Market participation has exploded in our lifetimes. During the first half of the 20th century, the percentage of Americans owning stocks crept up from just 1% to 4%.3 But since 1976, when I showed up for my first Wall Street job—sporting long hair, turquoise jewelry, and the world’s ugliest brown suit—investing has become far more fashionable (and, thankfully, so have I). By 1989, just under a third of American families had money in the markets; today, it’s roughly 60%.4
The greatest period of wealth creation
These investors have benefited from the greatest period of wealth creation in human history. Over the past 40 years, global gross domestic product (GDP) has grown more than in the previous two thousand combined.5 This extraordinary growth—partly propelled, it must be noted, by historically low interest rates—has driven exceptional long-term returns. But of course, not everyone has shared in this wealth.
What are your goals?
Bitcoin *EXPANDS* market participation opportunities
But there’s another way to look at it: Capitalism did work—just for too few people.
Markets, like everything humans build, aren’t perfect. They reflect us—unfinished, sometimes flawed, but always improvable. The solution isn’t to abandon markets; it’s to expand them, to finish the market democratization that began 400 years ago and let more people own a meaningful stake in the growth happening around them.