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Control of markets, this is and has always been the backbone of most modern market realities. Most people can see that the trend of big chain operations is only gaining ground, bigger and more politically persuasive, they can easily dominate the local, and state governments, but when really big, the federal government also falls under their lobbying spell and does stuff like NAFTA and the WTO in the corps interests. Us in the peanut gallery get the scraps, and then were asked to vote for those who may or may not cut the scraps, or, give us more scraps. At the end of the day it's still scraps for the working class guys. Jim Hightower liked to remind the capital investment class that the average Joe doesn't care what the Dow is reading, but moreover, is concerned with the price of beaters down at the local Iron lot. A little bit from the sparknote page:
"The era of Big Business began when entrepreneurs in search of profits consolidated their businesses into massive corporations, which were so large that they could force out competition and gain control of a market. Control of a market allowed a corporation to set prices for a product at whatever level it wanted. These corporations, and the businessmen who ran them, became exceedingly wealthy and powerful, often at the expense of many poor workers. Some of the most powerful corporations were John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad System, and J.P. Morgan’s banking house. These corporations dominated almost all aspects of their respective industries: by 1879, for example, Rockefeller controlled 90 percent of the country’s oil refining capacity. Much of the public saw the leaders of big business as “robber barons” who exploited workers in order to amass vast fortunes".
Not much has changed from those days of the robber barons, oh yeah, we see more regs coming from governments but those aren't for their favorites who contribute to their campaigns, the laws are for those who haven't "paid their dues", that's us for the most part. The upper class is a very dominate thing in all of the US economy, anyone who can't see this is obviously on the other side of things, wherein they are the equal of those robber barons of yesteryear. I've said it before, this is no conspiracy they carry out his stuff right in your face, right on the Senate floor they vote for their own interests and those who line their pockets, slime in silk suits.
Control of markets, this is and has always been the backbone of most modern market realities. Most people can see that the trend of big chain operations is only gaining ground, bigger and more politically persuasive, they can easily dominate the local, and state governments, but when really big, the federal government also falls under their lobbying spell and does stuff like NAFTA and the WTO in the corps interests. Us in the peanut gallery get the scraps, and then were asked to vote for those who may or may not cut the scraps, or, give us more scraps. At the end of the day it's still scraps for the working class guys. Jim Hightower liked to remind the capital investment class that the average Joe doesn't care what the Dow is reading, but moreover, is concerned with the price of beaters down at the local Iron lot. A little bit from the sparknote page:
"The era of Big Business began when entrepreneurs in search of profits consolidated their businesses into massive corporations, which were so large that they could force out competition and gain control of a market. Control of a market allowed a corporation to set prices for a product at whatever level it wanted. These corporations, and the businessmen who ran them, became exceedingly wealthy and powerful, often at the expense of many poor workers. Some of the most powerful corporations were John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company, Andrew Carnegie’s Carnegie Steel, Cornelius Vanderbilt’s New York Central Railroad System, and J.P. Morgan’s banking house. These corporations dominated almost all aspects of their respective industries: by 1879, for example, Rockefeller controlled 90 percent of the country’s oil refining capacity. Much of the public saw the leaders of big business as “robber barons” who exploited workers in order to amass vast fortunes".
Not much has changed from those days of the robber barons, oh yeah, we see more regs coming from governments but those aren't for their favorites who contribute to their campaigns, the laws are for those who haven't "paid their dues", that's us for the most part. The upper class is a very dominate thing in all of the US economy, anyone who can't see this is obviously on the other side of things, wherein they are the equal of those robber barons of yesteryear. I've said it before, this is no conspiracy they carry out his stuff right in your face, right on the Senate floor they vote for their own interests and those who line their pockets, slime in silk suits.
Agreed. The big difference nowadays is that they have co-opted the money printing press giving themselves almost unlimited power to print money for themselves, e.g. corporate bonds issuance for stock options buybacks, and strangle those who resist, e.g. Greece.
Well yes the stock market goes up and down, but over the long term it has been going up for well over 100 years.
The answer is not that it doesn't go up, just that it takes a really long time to become 'rich' via the stock market. It takes a median income earner an entire lifetime to earn $1million in the stock market, and if that median earner hits too many problems (lost job, severe medical problem) then they will never get there.
- Even in the market, the game is rigged. Sure, sure - you can probably invest long-term and, if you don't panic sell, you'll make a modest amount of money. Not enough to live off of, really, but it is better than nothing. But the crooks make money on the churn: up, down, sideways - it doesn't matter. They have insider knowledge and use it freely, and if things go wrong, they just get Bailed Out by the taxpayers. Then, they crash the market to get people to sell at a loss, and then drive it up again to get people to buy high. Much of it is a scam, sadly.
So, I'm not sure what you were getting at, but those are the facts.
I don't think the above is a fact at all. Plenty of people make enough money in the stock market so that they don't have to work any more. Of course, if you live the standard American lifestyle, then no, you'll never save enough...because a 5% savings rate is never going to get you there (nor is a 10% rate).
The core problem we have in America is one of poor lifestyle design. People acquire kids, cars, pets, expensive weddings, expensive housing, etc. without really thinking about the long term ball and chain these things/life events will have on them....and then they complain that the corporations are doing it to them. Of course, there's a grain of truth...but so many act as if they have no control over any aspects of their lives...and I find that extremely annoying to say the least.
People love to complain about the corporations.....yet they are so quick to hand over their money to them as if they had no choice in the matter. How people can be so blind to the way the average American wastes money is just beyond me.
If we want do actually effect positive change, we're going to have to stop complaining and start living life differently.
I'm not that lucky or financially intelligent. I also don't have a job and don't believe in investments anymore after I've seen so many scams out there. Not worth it anymore...even if it's not a scam at the very least it's like playing the lottery.
^^The usual stuff we hear from the financially ignorant.
Obviously, you've never heard of mutual funds like Vanguard Wellington, or it's more conservative sibling, Vanguard Wellesley Income. Wellington has been around since 1929. Wellesley Income since 1970. Both have solid long term returns in the mid to high single digits. Wellington's is just over 8% and that includes the time during the Great Depression.
Do not buy brand new cars. Always purchase something solid that is up to 6 years old.
Do not waste too much money eating out. instead, eat healthy and cook by yourself.
Do not buy too much house.
And I'll add a 4th: Don't have a kid out of wedlock (and it's close cousin...be very careful who you go to bed with and who you marry). With a 40% out of wedlock birth rate, it's hardly surprising that so many people in America are perpetually broke.
Its a cooperation, not a secret conspiracy, simply because its not much of a secret. The average guy can make some money in the stock market, if he or she is lucky, but you can also lose your butt. The guys who are really making the big money on Wall Street are the traders in NY, who buy and sell on inside information. They're short term traders, in and out, make your cash and you're gone. How is the govt. involved? Well, right now its the 0% interest rates. These traders can buy on margin, make a big killing in a very short time frame. The govt. could increase margin requirements for traders. They could end short selling. They could increase reserve requirements on banks to kill incentives to make risky loans, but that would end the party. These people all give campaign contributions to politicians to keep the party going.
At least, that's my theory. I've read articles by people in the know, that say as much. Seen the movie Wall Street? I don't think they made up the idea of insider trading.
Finally, its the poor little guy who is getting hosed because he gets no interest on his savings, while the banks make a ton of money on loans, based on the deposits of thrifty folks who are just trying to save for retirement.
True to a point, but also an exaggeration. Investing regularly on a monthly basis in semi-boring mutual funds can yield quite good results.
$250 a month invested in a low cost balanced fund like Vanguard Wellington over the last 20 years would now be worth $143,405.
$250 monthly in it's more conservative sibling Vanguard Wellesley Income over the same period would now be worth $132,449.
So your investment over that time period was 60K and your money more than doubled. Not Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous, but not bad.
I work with a woman who's been a single mom who has never made more than 32K per year in a high cost area, yet at age 40 she has 40K socked away in retirement accounts (not much, but not bad given her situation....lots of women in her situation have $0 put away). I know other people single, no kids, older than her, made more money than her, and they don't even have 20K socked away. It's more about choices, priorities, and habits than anything else.
The boomers parents may have had to sell out their houses in a housing bust, but most of them had pensions.
Correction: Most people NEVER had pensions, even at their height in the mid 1980s. It peaked at about 49%.
People forget when bond yields were in the double digits, so was inflation. Stock market returns were very high in the 1980s and 1990s, but it was a historical anomaly, especially the last half of the 1990s.
Lots of Boomers didn't do all that well in the stock market because:
--As a generation, lots of them were terrible savers.
--They bought and sold too much, which drives up transaction costs and people typically buy and sell at inopportune times.
--They paid sales loads and high expense ratios for mutual funds. Mutual funds today (even the more costly actively managed ones) cost noticeably less today than they did a decade ago, and a lot less than 20 years ago.
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