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    Stop using the S&P 500 as a gauge for how well the economy is doing.

    I see this over and over again and I’m frankly quite sick of people using the S&P 500 (or the stock market in general) and GDP as a gauge for how the economy is doing.

    For the record I am not, currently, speaking from my personal experience here. I recently got hired at a company that pays me very well and I do not worry too much about my bills and I live in Maryland. For those of you who don’t know what that means, my cheapest electric bill (this year so far) was this month at $292. My average electric bill is around $350 (look up Pepco, these are 100% real figures). I also own my own house and make decent rental income from Airbnb. So needless to say I personally am doing very well as a millennial.

    However, I am sick and tired of people using the fucking stock market as a gauge for how well people are doing. For those of you who have used this argument and are not day traders : How many of you use your stock portfolio to pay your bills? Food? Gas? Car insurance? Car payment? Rent/Mortgage? I’m sure very few of you do. You’d either be an idiot or desperate if you did. That alone completely shatters this argument but I’ll go further…

    You do realize that the only time the money you invest towards a company is when they IPO right? 1 single day is the only time period where your money goes straight to the company’s pockets. Every day after that just goes to other traders who are selling you the stock, who then go buy other shares from other companies. So with that said, the money you invested just gets tied up in the value of that stock as the price ascends/descends. It is not circulating through the economy like you think it is. Why do you think the wealthiest individuals hold their money in assets? So that they keep the value for themselves. Same way that you and I do when we buy stock.

    Also, publicly traded companies on the S&P 500 are owned by the wealthiest individuals! And even though your investment doesn’t go straight to their pockets, it allows those individuals to acquire larger and larger loans as the price goes up! We are literally transferring our own wealth to the rich through this fucked up vessel for them to get larger and larger loans for themselves. So the higher the S&P 500 goes up, the richer those individuals get… and you just gave your money away to someone who’s just going to jack up the prices on you later in the name of economic growth.

    The stock market is no longer a vehicle to actually invest in companies they like or believe in their mission statement, it has become a casino because nobody is getting paid enough and people are desperate whether you’re working or your retired..
    Seriously fuck this system and fuck anyone who thinks that just because the stock market is doing good that people should be happy. Capitalist economic metrics, indicators and policies are no longer representing the overall wellbeing of everyday individuals. For instance, The new technological revolution of AI will be great for the stock market but its side effects will leave people on the fucking streets. That is NOT how an economy is supposed to work. NONE OF THIS is how it’s supposed to work. There are policies and different economic strategies where things can get back to normal. Please stop succumbing to this absolutely absurd thinking. End rant.

    Stop using the S&P 500 as a gauge for how well the economy is doing.
    byu/LiftUp22 inStockMarket



    Posted by LiftUp22

    29 Comments

    4. 1-Dollar-Doge-Coins on

      I ain’t reading all that, but I’m happy for you though or sorry that happened.

    5. 382_27600 on

      The stock market and GDP measure asset values and aggregate output, not whether average people can afford housing, healthcare, utilities, food, or maintain long-term economic security.

    7. Bitter-Variation-151 on

      I’m retired and live off the s and p 500. The higher it goes, the more money I spend.

    12. qaz135wsx on

      Sounds like you thought the S&P was supposed to be a gauge of the economy’s health(it isn’t), and now you are salty about it not having parity with the cost of goods?

    15. BetSquare7190 on

      What’s the stock ticker for Pepco? Only one I found is traded in Poland.

    16. jennysonson on

      Anyone thats ever invested more than a few years know that already, you didnt have to write a whole essay just makes you look dumb lol

    18. Biberal_Litch99 on

      You don’t sound like you’re doing too well OP. Going outside will help

    20. Laureles2 on

      While Wall Street is not Main Street, you have a rather narrow view of what the stock market represents.

    21. MalikTheHalfBee on

      Why do poor people love visiting this sub so much & try to equate their own personal situation to ‘the market’ as if there’s any correlation to their lack of success & somone buying Apple 

    22. Longjumping-Fact-582 on

      I would like to share a couple excerpts from “the wealth of nations” published by Adam smith in 1776

      “Among the savage nations of hunters and fishers, every individual who is able to work, is more or less employed in useful labour, and endeavours to provide, as well as he can, the necessaries and conveniencies of life, for himself, or such of his family or tribe as are either too old, or too young, or too infirm to go a hunting and fishing. Such nations, however, are so miserably poor, that from mere want, they are frequently reduced, or at least think themselves reduced, to the necessity sometimes of destroying, and sometimes of abandoning their infants, their old people, and those afflicted with lingering diseases, to perish with hunger, or to be devoured by wild beasts.”

      “Among civilized and thriving nations, on the contrary, though a great number of people do not labour at all, many of whom consume the produce of ten times, frequently of a hundred times more labour than the greater part of those who work; yet the produce of the whole labour of the society is so great, that all are often abundantly supplied, and a workman, even of the lowest and poorest order, if he is frugal and industrious, may enjoy a greater share of the necessaries and conveniencies of life than it is possible for any savage to acquire.”

      The stock market and/or GDP are among our best tools to measure the “wealth” of our nation in this way, yet many lack “useful employment” as productivity per worker increases faster than the rate of unemployment, our society is becoming “richer” over time, compare for example our society today against each subsequent generation before us, we have more “luxuries” than each generation and find it ever easier to meet the “bare necessities” compared to generations before us. And yet some people look around and think that we as a society are “struggling” yet it is only because the yardstick by which they choose to compare that they come to that conclusion

    24. Potential_Salt_5780 on

      If you invested your Covid stimulus checks in VOO, you more than doubled your money in 5 years: $3200 to $7080. You’d have $14160 as a couple and $24500 for a family of 4.

      Instead you probably spent it all on some shit you don’t even remember buying.

    25. Whipitreelgud on

      No ranting in the casino. The guys with wires in their ears will be here to see you out.

    26. Realanise1 on

      Thank you for posting this. I’m sorry you’re getting nothing but snide remarks in return, but common sense seems to be in very short supply around here right now. I’ve been in the market for a long time, made some good decisions, made some dumb ones. But when it comes to markets, nobody seems to be paying the least bit of attention to the fact that Iran will never let go of control of the strait again… we will NEVER go back to the way things were in terms of passage through that strait. So I’m leaving what I have in the markets and I’m sitting it out as far as anything new until we have some kind of info on how the new world order in the Middle East will really affect the global economy. I’d post cites for all of this, but the mods keep deleting comments that have any, so ask if you all want to see them.

    27. IWantToPlayGame on

      Are you lost OP?

      This sub isn’t going to be symmetric towards someone who’s anti-capitalism, anti-stock market.

    28. DhakoBiyoDhacay on

      You make an interesting argument about how the stock market is not the best way to measure the health of the economy.

      But the stock market was never meant to measure how the working class that sells labor in exchange for dollars may enjoy the increase in the value of stocks.

      The stock market measures the wealth of people who have capital to invest in buying shares of companies and they benefit when the price of stocks goes up or when they collect dividends.

      If you want to join the capitalist class, it is easy: work hard, or smart, earn income, reduce expenses, save and invest in the market. In time, you will become member of those who enjoy the fruits of the stock market. Millions of people did it and I think you can do it.

    29. Alone-Supermarket-98 on

      It’s not the price of the stocks in the index, per se, that professionals look at to gauge the health of the economy, it is the economic returns and performance of the individual companies which are instructive.

      While casual observers may comment on the level of the index, professionals look at things like operating margins, revenue growth, leverage, and cost of goods sold to indicate the true health of the economy.

      For instance, the most recent reading of operating margins, revenues per share, business sales, amung a number of other specific performance measures are at an all time high. While not a definitive case for the entire economy, It is indicative of trends for the largest segments of business activity.

      The index level is a reflection of both the Fundimentals AND investor sentiment, which can be misleading. You need to look at the details and understand what they are telling you.

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