[RealityNow]

Yes, technically buying a stock makes you a part owner of that company. But if the stock is already on the secondary market, you're simply purchasing a piece of ownership from someone else that already exists. This is not an investment in the sense of directly enabling something in the real economy to happen that wouldn't have otherwise (eg. venture capital). Sure you're providing liquidity to a current shareholder, but that's a fairly marginal benefit, and selling your shares will involve taking an equivalent amount of liquidity. This is no more an "investment" in the economy than buying a second-hand home.

The original comment was implying that rich people contribute to the economy by investing their spare savings back into it. I'm not claiming that there's no benefit to buying secondary stocks and derivatives on them, just that this is not even remotely the same in terms of creating economic growth as actually investing in creating new business opportunities and such. It's kind of like saying that trust fund kids who don't work contribute to the economy by spending money. And often this "investment" in the stock market is the mere fueling of bubbles.