Over 70% of workers have access to an employee retirement plan, and 56% of all workers participate in one[1]. So I did misremember the stats slightly. Its all workers instead of all Americans, and a generic "employer sponsored retirement plan" vs specifically a 401k, but my point still stands.
If we exclude children and people who are already retired, only 26% are without retirement savings[2]. The ability of these people to retire is linked to stock performance.
Great, now how much does the median retiree have saved?
Also, the vast majority of people shouldn't give two licks about keeping the market high today because the vast majority of people are more than a decade out from retirement. What should have been an event that allowed people to build wealth instead became one to preserve the wealth of those who already have it.
“I’m decades away from retiring, so I’m happy to let these businesses fall apart, destroy trillions in value, and layoff millions of people so I can buy some shares at a cheaper price!”
This is like letting your neighbor’s house burn down because you’ve always wanted to buy the land under it.
This isn't an either let all businesses fail or prop up the entire stock market with cheap cash choice and your framing of it as such is intellectually dishonest.
I didn’t frame it as an either/or. I literally just reframed what you said: that people far away from retirement shouldn’t care if the stock market crashes, because they’ll benefit if it does.
The market making a correction != businesses failing. The market is severely overpriced as-is, it didn't need to be propped up. Companies don't fail because their share price has dropped.
It also wipes out the opportunity for future retirees to benefit from market corrections which are historically how most wealth for middle class retirees is built. So you've now sacrificed far more future retirees accounts for those who shouldn't have such high market exposure that they are hurt by a correction.
If this isn't a wake up call that individuals have no business managing their own retirement, I don't know what is.
I put $750 into 401k last year (I was tech ''''contract'''' worker and wasn't being paid well in the first place and ended up with a cool $459 in my 401k at the end of the year and I stopped contributing until 2021. Technically I'm contributing so I'm in that stat, but I've lost money. Yes I know that can happen in 401k's temporarily, but I'm not in a financial place for that to be acceptable. How many people are contributing their minimum 3% in a small paycheck for a 1% match and in the end have an extremely small 401k, but get counted in your statistic? How many earn $10/hr, put 3% in and it ends up being like $22 bi weekly and they only began contributing a year ago? 401k's aren't really a great measurement of much in my opinion. You can't assume everyone has thousands saved up in them and I'd be willing to bet less than 50% of 401k contributors have even more than $5000.
That $18,000 check would have given me the ability to pay off my medical debts immediately, and have complete economic security and peace of mind through COVID.
401k might be a great option to store money if you are in medical debt. Its near impossible to get money out of a 401k if you declare bankruptcy or default on loans