System is rigged for the super-wealthy

The stock market on March 19 was down 500 points, and I asked myself what is so different in this country today than on Friday, March 16, when the market was down 20 points. I watch in amazement when the Fed chairman has indigestion and the market goes down 350 points. How about Snapchat losing $1.3 billion in market value because one of our favorite no-talent Kardashian girls says that she does not use it anymore? How about our president through all of his actions and tweets that lead to volatile stock surges up and down?

It used to be that you invest in a company that has good earnings PE ratio, etc. Now it is all on speculation. Little by little, the big institutional buyers that automatically trigger huge sell-offs and buying are grabbing little chunks of everyone's 401(k)s. Now I know that they say the market in the long run always goes up. But ask the people who lost most of what they had in the 2008 recession that had to keep working because 45 percent of their 401(k) was lost or the people who worked for Enron that lost everything.

I also have a pension that has not made it back to where it was before the 2008 recession. The system is rigged for the super wealthy and not for the everyday Joe who just hopes that he has something left after working for 40 years. I am going to put whatever I have into a fixed account because I have to tell you that the odds of this guy in office (and by the way I am a Republican) making it through his first term will be a miracle.

Steven Buechel

Gurnee