[WalterBright]

> Clearly the stock market isn't rational, and prices of stocks are not tied to financial fundamentals.

Stock prices are tied to anticipated future earnings, not past or present financials.

> only people with disposable income can afford

Anyone can invest in stocks with $100 or less. As for disposable income, anyone that can buy beer, drugs, or lottery tickets has disposable income that can be invested in stocks.

> part of the funnel that increases the wealth of the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class

Corporations make money by creating wealth, not "funneling" it from other people.

[bpt3]

The numerous downvotes on this post containing basic statements of accepted fact is one of the more concerning things I've seen online in some time.

[crazygringo]

Agreed. The level of financial illiteracy in many of the comments on the post is particularly concerning.

Especially in response to a post that is solely trying to teach some basic economic principles.

[WalterBright]

In the 1980s, my dad was the head of the finance department at a small college. He taught finance classes, and he taught how free markets worked. Student after student would come to him, and say this amazed them. They said they had never heard of a case for free markets.

I attribute this to the complete lack of any school teachers or professors having any business experience whatsoever.

None of my K-12 grade school classes said anything about free markets. None offered any accounting instruction, or finance instruction, or anything about managing money.

It's a sad state of affairs.

[bpt3]

This site has turned into a worse version of reddit, which is what I would come here to get away from (I stopped commenting there long ago, and barely visit at all at this point).

It's really unfortunate that what was a place to talk about tech and startups (and therefore capitalism and investing) with people living that experience is now yet another another online progressive cesspool.

[wilkommen]

I find it reassuring. More people are waking up from our collective trickle-down, "free market hypothesis" fever dream and are starting to understand that there's nothing natural or rational about the stock market - it's just an elaborate wealth allocation machine that showers wealth on those who already have wealth (and showers more wealth on you, the more you already have). The stock market is about as natural or rational as the most Communist land redistribution program, except it runs in the other direction. Money is political, and politics is about power! Too many people are still brainswashed by elite propaganda to think a machine designed to increase the power of the rich is somehow a mechanism as natural as the sun and wind.

[bpt3]

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Nothing you said has anything to do with the post in question; it's just an angry, uninformed, emotional screed.