I’m sitting here doing some completely unrelated research and I stumbled across this figure which I’ve seen multiple times in the past. It has always surprised me. As the markets become extremely volatile this month I wonder, what is the impact on the bottom 50% of Americans? If you look at this chart it barely even registers when stacked with other assets. Real estate is their primary asset.
![](https://jeremywhittaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/image-8.png)
What’s interesting is if you look at this breakdown by percentile historically. The top 10% own 89% of all equities. While the entire bottom 50% own just .6%.
![](https://jeremywhittaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/fred_corporate_equities_top_10_percent-1024x424.jpg)
Now let’s take a look at the top 50% vs. the bottom 50%. We already know the bottom 50% of Americans own just .6% of equities. The top 50% own 99.4% of the balance of equities.
![](https://jeremywhittaker.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/fred_corporate_equities_by_percentile-1024x419.jpg)
If you’re looking for the source of political turmoil in our country I don’t think we need to look much further than the wealth gap. Half of our population has no vested interest in corporations in America. I can’t imagine turmoil subsides any time soon for our country until we address the wealth gap.