U.S. wealth inequality is the highest it has been in nearly four decades, according to federal data, as the economy under the Trump administration appears to increasingly favor the rich.
As of late 2025, the top 1 percent of households held 31.7 percent of wealth, the highest share on record since the Federal Reserve began tracking the figure in 1989.
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.
I know many people that struggle to meet their basic needs. I actually could be investing, but I have moral qualms about supporting or profiting from almost any of the companies in those index funds-- certainly the ones that make real returns.
One Neat Trick