The United States of America’s population of 330 million represents 4.28% of the globe’s total population of 7.7 billion people.
The United States stock market represents 55% of the globe’s publicly traded stock.
When you stop and consider those statistics, you may want to pause and count your blessings. Despite all of our problems, we are living in a unique country during a unique time. The standard of living we are accustomed to is very different than most of the other 7,360,000,000 people on this planet. I realize that the chasm between the haves and the have-nots in our country is widening and acknowledge that this is one of our harder to solve problems, but that is not the goal of this message. The message I want to convey is that the global standard of living is quickly changing.
In 1995 China and India had no middle class. Their giant populations, 2.8 billion combined, were made up of very few wealthy people and everyone else was in, or close to, poverty level.
In 2018 China and India combined had 679 million middle class citizens, which equates to about twice the current US population.
In 2030, it is projected that another 1.43 billion people will join the middle class in just these two countries. Other highly populated countries such as Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico share similar statistics both looking back to 1995 and forward to 2030.
The numbers are big and difficult to comprehend, but a rapidly growing middle class is very exciting for corporations and investors. Middle class consumers create a fast-growing demand for goods and services from toothpaste and electric bills, to college tuition and home ownership. Corporations who are positioned to provide these goods and services to the tens of millions of new consumers each year have a mammoth opportunity. The next 85 years for investors could match the excellent returns investors have enjoyed over the last 85 years.
As always, we hope that you find the Weekly Market Review both informative and interesting.
Have a great week.
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Trevor N. Coe, CFP