PS:
And this problem has existed SINCE,
regular people thought that they should and were entitled to try and live beyond, and not just beyond, but WELL beyond their means.<<Oh, Paul, you sound just like my Yankee grandfather. He's dead now. A lot of good thrift and hard work did him. Let them play, Paul, let them play. Life should be fun and exciting and what could possibly be more adrenalin-inducing or add more drama to our lives than a thoroughgoing financial collapse? Enjoy it. Bubbles only burst every 10 years or so and total collapses are a century in the making. Get off your Protestant ethic high horse and enjoy the crash while you can. No more party pooping.
Mike Geary Memphis----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Stone" <pastone@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 1:21 PM Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Wall Street and Capitalism RP: As for the collapse of the stock market, I'm not sure how rudimentary
arithmetic skills would lead people not to invest in it. Stocks and bonds are about all there are for an ordinary person to buy for their retirementaccounts; there's no simple calculation that would show this was foolish orwould lead inevitably to catastrophic failure.
Well, let's see, here's the equation: 10 dollars + [ONLY] time + no work = 20 dollars is not an equation. But THAT is what the stock market is based on.
It is my belief that the moment that 'reg'lar folk' started buying stock was the day the collapse was set in place. The massive middle class should not be encouraged to 'invest' because it is de facto, a gamble, and if you gamble, you have to be prepared to lose and millions and millions of people losing, when they are in fact NOT prepared to, is not a good scenario in anyone's eyes.I don't follow your reasoning in the first sentence. Ordinary people—themiddle class—have been buying stock for years and years; sometimes they buy or are given stock in the companies they work for—Starbuck's baristas, e.g.
Actually, buying (or holding) stock in a company you work for is about the only thing that makes sense. Because at least then, it keeps everyone honest and working hard.
This has for the most part been a good deal. And, as I said above, stocksand bonds are what make up most individual, state, and municipal retirementaccounts. (That companies like GM and Ford, and municipalities that must provide retirement for their police and firemen are already running out ofmoney to fund these pensions, is another, grimmer, story. But this collapsewas not caused by ordinary people buying divident-paying common stock in non-trendy companies and holding it.
No, but PSYCHOLOGY is the missing link. It's like a horse race. You could buy a ticket at 10:00 on a horse that was 10:1, but if a whole bunch of other people did the same, by the time the race starts at 11:00, maybe your ticket has been devalued to 3:1 for NO reason, other than a bunch of others decided to take the same gamble as you did. This is how the stock market works. The other day, someone falsely leaked that Steve Jobs had a heart attack and Apple's stock plummeted. People are gambling. Everyday people are gambling. It's no longer a 'safe' investment to ensure your money against inflation by buying conservative [very diverse] mutual funds. It's regular, everyday people (millions of them) in front of their computers buying and selling trying to outguess others and speculate etc. and they aren't cut out for that. In the long run, because the stock market is based on the fact that 'we can raise a whole lot of money by taking a little bit (for them, but not for the little guy investors) from each person and then taking that HUGE bit and investing at a very low but relatively safe return (for them, but not for the little guy). But... when there is a bubble and the big guys who are taking all the little people's money and investing it in NON-Safe return, risky endeavours, you have a problem. And this problem has existed SINCE, regular people thought that they should and were entitled to try and live beyond, and not just beyond, but WELL beyond their means. And this 'psychology' has been drummed into their heads for the past 20-30 years. It's a case of a good idea gone awry.
This morning I realized that living my life is increasingly becomingvery similar to being at a frat party and having the unfortunate luck of not being drunk.Good analogy. Maybe being there without a date would be worse, but I agreethat things are bad enough. Luckily, I've already taken Paul's advice to buySTUFF. (Isn't this the advice Bush gave to people in the US after 9/11? Goout and shop?) Anyway, my basement is now full of eight-track tape machines,Sony Walkmans, and Chinese toasters. I feel much better now.
Make fun of it all you want, but Andreas' joke about the beer bottles and the stock is all too true. In the end, I can sell garbage, but if my stock is worth 0.00, i cannot sell it. Because it's just junk that is absolutely useless to anyone. p ------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html