system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Do the top 1% have enough capital to control the trends of the stock market?

I read a statistic that the 1% own half of all US equity. Would this allow them to manipulate the market in their favor? I.e prop it up when they want to, as well as have it show a downturn when they want to?
gpt
The top 1% of Americans would be roughly 1.6 million people (\~325 million  - in 160 million households). So though they may be labelled 1%, it would be very difficult to enforce a cartel of that size. Every single household would have the incentive to cheat, so without an outside enforcement mechanism this would not work.