Most people in this country don't hold stocks, are too far in debt or in jobs where they don't have access to a pension fund or something like that to be directly impacted by the stock market, whether it is going up or down.
If Americans have wealth at all, it is invested in their homes, but, through loans or mortgages. This may still not translate into any "positive" wealth, i.e., they may be in debt or "under water," where they owe more than they own.
This means the stock market is more a reflection of the wealth of the wealthy. Poor & low-income people are indirectly impacted by it, as the wealthy make decisions on their different sources of wealth (investments, firms/businesses they own, etc.) that affect the rest of us.
Even though the impact is indirect, it's still deeply felt, esp. when it means layoffs or cuts to benefits or wages, etc., which is often what happens when the wealthy make gains in the stock market.

See the #PoorPeoplesCampaign Audit for more on this: poorpeoplescampaign.org/resource/the-s…
From Sarah Anderson @IPS_DC:

1) The rich are using the bulk of their money for short-term gambling on Wall Street rather than long-term investments that could help create good jobs and reduce poverty. The richest 1% holds more than half of all stocks and mutual funds.
2) The wealthy pay a lower tax rate on income from investments than on income from work, leaving even fewer resources for public investment in job creation and poverty reduction.
3) The rich have rigged the rules so public policies & corporate behavior are focused on maximizing stock prices to reward wealthy executives & shareholders instead of creating good jobs. One result of this is skyrocketing CEO pay while wages stagnate, even as productivity rises.
4) This yr the disconnect b/t the stock market & ordinary ppl’s lives is more clear than ever, with a rising stock market in the midst of sky-high unemployment & historic public health crisis, resulting in U.S. billionaires actually expanding their fortunes while millions suffer.
Thank you @ShaillyBarnes @Kairos_Center for the research on this.

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More from @RevDrBarber

23 Nov
At 2:30pm ET today in 25 state capitols, we are reviving #MoralMonday with caravans of mourning for those who have died needlessly in this pandemic.
Today’s processions are led by poor & low wealth people & their allies & religious leaders who are calling the nation to fight for just COVID relief, a smooth transition, and a moral and merciful first 100-day agenda in the new administration.
And tonight at 6pm ET, I’m joining a Jewish rabbi and Hindu clergy to deliver a national eulogy for all those we’ve lost.
Read 5 tweets
16 Nov
Medicare For All & a $15/hr federal minimum wage are not socialism. They’re social justice. They promote the general welfare for all people, and any Black or white person who says they’re socialism is wrong.
If Democrats truly presented what these policies would do for the American people, esp. for poor & low-income ppl, they can win on these policies. $15/hr minimum won in FL, even as Biden/Harris lost there.
If Dems aggressively fund voter turnout, stop playing defense & play offense instead, they can win even in the so-called "solid South," as well as all over the country.
Read 6 tweets
9 Nov
Biden didn’t say compromise, he said cooperate—and that it’s a choice. Compromise never comes up with Republicans, because they never compromise.
The first stimulus bill was a compromise, and 84% of the money went to corporations. The ACA was a compromise, and Republicans still didn’t vote for it.

The Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, these were all compromises. "3/5 of a person" was a compromise.
Why can’t Democrats pass what is just, fair, and necessary and then fight for it? Use social media. Call on impacted people to march on the Senate & build campaigns in the states of the 3-4 Senators whose support you need.
Read 4 tweets
8 Nov
"In 1860, Southern Democrats, flush with the disproportionate power granted to them by the Electoral College, had torn the Union in half and instigated four years of bloody internecine warfare.
"Mindful of this history, in December, 1868, Senator Aaron Cragin, of New Hampshire, and Representative William Kelley, of Pennsylvania, introduced drafts of what eventually became the Fifteenth Amendment.
“Black voters were meant to be a bulwark against a similar regime arising to again threaten national unity—which is to say that people who had scarcely ever experienced democracy were now among its chief safeguards.
Read 5 tweets
8 Nov
Love them. Pray for them. But don't stay stuck in the past with them. It's time for America to stop asking Trump to be magnanimous. He will have to confess his sins and the sins of his party to do that and that’s on him, McConnell, etc.
It’s time for America to shake the dust off our feet and move forward together.

Now, just in case you want to know one last time why Republicans are so tied to Trump and his tactics, it's because these are the tactics they have used for the last 52 years.
Read this to understand what’s going on and let’s move forward together:
Read 11 tweets
7 Nov
This is more than a victory for Biden and Harris. This is a victory for democracy. When all the votes are counted, some 80 million Americans will have voted to end the Trumpism politics of lies, greed and the lust for power.
An unprecedented coalition of American people have said clearly, "We cannot go backwards. We are going forward together."

People did not turnout in record numbers in the midst of a pandemic to vote for a return to normal.
We have elected Biden and Harris to use the power of government to lift up those who have been battered by COVID-19, battered by poverty, and battered by years of Republican extremism.
Read 7 tweets

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