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The gap between America’s wealthiest and everyday citizens is the biggest it has been in generations
(www.the-independent.com)
this post was submitted on 12 May 2026
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NASDAQ has been doing 20-30% growth every year for over five years. A 20% rate of growth is a 150% ROI over that time. Is anyone else in the country seeing their net worth jump 150% since COVID?
A french economist named Thomas Picketty laid out how this had been going down way back in 2014. He pointed out that as rate of GDP growth was exceeded by ROI of capital, the divide between rich and poor would expand and the functions of the economy would increasingly turn to serving the plutocracy. Picketty was heckled out of the public discourse within a few years and has been functionally blacklisted from global media reporting since. But his truth goes marching on.
I don't own a piece of the wealth pie at all, in fact I'm in pie debt.
Pie debt illustrated
Thank you, exactly what I was referencing.
In net worth? Sure, -$1000 is technically a 150% jump from -$400.
I thought that name looked familiar. Capital in the Twenty-First Century. Not a spirit lifting book.
Setting aside the parts that are six Charles Dickens books in a blender, I thought it was a very sober and rational consideration of historical economic trends. Nice to see someone come in on the left side of the political spectrum and apply a bit of rigorous math to the problem of economic planning. That part felt very hopeful.
The response to the book was incredibly bleak, as it mostly amounted to corporate shills screaming "Fakes News!" and posting Laffer Curves, then flexing under a big libertarian-branded victory banner.
Does a net worth going from $100 to $250 count?
I'm not from the US, but yes. More than that, actually. The COVID dip is what got me started investing in index funds, and I pretty much doubled my wealth in just a few years. Investing in the stock market isn't only for the rich. I'm a plumber - I'm never getting rich by just saving money. Investing is the only realistic way for someone like me to build any kind of significant wealth, and I'm pissed at the school system for not teaching any of this. I lost a whole decade in the markets because of it, which is huge.
Yeah, massive wealth gaps are a real problem and will only get worse, but people can also take 50% of the time they spend complaining about billionaires and put it toward sorting out their own finances instead. It'll actually make a difference. It's not 100% the system's fault.
You can pocket a portion of your salary and invest it in another company's equity. But you're never going to outpace the bank selling you that stock they got at the IPO rate for the market clearing rate.
You can turn $50k into $250k with some savvy investment during a market boom. And $200k is a buncha-lotta money. Then you can keep riding the wave, turning that $250k into $1.25M. And maybe that's going to be enough to retire on.
But you're kidding yourself if you believe you'll ever be CEO-rich by just throwing quarters into a market that's moving multiple trillions a year at a profit. You're even more kidding yourself if you think even millionaire status will protect you from a major medical emergency or a natural disaster or an ugly lawsuit or divorce.
This was the pitch made by a gaggle of Bitcoin shills five years ago.
It's the pitch being made by a gaggle of goldbugs today.
"Just stop complaining and start investing" was the line pushed by the Reagan Administration way the fuck back in the 1980s. Forty years later, a lot of people who took his advice are still complaining - louder than ever - at those god damn hippie socialist antifa illegal sharia law anchor babies who sold them Enron stock and Lehman stock and Silicon Valley Bank stock.
The 401ks were a failure. At some point, you have to acknowledge that, even if you bet on the right ponies.
Managing to grow those saved earnings into even a million is plenty rich by my standards. The aspiration has never been to become a billionaire or even whatever "CEO rich" means.
Also, managing your finances is much more than just investing. The markets are useless if you've got nothing left over to put in there. Most people needlessly waste huge amounts of money all the time without even knowing it.
Idk seems like you're confusing people being unable to afford groceries with having enough to invest and make meaningful amounts.
If you investing a few grand a year, which is hard to do for a majority of Americans, that isn't going to be that much in even 10 years.
The market also isn't going to just rip forever as it has been and in fact is very much due for course correction. You could be telling people to buy at the very top of the market and then it will all come crashing down.
It's all on paper if you don't take profit and many years were needed for the market to recover from 08.
One Neat Trick