Riha Nath
Macroeconomics
Assignment 3

Whether widespread stock has eliminated class division 1. The share of population owning stock is low, even including retirement accounts. 2. This low participation is not consistence with public discourse on the democratize stock market. 3. When looking at household stock owning, the statistic for 2010 indicate that stock ownership among the wealthiest 10 percent of the population is high and ownership of stock declines significantly among the middle class and is 0 for the lower class. The article supports the idea that the discourse on a democratized stock market is not reflected in reality. It is widely acknowledged that, along with home ownership, stock ownership is the primary basis of wealth. Some theorists have suggested that, through retirement plans (such as 401k plans) and online brokerage accounts, a much higher percentage of Americans are in the “ownership class”. The concept of a democratized stock market has powerful appeal to the American democratic ethos and may be seen as positive rhetoric for politicians and businesses to cite. However, this concept (and piece of rhetoric) does not comport with the facts about stock ownership in the United States. Rather than a democratized stock market, the article argues that stock ownership (including retirement accounts) in the United States is highly concentrated in the most wealthy and is not democratized. For example, 47% of households, including the typical African American and Hispanic household, own