A massive shedding of stock market wealth that triggers a recession as everyone pulls back on consumer spending since their primary retirement savings have taken a huge dip.

It would hit every good and service in every sector because the entire economy revolves around consumer spending and the consumption of goods and services. If you lose your job then good luck finding anything during a recession, as if it weren’t hard enough already. And you may not lose your job, but your employer would feel the pressure to cut costs and pump revenue. The stock market would take a few years to recover effectively adding another year or two before retirement for some people, which also has workforce implications.

Plenty of other indirect costs to you that filter through wider society and the workforce, even if nothing direct actually happens to you. Like your favorite spots reducing hours or having worse service or raising prices to make up for the drop in demand.

At the best, it would drag the entire economy down with them causing not just a recession, but more than likely full on depression. It wouldn’t just be the US either, worldwide market crashes.

Worst case? The worldwide depression makes those companies go bankrupt. Due to the market collapse, no other company is able to step in and prop them up. MAYBE governments bail them out, but then we end up with major tech not just influenced by government, but owned and run by them (see TikTok currently).

Use it or lose it.