This piece is so good and I’ve been thinking about this for years. OG actual capitalists have a vested interest in Americans of all stripes not just being in favor of capitalism, but in identifying themselves as capitalists. I think there is something here related to temporarily embarrassed millionaires and our widespread feeling that our duty in life is to ascend to a higher class. Thanks for taking this topic up and adding to the conversation around it. I wrote about it here in my piece “are you a good rich person?” https://thepostwealthproject.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-rich-person
Love the essay this week and the Poshmark ad is reader approved 💅 I am 100% dumb about how my retirement accounts actually work behind the scenes and this was an interesting ‘look behind the curtain’ by way of seeing where the individual consumer-investor fits in the puzzle. Thanks Katie!
Forget housing costs. CHILDCARE costs would be a major financial reason for the Ask Katie questioner to stay put, especially if they are leaning on family for childcare, even if just back-up, emergency care or date night care. When you don’t live near family, if you like them, you also spend more time traveling to see them, so that cuts into your traveland PTO budgets.
All that said, we made the choice to move where we wanted to live for a better job opportunity and more trees. Totally valid decision but there are significant costs involved beyond housing.
I’m not persuaded that “real” capitalists are only major, early, concentrated shareholders of private companies. Plenty of lowly multimillionaire retirees sitting on piles of index funds are indeed passively benefiting from others’ labor - whether they call themselves capitalists or not. As are millions more wealthy people who choose to also be employees.
For better or worse the beauty of our system is that so many people benefit from and have a vested interest in this capitalism experiment. It’s really hard to draw a red line between labor and capital in modern America. Even many lifelong union workers proudly own their homes, own small stock portfolios, and rely on pensions that are invested in stocks and bonds issued by public companies.
Setting aside the spacex debacle, most companies that go public grow and distribute profits to passive investors indefinitely. The idea that the entirety of the retail stock market is owned solely by bag holders is, to put it mildly, a stretch.
I’m not arguing that trillionaires should exist or that we don’t need tax and labor reforms as well as robust corporate regulation, but it’s not clear to me that all capitalists are villains or that we should burn our system to the ground in favor of….something else?..either.
I read the intro and thought "Comrade Katie I could never hate you for securing your bag" and then I read this quote "In terms of Gen Pop’s access to the stock market, he said, “we’re bag holders,” largely providing the “exit liquidity” for real capitalists." 😳 Oh
Is there an index fund / ETF that excludes the overhyped tech stocks, that still gets solid returns? I have been a passive Vanguard girlie but any suggestions for trading away from the AI / Musk-hype / “unicorns" would be helpful!
I do feel that it would have been worth mentioning—even as a disclaimer/conflict of interest—that Jacobin is a NewsGuild member publication, the benefits of which include a 2% 401(k) match. https://newsguild.org/jacobin-members-approve-first-contract/
Tax wealth not work! Gary Stevenson🔥
This piece is so good and I’ve been thinking about this for years. OG actual capitalists have a vested interest in Americans of all stripes not just being in favor of capitalism, but in identifying themselves as capitalists. I think there is something here related to temporarily embarrassed millionaires and our widespread feeling that our duty in life is to ascend to a higher class. Thanks for taking this topic up and adding to the conversation around it. I wrote about it here in my piece “are you a good rich person?” https://thepostwealthproject.substack.com/p/are-you-a-good-rich-person
Love the essay this week and the Poshmark ad is reader approved 💅 I am 100% dumb about how my retirement accounts actually work behind the scenes and this was an interesting ‘look behind the curtain’ by way of seeing where the individual consumer-investor fits in the puzzle. Thanks Katie!
Forget housing costs. CHILDCARE costs would be a major financial reason for the Ask Katie questioner to stay put, especially if they are leaning on family for childcare, even if just back-up, emergency care or date night care. When you don’t live near family, if you like them, you also spend more time traveling to see them, so that cuts into your traveland PTO budgets.
All that said, we made the choice to move where we wanted to live for a better job opportunity and more trees. Totally valid decision but there are significant costs involved beyond housing.
I’m not persuaded that “real” capitalists are only major, early, concentrated shareholders of private companies. Plenty of lowly multimillionaire retirees sitting on piles of index funds are indeed passively benefiting from others’ labor - whether they call themselves capitalists or not. As are millions more wealthy people who choose to also be employees.
For better or worse the beauty of our system is that so many people benefit from and have a vested interest in this capitalism experiment. It’s really hard to draw a red line between labor and capital in modern America. Even many lifelong union workers proudly own their homes, own small stock portfolios, and rely on pensions that are invested in stocks and bonds issued by public companies.
Setting aside the spacex debacle, most companies that go public grow and distribute profits to passive investors indefinitely. The idea that the entirety of the retail stock market is owned solely by bag holders is, to put it mildly, a stretch.
I’m not arguing that trillionaires should exist or that we don’t need tax and labor reforms as well as robust corporate regulation, but it’s not clear to me that all capitalists are villains or that we should burn our system to the ground in favor of….something else?..either.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻 thanks for the breath of fresh air!
Also: "As are millions more wealthy people who choose to also be employees."
Some are even podcasters! ;)
I read the intro and thought "Comrade Katie I could never hate you for securing your bag" and then I read this quote "In terms of Gen Pop’s access to the stock market, he said, “we’re bag holders,” largely providing the “exit liquidity” for real capitalists." 😳 Oh
Katie—can you do push notifications for your new posts? I keep missing them.
Is there an index fund / ETF that excludes the overhyped tech stocks, that still gets solid returns? I have been a passive Vanguard girlie but any suggestions for trading away from the AI / Musk-hype / “unicorns" would be helpful!
I know it's been awhile I'm glad I found the substack I missed the podcast great conversation
I do feel that it would have been worth mentioning—even as a disclaimer/conflict of interest—that Jacobin is a NewsGuild member publication, the benefits of which include a 2% 401(k) match. https://newsguild.org/jacobin-members-approve-first-contract/
The analysis also could've benefitted from some examination of the counterarguments to SpaceX's initial inclusion, like those discussed here: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2026/06/11/did-nasdaq-make-the-right-move-changing-rules-for-spacex/