Two in five respondents to a Harris Poll said the stock market was not for them and benefited only the top one percent, according to a Guardian report on the online survey of 2,154 U.S. adults conducted July 9 through 11. [1]

Nearly 40 percent also did not know that the economy and stock market were different, but that result measures an answer to a survey question rather than establishing how respondents define either institution or whom they believe the word "serves" includes. [1]

The evidence is opinion rather than ownership, because it does not count brokerage or retirement accounts, measure household wealth, calculate investment returns or establish who captured gains during a rising market, all of which require compatible administrative and Federal Reserve data absent from the authorized source stack.

That distinction cuts both ways: a record index cannot disprove public alienation because prices do not measure whether people feel included, while public alienation cannot prove the market belongs entirely to one percentile because belief is not a holdings table.

A specific July 21 search for the Harris Poll, stocks and the top one percent found no verified X post, leaving market triumph, class anger and financial-literacy reactions unobserved, while the missing questionnaire, crosstabs, weighting and investor subsample limit the conclusion to substantial distrust of the market's social function rather than showing exactly who owns it or who profited.

-- SAMUEL CRANE, Washington