsense. > People are finally starting to notice and point out. Incorrectly. Every person in America with a pension or a retirement account has significant exposure to the stock market. Universities and their endowments, which make institutionally awarded need based financial aid possible directly benefit from the stock market. Casualty (and other) insurance companies directly benefit from the stock market which affects their profitability and thus their ability to write policies at reasonable rates; it also affects the reinsurance market which can mean the difference between a large housing development being built or not, or a new industrial plant opening or not. This “only benefits the top 10%” talking point is so ridiculous as to not be worthy of comment, but since it keeps popping up from people who have a political interest in talking down the economy, it should be addressed before more people actually start to believe that tripe. The origin of that “10%” number was from a CNBC report that said “the richest 10% own 85% of individually traded stocks.” However that statistic conveniently excludes mutual funds — which generally consist of a basket of individually traded stocks packaged together. So if I own $1 million in a Fidelity mutual fund, I am not considered as owning “individually traded stocks.” So, to use that “only benefits the top 10%” number, then that would say that the stock market doesn’t benefit me because I only own shares in a mutual fund. Which is complete baloney. When Trump calls out fake news, this is exactly the kind of thing he’s referring to: a statement that a rising market only benefits the top 10% because they own 85% of individually traded stocks — while that is completely false because everyone that owns shares of a mutual fund (the majority of American families in fact,) doesn’t benefit. And your statement “the vast majority” don’t own stocks, that’s also a lie, according to Gallup: https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-owns-stock.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-own... Even if Gallup was off by 10%, which would be a huge margin or error, that’s still nowhere close to a “vast” majority. Now to be fair, you did stick in a qualifier there “little” but that is meaningless. How much is “little?” And how do you know how prevalent “little” vs. “none” is? It’s just a meaningless distraction to protect against the fact that the majority of Americans own stock and even those that don’t own stock benefit from a good economy. Very low unemployment means tighter labor market which means wage competition. It would seem that the economy could be absolutely perfect but those of different political stripes would be wishing its downfall just to win an election. Didn’t Bill Maher or one of those hosts actually wish for a recession so it would make it easier to beat Trump? Some sick people that would wish for people to lose their jobs and homes in order to beat Republicans. We can have honest policy debates. But let’s not trade in misrepresentations to win political points.