- #1
ktoz
- 171
- 12
Hi
I've been contemplating various economic ideas for the last several years and lately have been wondering what is the justification for even having a stock market?
On a day to day basis, the frenetic movement of money between hands accomplishes absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. It produces absolutely no wealth, it just shifts it around from less savvy "investors" to those who have more of a knack for the game. For those who understand the game, it makes some of them absurdly rich for essentially doing squat. It inflates real wealth inside absurd stock valuations and creates enormous risk for people who aren't "good at the game."
I understand that a finite, healthy economy requires the free flow of money, but it seems like the stock market is a strange backwater where there is enormous churn with little overall benefit to the society as a whole.
If the enormous amounts of time and energy devoted to mastering the stock game were instead devoted to designing a stable system with high liquidity and low to zero risk, it seems like we'd all be much better off. For example, it seems like a pure bond market (with a couple of tweaks to eliminate penalties for pre term sales) would be a much better way to go.
I would be very interested in hearing why the stock market is a good thing.
I've been contemplating various economic ideas for the last several years and lately have been wondering what is the justification for even having a stock market?
On a day to day basis, the frenetic movement of money between hands accomplishes absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things. It produces absolutely no wealth, it just shifts it around from less savvy "investors" to those who have more of a knack for the game. For those who understand the game, it makes some of them absurdly rich for essentially doing squat. It inflates real wealth inside absurd stock valuations and creates enormous risk for people who aren't "good at the game."
I understand that a finite, healthy economy requires the free flow of money, but it seems like the stock market is a strange backwater where there is enormous churn with little overall benefit to the society as a whole.
If the enormous amounts of time and energy devoted to mastering the stock game were instead devoted to designing a stable system with high liquidity and low to zero risk, it seems like we'd all be much better off. For example, it seems like a pure bond market (with a couple of tweaks to eliminate penalties for pre term sales) would be a much better way to go.
I would be very interested in hearing why the stock market is a good thing.
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