Stock ownership is highly concentrated among the rich. When we prioritize the interests of those owners over the customers, the majority lose. Maybe those stocks should crash. Growth by just raising prices isn't really substantive growth for society anyways, it's just moving money from consumers to investors.
https://news.gallup.com/poll/266807/percentage-americans-own...
I'll also point out that it isn't like the 56% is evenly distributed. When you are more wealthy, you are vastly more likely to own stock. The poorest among us generally would have to sell any reasonable amount of stock amount in order to qualify for benefits so that you are destitute enough to get help with shelter.
Few people say they have stocks if they have a pension and nothing else mostly because isn't actually owning the stocks.
I'm not sure that matters. If I make $60,000 per year and have $5,000 in equity (after saving for 5 years), whether it goes up or down matters a lot to me. That fact that some rich person owns 100x that amount is irrelevant to my well being.
Then add on top those with pension plans, 401ks, etc. And the older you get the more equity you hold. Again, holding $100,000 in equity at 60 isn't much in the grand scheme, but that's the person's retirement fund. It matters a lot to them.
Many Americans are still flush with cash from loose monetary policy, pay raises, and COVID savings. So long as they have this cash, companies will keep increasing prices. Companies are also understandably trying to get in as many price increases as they can now because this may not be possible later.
And what about when these companies lose money? Should I have paid more for my flight tickets during the pandemic just because I had a higher net worth than United?