Study highlights the role stock ownership plays in the racial wealth gap
Profits generated by publicly traded corporations between 2004 and 2019 amounted to about $13.4 trillion being paid to shareholders in the form of stock...
www.post-gazette.com
The linked article bemoans the fact that when it comes to the element of wealth that is corporate stock ownership, Americans of black African descent are largely left out. And of course this is true. Stocks are generally purchased with "extra" income, income that would otherwise just go to savings (or be pissed away), and if you are financially living on the edge - which a LARGE percentage of American Blacks are - significant stock ownership is not a realistic possibility.
Indeed, the article states that even in the GenPop, only a little more than half of Americans own stock - even including IRA's, 401k's, and indirect ownership through stock-based mutual funds.
There can be no doubt that stock ownership can be a major driver of wealth accumulation. The average year-to-year gain in the DOW since the Depression - when you include both increases in value and dividends - has been about 12%, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. So focusing on the stock boom since Our Beloved President was elected, one might truthfully say that "Black America" has been left out of this windfall.
(Left out of the conversation is the OTHER main avenue for wealth accumulation in the U.S.: Real Estate ("income property"). Although I have not checked the data, I know many people who have accumulated a great deal of wealth by buying and maintaining income property, mostly very inexpensive property in questionable locations. But I digress...).
What does race have to do with this? A large percentage of the non-Black population is born with the same lack of financial and other resources as a majority of Blacks. I know many people for whom the death of a parent is an EXPENSE, rather than a time to buy something nice with the inheritance. People who are born poor have to work a little harder to accumulate wealth than people who are born into families that have resources. A large percentage of the entire population is born into this economic class. Race has nothing to do with it.
The more interesting article would be to compare Black stock ownership with the stock ownership of poor whites in Appalachia. THEN one might see whether race has anything to do with it. The entire linked article is based on the specious theory that wealth is randomly distributed throughout the population, and therefore if one group ends up with less of it, then there is something nefarious (racism,?) at work.
By any financial measure, my family and those of most of my friends growing up were "poor." My father's net financial worth was "in the red" until he was in his 60's (my mother died early and never worked outside the home), so when it came to "helping out" with college and things of that nature, it was simply out of the question. I didn't have to pay room & board at home when I was actually attending classes; that was my parents' "help" for my education. To the extent that I succeeded (was able to buy stocks) it was because I took advantage of what was in front of me, including three years in the Army to get the GI Bill and a VA home loan. Where did that "white privilege" come in? Nowhere that I can see. The army didn't take me because I was white. The shit jobs that I had as a kid and young adult didn't come because I was white. The colleges and law school that I attended didn't accept me because I was white. Every single "professional" job that I ever got would've been enhanced if I had been Black. They would have rolled out the red carpet for me, and competed for my services, if I had been Black.
What does race have to do with stock ownership? Nothing. Poor people have to work harder than middle class and rich people if they want to own stocks. And there you have it.