people ’s capitalism

The New York Stock Exchange for many years tried to sell the notion of "people.,s capitalism" in which everyone owns stock and therefore will vote to take account of the interests of property.Few would oppose the notion of a wider and more equal distribution of wealth,but it is a bit of a confidence trick to entice union workers-or their wives-into owning a few shares of a mutual fund so that at the polls they will go easy on corporation tax rates-when,in fact,their own well-being is trivially affected by what happens to the few shares they own in comparison with even a 1 per cent change in wage rates or pension benefits.
In million Americans own any appreciable amount of stocks,and that is a generous estimate.Indirectly now that private and public pension funds are beginning to invest in equities.low-income people are beginning to get some protection of their savings against inflation,a privilege that up until recently was enjoyed mostly by the affluent.