At the risk of being labeled an attempted mind reader.
@CWOTUS, are you considering investment accounts not sitting there while possibly others are? There’s no question a huge sum of money is under management by the large investment firms. This might be the crux of the debate you guys are having.
Technically it’s invested AND just sitting there, so it possibly meets everyone’s definition here.
Investment in material goods, equipment and property is much more active and tends to carry higher risks. I think people have less problem with business investing in the things they need to keep running, growing, and hopefully hiring.
Additional sources:
BlackRock reports $3.5 trillion alone
Fidelity reporting AUM
Goldman Sachs
Morgan Stanley
As far as trickle down, I don’t think the theory is completely broken, it could work but it seems to assume that there is a food chain for money and everyone is just looking up at those that make more than they do.
In reality we’re all feeding each other, I buy groceries, but also real estate, utilities, and computers. Hopefully someone buys my services so I can keep doing so. In the end it seems every dollar spent is the same.