Exactly.
How many of the $0 stock “people” have retirement funds, pensions, 401k’s.
I'm actually surprised it's as high as 48%.
I’m one of those people who have $0 in actual direct ownership of stock shares but most of my retirement savings in mutual funds of some sort.
There is one key difference between owning stock and owning mutual fund shares that bothers me though. While I benefit about as much financially as if I owned individual stock shares, mutual funds give me zero say in the management of any company. The voting power of my stock is in the hands of a faceless mutual fund manager.
Do I own stock in companies that are shipping jobs overseas? Probably. But my mutual fund manager has a fiduciary responsibility to maximize short term profits, even if I would prefer that there be jobs here in the U.S. when my children grow to working age.
Do I indirectly own stock in one of the companies that recently bullied my birth state of Indiana? Probably. But my mutual fund manager holds the proxy votes, not me.
Do I indirectly own stock in many of the MSM companies that lie on behalf of Obama on a daily basis? Probably. But again I have no say in corporate governance.
I honestly don’t know what to do about this problem. Mutual funds are a two edged sword. They convey the financial benefits of stock ownership to people who don’t have the time, expertise, or quantity of capital to effectively invest in individual stocks. But they concentrate corporate governance in the hands of a faceless manager class.
I used to have stocks but I decided to get out of the market. Too much negative news and PE ratios are just out of this world. I’ll wait till a saner market.