One of the benefits of the massive inequality in the distribution of wealth is that the vast majority of us can sit back and enjoy the show when stock markets go into a worldwide panic, as they have been doing for the last couple of weeks. Despite what you hear in the media, fluctuations in the stock market generally have little direct or indirect impact on the economy.
This means that if you don’t have a lot of money in the stock market, you don’t have much to lose. And, according to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Board, three quarters of U.S. households had less than $36,000 in the stock market, including their 401(k)s, in 2013.