The Great Divergence: Labor vs. Capital
It now takes a record 1,295 working hours for the average American to buy a single "unit" of the Dow Jones—the highest cost of entry in history.
The gap between what we earn and what we own has reached a breaking point:
The Surge: Since the 2008 Financial Crisis, the Dow has skyrocketed +629%, while hourly wages
have crawled up just +67%.
The Cost of Ownership: It now requires 500 more hours of labor to buy the index than it did during the 2017 peak or the 2020 market bottom.
The Reality: In 2009, you could "buy the Dow" with ~300 hours of work. Today, that same investment costs over four times the amount of human effort.
While wages are rising, they are losing the race against asset inflation. The financial system is increasingly rewarding equity over effort, making it harder than ever for wage-earners to transition into asset-owners.
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