Poor wording on my part. I was really thinking of people creating & profiting off of financial derivatives - not stock brokers. You can say they performed a service, but that service was disastrous for our country.
Right but as martin said, in those countries the poor were starving and had nothing. Here the poor are fat and have big TVs and usualluy iphones.
Only if they gave bad investment advice and someone actually listed to it. Some hit it big and are paid a % of the earnings from the person that made out. Guy I played golf with a few weeks ago made this guy 600k from like 5k. Bought into a stock that split like 3 times. Wish I had gotten some of that. I really need to get into the market, its a gamblers dream.
i think those people who revolted in the past were hungry. and i dont care who compares themselves to others. we can all find someone richer and be jealous if we are stupid people that hate happiness.
i dunno that the service would have been disastrous if we had allowed it to happen and allowed those folks to bankrupt themselves. wouldnt have had to cost us anything. and we would have helped regulate the industry by allowing people to fail and be replaced. i am aware that this is a very deep and intricate argument that involves phrases like "too big to fail". i also dont think we had a "credit crunch" that crippled us. the credit industry is always profitable if they are making smart decisions. my main point is that it really isnt for us to judge whether someone is contributing to society when they earn money. they are earning and thats all. derivative trader or shoemaker, both the same. either might make bad decions and go bankrupt, or they might help folks out and make profits. either way there is no "value to society" judgment to be made.
It's human nature. Money doesn't make people happy above being able to pay for basic needs. But it does make you happy if you make more than those around you...
true but you dont really become revolutionary when you are a fatty and american idol is on your tv. the poor in america are rich to the point where they are sedate. a fat underclass of lazy sadsacks. they have opportunity. they dont want it. foreigners in my neighborhood in queens come here and get rich fast as hell, because they want it. also poor people are poor because they are bad decision-makers. and there is nothing the rich can do about that. shrinking the gap between rich and poor basically just means restricting the rich from reaching their potential, which will actually make the poor more poor. will the poor be more happy if they are poorer, as long as the rich are poorer? maybe. but that doesnt mean that policies that create that scenario are smart.
Red does, for sure. Some people have more than me. I have more than some people. I really don't concern myself with either group.
Yes, you do. It's a gamblers nightmare, amigo. Sometimes he takes your 600k and turns it into 5K. Get into the market for sure, its the only way to beat inflation. But it's a pragmatic investor's dream.
