Today, the top 1% of Americans own more than 50% of all stocks.

That statistic alone tells you everything you need to know about who the current system was designed to serve and who it has left behind.

As of late 2024, the total value of that ownership equated to about $44 trillion in assets. This concentration is nothing new; it’s only deepened over time. For instance, in 2002, the top 1% held around 40% of public equities, which grew to 54% by early 2024. 

In the past, things were different, mainly because lasting financial security didn’t depend so heavily on Wall Street.

Fifty years ago, a typical American worker could retire with dignity and without having to know a thing about the markets. Stronger labor unions negotiated guaranteed pensions that provided stability after a lifetime of work. Most Americans didn’t own stocks, and they didn’t need to. Pensions made retirement a certainty, a promise.

In the 1980s, That Promise Was Broken 

Pensions disappeared, and something very different took place:

• Employers shifted to 401(k)s, a tax-advantaged retirement account tied to the stock market.

• That shift put the responsibility of retirement savings onto individual employees.

• The stock market became mandatory. Workers had no choice but to invest if they wanted to retire. 

• Higher-income earners adapted easily; everyone else was thrown into a system where they had little influence.

Modest earners couldn’t contribute enough. Even those who participated in 401(k)s often still couldn’t afford to save at the levels required to build real security. More and more middle-class workers had accounts that remained underfunded, and the promise of retirement faded. 

Most people did everything they were told, but it still wasn’t enough. By the early 2000s, millions were already falling short of what they’d need once they exited the workforce. 

And Then the 2008 Crash Wiped Out Savings for Everyone

The collapse of the housing and financial markets erased trillions in retirement savings. Those living paycheck to paycheck suffered most, while the wealthy had the resources to weather the downturn — and the liquidity to buy up discounted stocks and assets.

In 2009 alone, the Dow Jones dropped more than 50% from its 2007 peak. According to the Federal Reserve, Black and Hispanic families lost a far larger share of their wealth than white families, largely because they had less diversified assets and fewer reserves to begin with. 

Meanwhile, affluent investors were able to scoop up equities on the cheap. As Warren Buffett famously wrote in a shareholder letter during the 1980s, “be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”

Those who already owned capital emerged even wealthier, while everyone else was left trying to recover what little they had lost. 

The gap widened, and it hasn’t closed since.

But It Doesn’t Have to Be This Way

The system we live with today was no accident. It was built, and it can be rebuilt.

Pundits lecture workers about investing for their futures. Business leaders share ideas that get halfway toward legitimately solving the access problem, but in the end give everyday Americans no real way to act. We’re all told to “own the market,” while wages stagnate, costs rise, and most Americans struggle to cover basic needs. 

Forget building any type of portfolio. 

This model assumes most of us can save our way into ownership, but that’s a myth. The system rewards those who have wealth and punishes those without it. That’s why the stock market is completely bought up by the top 1%.

If we want a future where more people can truly own a piece of the economy, we have to confront that contradiction head-on by letting people access capital in the first place.