"Well, our loyalty lies with little taxpayers, not big taxspenders. What our critics really believe is that those in Washington know better how to spend your money than you, the people, do. But we're not going to let them do it, period."
-- Ronald Reagan, Nationally Televised News Conference, June 30, 1982
The secret of Ronald Reagan's success was that he stroked the vanity of the people.
Nominal return from SPX since he made those remarks has been 12.48% per annum through April 2026.
Just socking away a one time investment of $2,000 in the S&P 500 that summer and forgetting about it would have yielded you almost $353,000 by now.
But today just 2.6% of Americans in general have at least $1 million in a retirement account, and HALF of retirees aged 65-74 have only $200,000 or less.
Meanwhile, our betters in Washington have put the country $39 trillion in debt, and 73% of us die in debt ourselves, with the average owed just under $62,000.
The government we deserve!
