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Comment by GuB-42 | Hacker News Reader

I expected an even more unequal distribution. Owning stocks is risky, and stock portfolios are mostly bought with money people don't need to live on a day to day basis.

The poor simply can't afford stocks, and I expect the middle class to make different kinds of investment. Like property (buy a house), and low risk saving accounts that may be backed by stocks but the owner of the account is not the owner of the stocks. There may be a small part of gamblers who play the stock market like they are in Vegas, but I expect most stocks to be owned by very rich individuals or institutions, who can mitigate the risks by having lots of stocks, and also have some amount of control on the companies they invested into, rather than a millionth of a vote for small investors. Among the institutions are the ones that provide financial services to the middle class.

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> low risk saving accounts

No, the interest rates for retail savings accounts are zero (or near as makes no difference), and have been for at least two decades. Basically everybody knows that they are completely useless by now, and that even "regular" people need to move to bonds or stocks in order to see any kind of return.

I switched to interest free accounts simply because I got tired of having to add a few dollars (or less) of interest to reconcile my Quicken accounts at the end of every month.

Such a joke. I remember when an ING money market was paying like some crazy 4 or 5% in the late 90's.

ING gave 5%, but mortgage rates were also 8-9% and car loans even worse. I remember my first car, which I got in December '99, had a 13.1% interest rate, and that was already at the lower end.

So my point is it's all relative.

Those 4-5% interest rates on savings came with vastly higher rates in other areas, though. Mortgage rates of 10% versus today's 3% or so.

They just follow the Fed funds rate up and down.

Oh yeah, that's a really important point. My first mortgage was 8.5% ... on a $130k 2400sqft house in a metropolitan area that now goes for >800k on zillow.

I'm not sure you need to be very rich, or an institution to diversify. In fact, it's never been easier to own hundreds, or thousands, of stocks as an individual. All you need to do is buy etfs.

The middle class owns stocks through pension accounts.

Where does one get a job with pension today?

I've heard of them, but thought they vanished when the boomers left the workforce.

Traditionally unionized employers may still offer pensions (teachers, law enforcement, steelworkers, etc).

I invite you to google "Gary, Indiana."

And I assure you the casino doesn't pay pensions.

That would also include 401k style retirement accounts which are extremely common.

A pension is not a 401k.

No, but 401ks are also invested in stocks.

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