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40 years ago, there were many fewer stock market participants, and many more retirees on fixed income. Now it's relatively rare to retire with a fixed-income p
by xapata 5y ago
40 years ago, there were many fewer stock market participants, and many more retirees on fixed income. Now it's relatively rare to retire with a fixed-income pension. More of us are shareholders now, with IRAs and 401ks.
- ledauphin 5y agomost of _us_, I can easily believe. But most _people_ in the Western world? I'd like to see some references.
- xapata 5y agoI don't know about the "Western world" but in the US stock ownership is dramatically more prevalent. At the same time, pension plans have nearly disappeared in the private sector. The ownership rates are trivially searchable. The 2nd link I found was a Gallup survey that estimated around 60% of US residents, which is roughly 1.5x the portion that have a college degree. If you're thinking of the poor, Social Security payments increase with inflation, so they're not quite fixed-income.