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I'm so lost in this article. How can the bottom 80% be subsisting off capital gains? And is that table saying they're netting 300+% YoY in capital gains? That n

I'm so lost in this article. How can the bottom 80% be subsisting off capital gains? And is that table saying they're netting 300+% YoY in capital gains? That number is pretty squarely in the "that can't be right" territory for me?¹ Even if I reinterpret "bottom 80%" as "top 80%" and assume we've somehow inverted everybody because it's the rich that would be spending more than their income, as they'd have significant gains … I'm still lost? Do 80% of Americans have investments? The feeling I get talking to people is that most people don't, outside of a 401k, but they wouldn't be spending from the 401k (unless they were in retirement … but that brings us back to 80%). ¹… except 2018, where they got only 7%? … and yeah, that was a bad year…

jhp123 3y ago
Pretty sure it's retirees. They have low income because they are not working. But many of them are very well off. The rich retirees skew the average up even though most of the bottom 80% have little investment income.
- embersbreaking 3y ago
  Interesting, I just pulled this the other day. Average (mean) bottom-20 household has 18 K in checking deposit assets and 200 K in total assets. even while that quintile’s income caps at $32K. America is a very rich country…
  - acdha 3y ago
    Do you remember where you saw that? The Census figures are much lower: $11k total assets at the 25th percentile, $-1.5k at the 10th. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2022/demo/p70br-181.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio...
    - embersbreaking 3y ago
      Have fun...! https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755563199238431211 https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755563199238431211 https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755633196522409995 https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755633196522409995
embersbreaking 3y ago
Might read the title of that table again.

jhp123 3y ago

Pretty sure it's retirees. They have low income because they are not working. But many of them are very well off. The rich retirees skew the average up even though most of the bottom 80% have little investment income.

embersbreaking 3y ago
Interesting, I just pulled this the other day. Average (mean) bottom-20 household has 18 K in checking deposit assets and 200 K in total assets. even while that quintile’s income caps at $32K. America is a very rich country…
- acdha 3y ago
  Do you remember where you saw that? The Census figures are much lower: $11k total assets at the 25th percentile, $-1.5k at the 10th. https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2022/demo/p70br-181.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio...
  - embersbreaking 3y ago
    Have fun...! https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755563199238431211 https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755563199238431211 https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755633196522409995 https://twitter.com/asymptosis/status/1755633196522409995

embersbreaking 3y ago

Might read the title of that table again.